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New Product/Service Spotlight
At Rocket-Hire our research efforts offer us a unique opportunity to preview new ideas and products. This month we look at the way old can become new again: the nearly 70 year old testing firm Wonderlic shows a fresh face.
New Scoring and Vibrant Content Add a Fresh Face to an Employment Test Legacy
Savvy recruiters know that cognitive ability is the strongest single predictor of success on the job. Whether you are hiring minimum wage workers or management level personnel, intelligence has proven to be the one consistent factor that determines whether new hires will work out or dropout.
Unfortunately, intelligence is not easily evaluated in a job interview. A “gut feel” can be very misleading, and can result in a bad decision and a disastrously bad hire. To ensure that applicants are smart enough to do the job, clever companies use established measures with proven track records to verify applicants have the ability to succeed.
To anyone familiar with recruiting, the name Wonderlic (http://www.wonderlic.com) is synonymous with intelligence testing. Wonderlic brought the Wonderlic Personnel Test (WPT) to market in 1937, and it continues to be one of the most highly respected tests on the market today. This 12-minute, 50 item test measures candidates’ level of intelligence quickly and accurately, so recruiters can find out whether candidates have the brains to succeed before investing in lengthy interviews.
From evaluating NFL draft picks to selecting members of MENSA , the WPT has been a key component of recruiting strategies at thousands of organizations across the country. To date the test has been administered to more than 120 million job applicants, and the number tested grows daily.
While the WPT remains a gold standard in the test publishing industry, demands from the wired workplace encouraged company owner and president Charlie Wonderlic to launch two change initiatives that will update content and scoring of the WPT, and make it accessible in multiple delivery formats.
Step 1: The WPT Goes Virtual
As online recruitment advertising sites grew in popularity, clients started asking for a way to manage the flood of email resumes they received every time they posted an online employment ad. “They wanted to test job seekers before investing on-site time in individual candidates, but they knew that the traditional WPT could only be administered in a secure environment,” says Charlie Wonderlic. “They needed a version of the WPT that could be taken via the Internet from any location.”
In response to these needs Wonderlic developed new versions of the test that could be delivered on the Internet in an unproctored setting. The new tool, called Wonderlic Personnel Test – Quicktest (WPT-Q) is a 30-item, 8-minute form of the WPT. The WPT-Q is multiple choice and can be administered as part of a company’s online application process, automatically eliminating candidates that don’t meet basic ability requirements. Candidates who successfully complete the WPT-Q can then be tested on-site in a proctored setting with the traditional Wonderlic, to verify their tested performance.
While WPT-Q test content is new, items are written in the style of the traditional WPT. “The new format offers the same quality of data that Wonderlic users have come to trust, but it’s delivered in a more efficient, user-friendly format,” says Wonderlic.
Recruiters now use the WPT-Q as a pre-qualifying tool that applicants can complete online – before coming into the office. Results are delivered to recruiters via email, and acceptable score ranges for each job can be identified through a consultative process (Wonderlic’s Hire Results) or by relying upon existing analyses involving information from the U.S. Department of Labor. Each candidate receives one of three ratings: “Pursue,” “Cautionary” or “Not Recommended.”
Step 2: Development of the new WPT-R
Wonderlic also initiated a long-term project to revise and update the original WPT to suit the changing business environment and technological advances. Late in 2001 company research psychologists began development work on the Wonderlic Personnel Test – Revised (WPT-R). The new version will continue to be a short-form test that features many traditional item types. In addition it will incorporate rich colorful graphics and current business situations. “The content is specifically designed for working adults, and visual items are used more often,” says David Waldschmidt, Director of Research & Development for Wonderlic. “We are introducing new item types and a new scoring methodology so that organizations will have the greatest possible precision in estimating an applicant’s ability to succeed on the job.”
Wonderlic’s new scoring methodology will be based upon Item Response Theory (IRT) rather than the traditional “number correct” model of scoring tests. IRT will be used in the construction, equating and scoring of test forms. IRT scoring algorithms can incorporate the impact of guessing on each individual item, and they also take into account the difficulty level of items when estimating a test taker’s true ability level.
In test development, allowing multiple delivery formats also presents challenges when interpreting test results and comparing test taker performance. The new WPT-R will be delivered via the Internet, but also in paper and pencil format with fax scoring. Some testing companies spend research efforts and dollars developing a product for one type of delivery format and then use the same scoring algorithm for other formats. Wonderlic made an important strategic decision to field test and develop separate scoring algorithms for paper and pencil administrations and online administrations. This decision greatly increased the number of field test cases that would be required to create the final forms of the new test.
Computerized scoring also replaces another potential source of inaccuracy, the hand-scoring key. The new scoring process will be completely automated, which means recruiters will get results faster and errors due to hand scoring will be eliminated.
Wonderlic researchers will also use field test results to make sure the WPT-R treats protected groups fairly, and provides the best experience for applicants who complete the test. “Wonderlic is dedicated to building new test forms that further our reputation for developing high quality and easy to use assessments,” Waldschmidt says. “The research effort involved in the development of the WPT-R is a reflection of that commitment.”
You Can Be Part of the WPT-R Final Field Test
In order to gather the data necessary to ensure that the final content and scoring of the WPT-R is as fair, reliable and valuable as the original, Wonderlic has launched a massive field test study. Working with clients and other interested organizations, Wonderlic is on its way to collecting test results from the large number of job applicants that is necessary to accommodate IRT and online test assembly and scoring. Wonderlic expects to gather test cases from a broad range of companies across industries and jobs. “Projects of this scope are rarely undertaken outside of the realm of college placement exams, where item testing is built into the required testing process,” Michael Callans, President of Wonderlic Consulting says. “Because we are using data from job applicants the length of the final field test is greatly affected by the hiring needs of individual participants. Organizations that will be hiring in the next few months still have time to play a significant role in the development of the new test.” Every company that returns test data during the field test will receive complementary copies of the WPT-R when it is ultimately released.
“This is cutting edge research in test development,” Waldschmidt says. “Participants in the field study will play an important role in the development of a test that will be administered to millions of candidates in the 21st century.”
Find out more about how you can take part in the Final Field Test of the WPT-R.