What are the key benefits of validity studies in the workplace?

Do you need a way to determine whether your skills assessments have the right validity? Are you looking for methods to confirm the reliability of your candidates’ or workers’ skills?

Validity studies offer several advantages when it comes to assessing your applicants and employees. In this article, we’ve covered a few essential points about validity studies.

First, we’ll explain what a validity study is. Then we’ll go over the four main advantages of using validity studies in the workplace.

Let’s dive in!

What is a validity study, and what affects its outcomes?

A validity study is a process researchers use to check if their research methods accurately measure what they’re supposed to. 

Since several factors can affect a study’s validity, such as bias, internal validity, and the time taken for evaluation, it’s critical to ensure the study’s results are valid. Let’s discuss why study validity is essential in the work environment and how it can affect the hiring process. 

What does test validity mean in a work environment?

In the context of a work environment, test validity refers to an objective process that can reveal whether skills tests are valid employee performance indicators. 

You can use this process to ensure your assessment platform’s test results match your employees’ abilities and accurately measure what they’re supposed to. In other words, validity studies can reveal whether your candidates’ or employees’ skills assessment results actually reflect their capabilities.

Why is study validity important when hiring?

Study validity is vital when it comes to making accurate and reliable hiring decisions that don’t lead to mis-hires or wasted time. Let’s look at an example to see why you should consider using validity studies.

Say you run an influencer agency. You have 50 brand influencers working for your team, and each is responsible for a different brand category. 

Some of your influencers have made an incredible impact on their brands: Their videos, product reviews, and influencer work are exceptional, and their brands are going viral. On the other hand, some of your other influencers aren’t making as much progress, and their brands are considering working with other agencies.

Eventually, many brands discontinue their relationship with your influencer agency owing to poor employee performance. It’s now time to find new talent whose skills match those of your top performers, but you need a fast, reliable, and effective hiring method. That’s where skills assessments and validity studies can help. 

How do you use validity studies for skills assessments?

There are a few proven approaches that can help you study the validity of skills assessments. Here are two strategies that can help you with this process:

Compare employee performance data with the results of skills assessments

The information you gather on employee performance is crucial for completing validity studies for skills tests. Use the employee performance information you’ve collected as a benchmark, and compare it with the skills test results you’ve received to verify the validity of the results.

You can measure the correlation coefficient between the performance-related data and the results of the skills tests. You should also ensure the correlation didn’t occur by chance by calculating its statistical significance.

Ensure you pay attention to details such as the standard deviation when you review the data.

If your data shows that all your employees have similar performance results in one month, the findings are insignificant and won’t help you make a promotion or hiring decision. In that case, make sure to collect descriptive statistics or qualitative data that you can refer to.

Complete interviews and compare them with the assessment results

Since validity studies involve comparing the assessment results with other sources of information, you should validate them using interview results. So, the second method you can use to check the validity of assessments is conducting interviews with employees and comparing their answers with their skills assessment results.

Interview results are a good example of descriptive statistics you can fall back on if you find the results of your validity study to be inconclusive.

4 crucial benefits of validity studies in the workplace

So, what benefits can you gain from using validity studies in the workplace? Here are four advantages you shouldn’t miss out on.

1. Save time by using a data-driven hiring method

With validity studies, you don’t have to include resume screening in your hiring process. You just have to compare your employees’ performance data and their skills assessment results to check for correlations.

For example, suppose you’re promoting a sales assistant. In that case, you can check whether their sales record data matches their customer service skills according to their results on a Customer Service test.

Save time by cutting out resume screening altogether, and let the data do the talking by using a validity study. It’s a faster way to determine which employees have the traits you wish to find or nurture.

2. Get accurate data on your employees

Using a validity study, you can back up what you know about your employees with precise data. 

Say you’re hoping to hire sales assistants internally and already have access to their data (such as their campaign results or return on marketing investment for clients). A validity study will help you ensure this data is accurate.

Determine whether their performance information aligns with the results of a relevant skills test. The test results are likely to be accurate if you find correlations between the two datasets.

3. Avoid bias to make the right promotion decisions

Making a promotion decision is easier with the help of a validity study. It can mitigate unconscious bias by ensuring that you focus on what the data tells you, not your personal opinion.

Check for correlations between your employee data and the results of a skills assessment to ensure you’re making a bias-free hiring decision.

Suppose the data you’ve gathered on a content writer indicates that posts they write have high click-through rates, so you believe they may perform well if you give them more responsibilities. You can check whether their results on a skills assessment back up these findings. 

Using this method, you can avoid promoting the employee based on your gut feeling and ensure you make the correct decision based on an objective evaluation of their skills.

4. Prepare the right training opportunities 

It’s also easier to offer your employees suitable training opportunities when you’ve validated your assessment results.

If you compare the assessment results with the data you’ve gathered on your workers, you can rest assured that the tests accurately reflect their skills. And once you’re certain of the validity of the test results, you can use them to build the right training opportunities for your employees.

For instance, if your influencer needs training in their sales and marketing abilities or your employee lacks growth marketing experience, use the validated results of the Growth Marketing test to determine the best training opportunities for them.

Find out which skills your employees need the most growth in, and develop training sessions that will help them improve in these areas.

Evaluate employees or candidates using skills assessments that have top validity

Even though hiring candidates or benchmarking your employees’ skills can be difficult, these tasks are much simpler with reliable skills assessments. You can make these processes effortless by combining skills assessments with your employees’ or candidates’ performance data.

When you select TestGorilla as your skills-assessment platform, you get accurate, reliable, expert-crafted tests that will help you make data-driven, bias-free decisions.

Check out our test library to learn more about our tests and hire the easy way.