By Dan Harrison, Ph.D.
First, you need to determine what the eligibility factors are. For example, you may require previous experience in the same job, previous experience doing similar tasks, certain educational levels, or specific skills such as typing speed or the ability to use certain software packages. If you don’t already know these factors, you can start with the job description which should include tasks that are performed, responsibilities that are given, and performance factors. The key question is: What experience, education, or skills does the person need to perform well in this job? If you are using the Harrison Assessments system, you will be able to stimulate your thinking by viewing factors that are common to that job type as well as other factors in the library and incorporate those factors into your job analysis.
Your next task is to determine the minimum and ideal levels of each factor. The minimum level enables you to eliminate candidates that are not eligible for the job. The ideal level enables you ascribe a higher score to candidates as they reach the ideal level of eligibility for that factor. This information will serve as the foundation for the eligibility formula in which you will score the different levels inbetween.
The next step is to define each factor clearly. That means stating exactly what the factor is. For example, if the factor is related to sales experience, is it a specific type of sales experience such as prospecting sales? Then you can create a question for that factor which can be used for a pre-assessment and/or during the interview. Mutually exclusive and all inclusive answer options should also be created which can be included on the pre-assessment and/or interview. The answer options are critical because they define different levels of that experience, education, or skill and allow you to score each possible level. This provides the controlled scoring that is necessary for accurate assessment.
If you are using the Harrison Assessments system, you will have access to a complete library of eligibility factors that are already pre-defined including the assessment question, answer options, and potential scoring options. This enables you to quickly and easily create the eligibility formula. Even if you require a factor that is not in our standard library, you will be able to select sets of answer options and scoring options that will in most cases fit your factor and save you the time of creating your own.
If you want to make your assessment even more sophisticated you can designate certain factors to be gradient, minimum or bonus. Gradient factors enable you to score different levels of each factor. However, you may want to include “nice to have” factors which would be better to score as a bonus. By doing so, it will give additional points to applicants who have that qualification without penalizing the applicants who don’t. You may also want to use minimum factors which will remove points for candidates that don’t have a certain qualifications without giving points to applicants who do. For example, with regard to educational factors, you may want to use minimum factors to eliminate candidates who don’t have a high school diploma or subtract points (without eliminating) from applicants who don’t have a bachelors’ degree.
Once your eligibility formula is in place, it will govern the assessment and scoring of eligibility throughout the entire assessment process and allow you to see an overall eligibility score. This will enable you to be sure that eligibility is assessed according to criteria that is thoroughly considered and systematically applied.
© 2008. Harrison Assessments Int’l 4
