Talent Management - December 2008 - (Page 10)

[human performance] by Harold D. Stolovich, Ph.D., CPT P P Testing Performance in the Real World erhaps there is a regulatory requirement. Maybe the company demands it. Or it’s an oversight body stipulation. Whatever the reason — safety, compliance or demonstration of competence — the workplace often requires some form of veriﬁcation to certify formally or informally that a person is able to perform in some pre-speciﬁed way. The usual approach is to provide employee training with content, exercises for practice and ﬁnally test to determine an individual’s readiness to work in the real world. Performance Testing: The Past In the olden days, trades were controlled by guilds. Butcher, baker or candlestick maker, you could not practice the trade unless you underwent a long apprenticeship and demonstrated competence to a jury of certiﬁed masters. If you did not show your capability through process and outcome, you were barred from the trade. frequently is rejected because of the time and resources required. Applying three key criteria to determine which method to use for testing, appropriateness, feasibility and economics, the real-world approach receives a one-out-of-three score. Appropriate? Absolutely. Feasible? Too resource and time demanding. Economical? Unfortunately, far too costly. What to Do? If you can’t test authentically, next best is simulation. While less expensive than real-world practice, tions in everything from bookkeeping and building management to ﬁnancial planning and feng shui. Often, the only means at their disposal for testing is paper and pencil. In fact, this distant-from-reality method is the most frequently used in the workplace. Not necessarily appropriate, but deﬁnitely feasible and very economical. Fortunately, while not ideal for verifying performance capability, paper and pencil can be made more effective via use of real-world workplace scenarios. These require test-takers to imagine themselves in various situations and make choices or work out how each situation or decision must be resolved. They can then select the most appropriate alternative from an array The surest way to determine performance capability is to place the individual into a series of real-world situations and observe how she or he performs. well-designed simulations can be as effective and certainly safer. Simulations also can be expensive to create, administer and maintain. Computer-based simulations track in a detailed manner how a person performs. They are excellent means to verify performance capability. However, the more removed from reality and the barrage of real-world stimuli, the less valid the testing. This is the tax you pay for moving away from true workplace conditions. Improving Paperand-Pencil Testing Annually, federal regulations require thousands of locomotive engineers and conductors to be recertiﬁed on the rules governing the running of trains. Professional societies offer programs and certiﬁcations/designa- About the Author Harold D. Stolovitch, Ph.D., CPT, is a principal of HSA Learning & Performance Solutions LLC and is an emeritus professor of instructional and performance technology at the Université de Montréal. He can be reached at editor@talentmgt.com. The industrial revolution and the frantic pace of the modern workplace have largely eliminated those long training and testing practices. Today’s world demands immediate acquisition of performance capability, efﬁcient veriﬁcation and instant deployment to the work site. With pressure to process people through the pipeline at the fastest pace in the shortest time, the bottom-line question to be answered is, “Can they do the job?” Capability Testing To determine performance capability, place the individual into a series of real-world situations and observe how she or he performs, just as in the old guild days. This obvious practice of options. This requires projection into the context, active problemsolving and vicarious performance. It may not be optimal, but through multiple scenarios, test-takers experience opportunities to demonstrate performance. Appropriate? Moderately. But deﬁnitely high on feasibility and economics. Verifying performance capability can require intense effort and considerable resources. There’s nothing like the real thing. However, when this is beyond your means, simulation is next best. When this, too, is not an option and paper and pencil is all you have, scenario-based testing offers an inexpensive alternative. 10 December 2008 talent management magazine www.talentmgt.com http://www.talentmgt.com

Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Talent Management - December 2008

Talent Management - December 2008 Editor's Letter Contents Human Performance Leading Edge Foundations Recruitment & Retention Assessment & Evaluation Compensation & Benefits Performance Management Learning & Development Succession Planning Insight Dashboard Application Advertiser's Index Editorial Resources Full Potential

Talent Management - December 2008

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