Discussion 4

Hello to all job analysts out there! I hope everyone is hanging in there in these rough times (and I don't just mean you Raiders fans).
 
** New Members **
We have two new members this time around (bringing our total to a whopping 27, representing 18 departments!): Rhoda Jones from Dept. of Food and Ag (rjones@cdfa.ca.gov) and Rita Miranda, from CA Integrated Waste Mgmt Board (RMiranda@CIWMB.ca.gov). Welcome to both of you! Please jump in at any time with questions or comments.
 
** Information **
I have two tidbits to share with you this time around:
1) Business and Legal Reports (BLR) has been posting a series of articles on pre-employment personality testing that I found interesting and thought you might too, given how often these things come up in job analyses. The first is subtitled "What can an employer expect?" and is available at http://hr1.blr.com/elert_current.cfm?id=1119. The second is titled "Faking it: Can applicants outsmart personality tests?" and is available at: http://hr1.blr.com/elert_current.cfm?id=1142 
 
2) Secondly, I recently heard about two presentations on physical ability testing and measurement that address much broader issues such as test validity and job analysis. I found both to be informative (and sorta fun--they're Powerpoint presentations you can flip through). They were presentations made at the 2002 National Conference on Testing and Measurement and are available (along with some other presentations) at http://www.scdps.org/cja/testconfinfo.htm 
 
** Proposal **
As you all know, one of the first steps in any job analysis is finding out if any previous job analyses or validation studies have been done. In my experience, this is much easier said than done. What I propose is this: That we create some sort of repository-even if it's just a list-of job analyses and other validation studies that have been completed. What does everyone think of this? I would be willing to be the contact for the list until we can figure out a way to make it available through other means. There's honestly no reason to keep this type of information secret from one another and I imagine it would aid many of our members immensely. One ground rule: Be nice when critiquing others' efforts.
 
** Food for thought **
Karl Jaeger raised an interesting point a while back, which is this: To what extent are our SMEs really capable of describing the KSAOs required in a job? Can they speak "job analyst"? How can we help them understand what type of information we need? (besides throwing the WRIPAC manual at them)
 
** Humor **
I've been saving this one for the right time, but I just have to share it, perhaps because January has been absolutely CRAZY for me, and for many of you too I would guess.
 
For one job analysis I'm currently conducting, I distributed a large number of questionnaires (as I am wont to do) soliciting a variety of information--duties, KSAOs, etc. One of the questions was: "Are there any other characteristics (e.g. personality traits, background, values, interests) that you believe are critical to the job performance of a <classification>?"
 
One individual's answer: "Good human".
 
I can't really argue with that. Now if we could just find the right test...
 
Take care-
Bryan Baldwin
Dept. of Justice