Risk tests essentially help organizations reduce risk. Risk can take a wide variety of forms, and different assessments measure different types of risk. The main benefit of a risk assessment is that it helps organizations reduce the risk that employees may engage in unsafe or counterproductive work behaviors.
Research has shown that emotional intelligence is associated with important work outcomes such as interpersonal effectiveness, collaboration and teamwork, motivation, and decision-making. Strong emotional intelligence has also been associated with good leadership and strong management skills. As a result, organizations are increasingly interested in assessing EI in the hiring process.
Emotional intelligence as a construct is less well-established when compared to cognitive aptitude or even personality. However, research has suggested that emotional intelligence can be viewed as an ability akin to cognitive ability. This makes it possible to assess EI using an ability-based assessment. Emotify, for example, is an ability-based assessment of emotional intelligence that measures a person’s ability to accurately perceive and understand emotions.
In all of these cases, integrity tests serve as a risk management measure by determining which applicants represent a higher risk of engaging in these behaviors based on their responses and personality profiles. Employers often use background checks during the hiring process to mitigate risk, but background checks can be expensive and only target people who have a past record of committing crimes. Integrity tests, on the other hand, will help reduce risk with regard to a host of unproductive behaviors that, while not necessarily as serious as felonies, are generally undesirable. By using integrity tests early in the hiring process, employers can save time and costs while still minimizing risk by screening out applicants that might exhibit workplace behaviors that can damage their organizations.
In terms of when to use an emotional intelligence test in the hiring process, Criteria recommends administering it for roles that require a great deal of interpersonal interaction. Examples include management or leadership roles, sales or customer services, human resources, and more.
One common type of risk assessment is what is called an Integrity or Honesty test. These assessments help employers manage risk by assessing the likelihood that an applicant will be a reliable employee who will follow the rules. Most integrity tests focus on an applicant's tendencies and attitudes relating to rule adherence. These tests can be used to predict behavior with respect to a wide variety of counterproductive work behaviors (CWBs) that employers want to avoid, including tardiness, absenteeism, time-wasting, theft, fraud, drug use, and safety violations. Integrity tests are most widely used and are most effective for entry-level positions for which overall reliability and rule-following is particularly important. Integrity tests are most commonly used:
Emotional intelligence tests are a newly emerging category of assessments. The concept of emotional intelligence, or EI, is relatively new, first popularized in the 1990s. Over time, the concept of emotional intelligence has become particularly important in the context of the workplace.