But the growing use of employment exams worries some, who say many aptitude tests lack rigorous review by professionals in the field and are crafted too narrowly to accurately judge one's eventual performance.
"You are really doing a disservice to the complexity of human individuality," said Dan P. McAdams, a professor of psychology and human development at Northwestern University.
Psychologists have long debated whether personality can be reduced to a set of numbers, like a person's weight, shoe size or eyeglasses prescription. But that has not stopped people from trying. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, which measures four qualities of a person -- introversion/extroversion, sensing/intuition, thinking/feeling, judging/perceiving -- is often used to help match people up with careers. The Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory, which attempts to measure propensity for substance abuse or other pathologies, is regularly used to assess candidates for sensitive positions in police departments, banks, nuclear plants and the like. The Neuroticism, Extroversion and Openness Personality Inventory breaks personality down into five characteristics that some companies use to assess traits such as management potential.
Today, an estimated 2,500 U.S. firms offer assessments that are mostly variations on these main tests and are geared toward hiring.
"A well-developed test is probably the cheapest and most valuable selection tool an employer can have," said Gary G. Kaufman, owner of Human Resources Consulting near Nashville, who has worked in hiring at J.C. Penney Co. and the Internal Revenue Service. The problem, he said, is that "personality testing in general is a largely unregulated business, which means that anyone can make up a test and put it on the Internet and make any claims they choose about the test."
Some companies, many of which employ teams of PhDs, say they follow rigorous scientific methodology. But some reviews by independent assessors have raised questions. A survey by the Aberdeen Group Inc., a Boston-based technology research firm, found that 49 percent of companies using computerized hiring systems saw no impact on turnover. An American Psychological Association study found little evidence that tests purporting to measure honesty are accurate. The World Privacy Forum and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, privacy advocacy groups, allege that more than a few violate the spirit of privacy laws by asking sensitive questions.
Annie Murphy Paul, author of "The Cult of Personality," which is about the testing industry, said there is a real danger of stigmatizing people who fail certain components of tests. "If we are labeling people liars and thieves even before they have seen any propensity for them to do these things, it is a real injustice," she said.
The company that developed Universal's test, Unicru Inc., is among the giants in the employment-testing industry. Last year, the Beaverton, Ore., company assessed 11 million applicants, which resulted in 550,000 hires by retailers, grocers, trucking companies and others. Christopher Reed, director of marketing for Unicru, compares the firm's mission to that of a dating site. "Just like they are trying to match up potential mates, we are basically making a prediction of whether someone is a good fit or not for a job," he said. The firm said its tests have been validated time and again by their success at companies.
Michael L. Marchetti, executive vice president for store operations for the Indianapolis-based Finish Line Inc. chain of sporting-goods stores, said company policy prohibits managers from hiring any candidate who received a "red" rating.
"When you see 70 to 80 percent coming back 'green,' why take somebody that's a risk?" he said.
