A pile of CVs and interview notes spread across the table in front of you. You would need to spend time (shortest possible) to review each piece of the data, deciding who to process to the next stage of interview, hoping that at the end the selected candidate will successfully fit in the role. It is certainly a tedious work; also, it is a painstaking process if the candidate left the role and you would need to implement the recruitment cycle again. Most importantly, how confident are you with the assessment results to predict job performance? You may also ask, do we have other recruitment alternatives that can be implemented with some joy in the heart of HR, and so to the candidate?

The magnitude of assessment in today’s world is astounding. At least one form of assessment is applied across situations; those include performance assessments in schools, admissions to college and graduate programmes, participation eligibility or placement in co-curricular activities, employment selection and accreditation.

Recruiters are under enormous pressure to increase attraction rates of the most calibre candidates with efficiency. Meanwhile, they are also seeking for ways to create “wow factor” and desired brand perception in the candidates. Recruiters, hence, have looked into the creation of interactive assessments such as one with 3D avatar feature in attempt to elevate candidates’ experience with the organisation.

In response to that, there has been an explosion in the application of and research into Situational Judgement Test (SJT). What is so special about SJT and its sudden sprout in discussion among HR recruiters and practitioners? A SJT is designed to examine an individual’s judgement across work-related or situation-specific scenarios. SJT presents candidates with realistic, hypothetical scenarios with a list of plausible course of actions to be rated or ranked in order of effectiveness. While the primary focus is placed on the behavioural aspect, SJT can be customised to include personality, personal and professional attributes, ability, and knowledge elements based on inputs from subject matter experts. With this, recruiters can effectively get an overview of the candidates.

The Approach and History

The critical incidents documented in a SJT can be designed as a linear or interactive format. A linear format presents all items in the same order, which is administered via paper-and-pencil. SJT in an interactive format – usually online administration – is structured according to a diverging process in which the subsequent scenarios or response choices presented depend on how candidates have responded to earlier items.

The application of SJT dates back to the 1920s. The George Washington Social Intelligence Test was among the first SJTs to assess judgement via its sub-test – Judgement in Social Situations. In the military setting, army psychologists, during World War II, also attempted to assess soldier’s judgement by adopting similar measure. Beginning of 1940s, the Cardall Practical Judgement Test was one of the first measures on supervisory potential. Following that, a large number of organisations have adopted SJT as a predictor of managerial success, including the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey.

Now

More recently, there has been renewed attention drawn to employ SJT for predicting performance and role compatibility. Many researches have also been conducted to investigate the predictive ability of SJT across various industries and situations.

Medical Field

For example, in U.K., SJT is currently being included as part of the initiatives in the Medical Education and Training Pathway to effectively assess non-academic attributes for selection into the medical field. Three selection gateways are implemented: first, prior to undergraduate medical training; second, foundation training; third, specialty training. SJT is also suggested to be a valuable addition to cognitive measure in dental student selection due to its incremental validity in predicting performance.

Land Transportation Sector

SJT is also a useful tool in driving assessment and training. Particularly, its application is explored in the Europe HERMES project. The ultimate goal is to encourage learner drivers to explore and engage in their thought processes when driving in specific situation, and be aware of the environment and their responsibilities. This suggests that SJT could be a feasible option to be applied during the hiring of public transport drivers as a measure to assess their driving behaviours and judgement abilities. Following, such approach should contribute to a lower accident rate.

Financial and Insurance Sector

In the insurance sector, we see that Zurich Financial Services, despite a certain extent of variation across roles and countries of operation, candidates are required to complete SJT during the initial recruitment phase. Aon, an insurance and brokerage consulting firm, also implements SJT to shortlisted candidates for their Aon Graduate Scheme recruitment.

Aviation Industry

In another area where SJT is highly appreciated – the aviation industry, research has found substantial support to implement SJT in the assessment of pilots’ judgement effectiveness. The importance of aeronautical decision making has been recognised to reduce fatal accidents. Therefore, researchers have developed and evaluated the use of SJT for general aviation pilots. Study revealed that pilots who scored higher in the SJT were found to have experienced fewer hazardous events, indicating that SJT may be a viable measure to assess aeronautical decision making.

The Offering

The increased popularity of SJT is attributed to the growing research revealing such measure to own a number of notable positive features in comparison to other assessment methods.

1. Test validity: Research found that SJT has validity comparable to those of cognitive ability measurements. Additionally, SJT was found to have incremental validity to predict job performance above and beyond traditional measures such as cognitive ability and personality^{1, 2}.  This signifies that SJT is able to capture predictive data of performance, something more powerful than the conventional methods do.
2. Subgroup differences: SJT shows small racial subgroup differences as compared to other cognitive ability tests, which often is a main concern when cognitive ability tests are being implemented in a multi-cultural context. The minimal adverse impact against different ethnic groups will benefit practitioners by providing an accurate view of the candidates.
3. Face validity: SJT has inherent a considerable positive face validity, which is deemed as an important advantage when implemented. SJT may offer a realistic outlook of the job role via its context-specific hypothetical scenarios as described in the test. The tool customisation will enable you to imprint your organisation’s brand identity in the candidates. Additionally, its format is expected to be readily explainable and accepted to candidates.
4. Administration costs: Administration costs are typically low as it offers effective sifting for high volumes. Expertise certification of administrators is not required, as compared to other assessment measures such as assessment centres, cognitive ability tests and personality profiling, thus making SJT a cost-effective option.
5. Return on investment: As SJT aims to assess desired skills, competencies and behaviours, the results obtained from this high validity tool will provide an objective and accurate understanding of the candidate. Effective selection following the assessment will yield high return on investment, especially when you are recruiting candidates who possess high level of specific skills such as interpersonal and professional skills.
6. Technology enablement: Technology advancement enables the development of SJT in video format that owns several advantages over the paper-and-pencil version. Besides the positive perception it creates, a video-based SJT is found to have higher predictive and incremental validity as it enables richer and more detailed depiction of scenarios. Its high fidelity and close resemblance to the actual situation will lead to more reliable response with reduced risk of biasness and inaccuracy.

While a considerable amount of investment may be required to develop SJT due to its prerequisite nature of bespoking to cater to specific context, it does seem to be very relevant and beneficial to employ SJT as part of the potential assessment process. The power of SJT as a performance predictor should be generalised through extensive application in order to maximise the benefit across different fields:

• Educators should consider applying SJT in student qualification and selection (especially in courses requiring high skills and specialisation)
• Employers should leverage its predictive power in assessing and screening in job-fit candidates
• It is worth exploring by government to implement SJT nationwide in “high stakes” selection conducted by various ministries including Ministry of Transport, Ministry of Education and Ministry of Health. We believe that this will contribute positively to Malaysia’s nation development and sophistication, thereby accelerate the attainment of Vision 2020.