Custom Validation Studies

For companies with more than 30 people in a position, we recommend a custom validated profile, because it can provide the highest predictive accuracy.

What is a Validation Study?

A validation study is an analysis of a statistically reliable large sample of people which distinguishes top performers from poor performers.

The sample is measured to identify behaviors, skills, and other vital factors that predict success. The sample is also surveyed for their descriptions of their own specific environment. This data is then statistically correlated against specific performance criteria such as actual sales or business results. This identifies the specific assessment items/skills which predict success in your environment.

Screening Out False Indicators
or Stereotypes

Companies often hire on the basis of characteristics that are "believed" important by interviewers, but which later prove to have little to do with actual on-the-job performance.

For example, a group of real estate firms had consciously selected individuals who were highly accurate and had a sense of detail. Those traits were considered to be very important for those who choose to go into real estate sales. However, they proved not to be a determinant of success because high performers and low performers shared those same traits relatively equally. Only a Chally validation study will screen out this type of false indicator of success and focus on true predictors.

Determining the Critical Number
of Success Factors

Data analysis will typically validate 4-9 critical success factors for performance in a particular position. The process may reveal that strengths in all of these skills are important for success in a specific position. However, top performers may have a different mix of those important characteristics which account for their success. Thus, even within the same company, two successful people performing the same function may have different skill sets. Yet they both will have the same overall average across the critical skills.

Chally has found in some instances that two distinct types of salespeople, a design and a service specialist, for example, were necessary to sell some products or services effectively. These different roles can be identified with a validated selection technique and combined to form complementary teams.

Once the validation analysis is complete, a specific profile for success within a specific position is established. New candidates can be measured against this profile and an accurate assessment made of their success potential.

Each assessment will show the candidate's profile against the validated success factors for that organization. It will point out strengths and limitations, and it will indicate where candidates need further development once hired.

More importantly, it gives the company a tangible measure of the candidate's competency. For example, "this applicant has skills better than 70% of our existing force." With this kind of accuracy, a manager can build an organization which closely parallels his or her top performers.

Benefits of Custom Validation

To improve selection accuracy, the validation process provides several other significant benefits:

1. To help meet legislative and legal guidelines for fair employment practices, validation provides statistical proof that a selection technique is actually related to job performance.
   
   
2. The statistical techniques used in a validation can demonstrate the absence of disparate impact based on age, gender and race.
   
   
3. The validation process establishes an empirical database to monitor productivity gains and allow modification of future selection criteria as business needs change.