President's Message: Launching the Assessment Century

T.R. Lin

While preparing my presidential address for the upcoming conference, I found myself sitting and evaluating our mission, goals, and strategic plans, thinking about the theme of our 25th annual conference and reviewing topics and abstracts of all the conference presentations and workshops. In so doing, two thoughts came to mind: first, I really think this is going to be a damn good conference; second, I am very excited to be a part of this assessment professional group as we launch into the 21st century and face all the challenges. I'll elaborate on both points.

The Conference

This is a well thought-out conference. (I shouldn't say that myself. This is definitely not from my humble Chinese character.) The pre-conference workshops feature five critical assessment topics and one reminding us to act as business partners to the organization with which we work. The daily keynote speeches address HR trends, E technology, the law of the future, and personality assessment as an emerging selection tool. There are close to 50 presentations covering topics from basic tutorials to advanced assessment tools, decoding and updating the professional guidelines, sharing e-technology and its impact on recruitment and selection, challenging how we typically view applicants, and the rules and procedures under which we operate. By the time you read my column, the conference will be over. I predict success! I believe that those of you who were there will agree.

Challenge for Assessment Professionals

Kristine Smith, the Past-President, has been offering her observations and insights in recent ACNs. These have contained excellent advice and challenge us as assessment professionals. I would like to add a few items to this line of thought.

Partnering with Business

As we move into the 21st century, public sector and private sector alike, continue to wrestle with the challenges of defining and managing their effectiveness. HR professionals, particularly those of us who are involved in personnel assessment, face the utmost challenge of recruiting in the most competitive labor market in recent years. In addition to using valid assessment instruments, we are being charged with the tasks of creating more responsive, timely, and user-friendly hiring processes those still preserve fundamental merit principles. We also are being reminded to make our efforts to coincide with business strategies and goals, and to deliver on expectations.

Changing Workforce

In the current and future workforces, we will have "Baby Boomers" (individuals born between 1946 and 1964) who may face retirement in a decade; "Generation Xers" (individuals born between 1965 and 1977) who do not necessarily view the work the traditional way; and "Net Generation" or "Generation Yers" (individuals born after 1978). All three groups have distinct work ethics, have mastered various skill level of technology, and have possessed different values on work/leisure balance. We need to come up with different strategies to target recruit, assess, and/or retain them all. Training opportunities, for example, may become one of the key recruitment and retention tools.

Information Revolution

Information technology will transform everything it touches, and it will touch everything. Massive and organized information will be available to different levels of workers at a speed we could not even imagine ten years ago. Accelerating internet technology dictates the need for every organization to launch it=s own competitive web recruiting (and even assessing) programs. No organization is exempted.

Adaptive Workers

Stability was a constant; now, change is a constant. Skills needed in the upstart years of E-business may not be the same ones needed as the business matures. We need to proactively identify key KSAOs needed for various jobs at different stages of organizational growth, and develop valid measures of adaptability for use in selection.

New Laws, Rules, and Procedures

Most public entities function under decades-old civil service merit principles that cannot meet the HR challenges of the new century. To remain competitive in this tight market, we need to revolutionize the fundamental governing laws and rules.

Back to Basics

When was the last time you sat down and reviewed what you learned in your first graduate or upper undergraduate Personnel Testing or related classes? For a "Baby Boomer" assessment practitioner like me, this is especially true. If you have not done any fundamental reading lately, I recommend that you read Robert Guion's recent book, Assessment, Measurement, and Prediction for Personnel Decisions. This book covers so many "basics" we need to know and also discusses various assessment topics with strong research and theoretical support. It is going to be another classic in our field.

While the labor market is tight, as it is now, creative recruitment and valid assessment are both important. When the labor market is loose, which is what I do not want to see but would predict will happen in a few years, valid assessment is even more important. Knowing assessment basics and knowing it well can go a long way.

Have a pleasant and enjoyable Summer!