Job Applicant Personality Testing And The ADA

Personality testing of job applicants is becoming more common, and according to one estimate is now a $500 million a year business. Writing for the Bloomberg BNA Daily Labor Report, Esther G. Lander and Ashley J. Keapproth, attorneys with Aiken Gump, and David Jones, president of candidate assessment company Growth Ventures Inc, discuss personality tests and what they can do, and some potential legal problems and how to avoid them. These “will-do” tests are said to have less potential to raise disparate impact issues based upon gender, race, and national origin than conventional “can-do” tests, and to be just as good or better at predicting future success on the job. However, the wrong kind of test for the wrong job could run afoul of the Americans With Disabilities Act. The authors lay out what employers need to keep in mind in order to avoid the risk. For one thing, they say, it’s important the test is really for personality qualities that affect job performance, and is not a more general mental diagnosis.