As mentioned in previous articles, Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs) are useful, practical tests of a candidate’s likely behaviors and judgments in a work-specific, practical situation.
In this article, we review SJT products from Talogy, a global best-of-breed TTS product partner that has a tried-and-tested reputation within the talent assessment market for innovation and technological integration.
Before discussing the featured products, we briefly address SJTs and their main use cases.
Why use situational judgment tests?
The most important use case for SJTs is when employers have a strong desire to know how potential hires might behave in very specific circumstances, especially work situations that are central to a specific role or task. In this sense, SJTs are particularly well suited to measuring a candidate’s likely response to specific situations over and above their overarching personality or behavioral dispositions.
The way in which SJT items are phrased and designed make them ideal for identifying candidates who will demonstrate the right judgment and decision-making when presented with challenging work situations.
SJTs can also serve to enhance candidates’ test experience by educating them on the employer’s expectations of competent behaviors and judgments within specific contexts.
From a practical standpoint, SJTs are highly efficient, online assessment products that are well suited to high-volume assessment projects, such as graduate screening.
Researchers have also found SJTs to be robust predictors of job performance, especially when paired with other predictive instruments, like aptitude measures. In one analysis, SJTs’ criterion-related validity for job performance was around .26, which compares well with personality measures used in other studies of selection assessments.
Talogy’s Dilemmas Series
Talogy, one of TTS’s global best-of-breed product partners, has used best-practice SJT methodology to design the Dilemmas Series, an automatically scored SJT series. The Dilemmas SJTs are predictive of performance and are designed to aid talent professionals to hire the right candidate fairly and reliably.
Key features
The Dilemmas series is a collection of SJTs targeting specific roles and job categories and include:
- Management Dilemmas™: Find or develop effective managers. This SJT is designed to sift candidates for management roles and help existing managers understand their personal effectiveness through feedback and coaching.
- Graduate Dilemmas™: Find effective graduates. This SJT is aimed at identifying participants who perform well against the top competencies sought by leading global graduate recruiters.
- Administrative Dilemmas™: Find the right people for admin, clerical, and secretarial roles. The SJT identifies a participant’s judgment and decision-making skills in common administrative scenarios.
- Customer Service Dilemmas™: Find candidates who can meet and exceed face-to-face customer expectations.
- Call Center Dilemmas™: Find those who can deliver outstanding customer service. This test identifies a participant’s judgment and decision-making skills in common inbound call center scenarios.
The Dilemmas series SJTs have all been designed with automation in mind, making them error-free and quick to administer. Results are reported in terms of competencies, which aligns with best practice standards of talent assessments.
In constructing the different SJTs that comprise the Dilemmas Series, Talogy researchers have trialed candidate items extensively across a range of industry sectors to validate their applicability.
Constructs measured
Depending on the specific SJT test used, the Dilemmas Series tests measure targeted competencies relevant to a specific domain, based on Talogy’s global benchmarking studies:
Management Dilemmas™:
- Leading others
- Planning and coordinating
- Managing performance
- Managing relationships
Graduate Dilemmas™:
- Planning and organizing
- Analytical thinking
- Achieving results
- Relationship building
- Communicating and influencing
Administrative Dilemmas™:
- Planning and organizing
- Service orientation
- Effective communication
- Achieving results
- Teamwork
Customer Service and Call Center Dilemmas™:
- Understanding customer needs
- Delivering quality services
- Convincing others
- Dealing with challenging situations or customers
Concluding thoughts
Situational judgment tests are excellent measures for clients who desire high face valid assessments that have obvious and clear connections to the job being assessed for. In addition, there is evidence to suggest that SJTs contribute positively to the candidate experience for the same reasons, as well as being quick and relatively easy to complete.
In addition, Talogy’s Dilemmas Series are mobile-friendly, online assessments with automatic scoring that delivers comprehensive results reporting that help organizations and hiring managers better understand their talent and how to coach and improve their competence.
Work-relevant judgment and decision-making are very important capacities for most hiring managers, as it drives what potential employees may do and how well they will perform. Using best-practice SJTs, developed by experts in the field, can help measure these vital constructs and deliver more clarity to selection decisions.
If you would like to know more about how SJTs like the ones featured in this article may be able to help you make better talent decisions, why not reach out to us at info@tts-talent.com?