The Sum of the Parts

Abstract

Organizations commonly use multiple assessments to make hiring decisions. Compensatory methods of weighing multiple assessment criteria involve mathematically weighting each piece of information about a candidate to determine an overall qualification score for that candidate. While using more than one assessment to make employment decisions can provide organizations with a more holistic view of each candidate, deciding on how to combine these assessments can have profound consequences on who gets hired. In clinical assessment, an employer subjectively combines multiple assessments to develop an overall impression of the candidate. Employers use clinical assessment in a variety of business activities, including leadership or management coaching, individual development assessment, and forming subjective summary scores from applicants' interviews or assessment centers. In multiple-hurdle selection approaches, employers sequence assessments rather than combining assessment scores to determine whom to hire. Multiple combinations of predictors and predictor weights would yield this desired level.