We offer a vast array of tests and assessment products that are suitable for many different types of applications from pre-screening job applicants, to identifying those ready for promotion, to team building, conflict resolution, succession planning, leadership development, and more.

When we say, “There’s a test for that!” we’re not kidding around.  These days there really is a test for just about everything.

Tests tend to fall into one of the following general categories:

Cognitive Ability Tests

• Measure things like general intelligence, problem-solving ability, reasoning and critical thinking, and learning speed. They have long been recognized as highly reliable and are strong predictors of job performance across most roles. They are well suited to jobs that are complex, analytical, or for leadership roles.

Emotional Intelligence Tests

• First hit the scene in the 1990s.  EI attempts to assess and quantify one’s awareness and understanding of emotions and their skill at using that information in work environments.  EI generally focuses on five things: Self-awareness, Self-regulation, Motivation, Mmpathy, and Social skills.  These may enable an employer to gain insight into well someone might collaborate with, lead, or influence others.  Note: EI tests tend to mesure the same things as do most cognitive and personality tests.  Thus, they’re not likely to add a whole lot ‘more’ in cases where cognitive ability or personality are already being assessed.

Integrity Tests

• Assess things like honesty, reliability, dependability, ethics, rule-following, and  often counterproductive work behaviors like theft, absenteeism, or on-the-job drug or alcohol use.  They are often used to screen for entry-level positions or for roles that require a high level of trust, like cashiers, retail, finance, etc.

Interest/Motivation Tests

• Are designed to help identify one’s work-related interests by measuring what drives people.  They are often paired successfully with cognitive ability and personality tests.  They’re designed for both pre-screening and for remedial applications for job seekers, vocational uses, and those who’ve been laid off or who are in between careers.  Career or work interest, and motivational or job readiness tools tend to measure traits like: Realistic (Hands-on physically demanding work), Investigative (Analytical, scientific, intellectual positions), Artistic (Imaginative, creative, expressive work),  Social (Teaching, providing care, serving others), Enterprising (Persuasion, balancing a bottom line, revenue generation), and Conventional (Structured, repeatable, predictable)

Personality Tests

• Are designed to target the Big Five behavioral traits which are Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism.  They are most often used to assess work style (on-the-job-behaviours), job and cultural fit.  They are very good at predicting long-term satisfaction and retention.  They’re most effective when targeting soft skills and teamwork are critical (e.g., customer service, sales, management).  However, many assessments incorporate personality-style measures into what they assess.

Skills Tests

• Measure proficiency with specific, learned technical or software skills (e.g., coding, data analysis, Microsoft Office) for roles requiring specific technical expertise or software proficiency (e.g., IT roles, programmers, administrative assistants).  They offer a high content validity because they directly mirror job tasks.

Within each of the categories above there are additional breakdowns for tests specific to things like Safety, Management, Customer Service, Sales, Policing/Public Safety, Team Work, Medical, Industrial, Warehousing, Information Technology, Human Resources, Engineering, and more.

Yes!  When used correctly, testing really does work.

Assessments offer employers the following benefits:

• Additional information about your candidate that’s often difficult or impossible to ascertain in other ways.
• A more equitable and well-rounded, consistent selection process.
• Ease of administration, requiring minimal time, money, or effort.
• Often quick and easy for applicants to complete.
• Generate detailed, specific information that can also be useful for coaching after a candidate is hired.
• Highly accurate predictors of workplace behavior that identify how one will actually behave on-the-job.
• Provide validation of what’s contained in resumes.
• Significantly reduce the risk of bad-hires and/or turnover.
• Minimize hiring bias.
• Improve teamwork and collaboration.
• Accurately identify management/leadership skills and/or potential and readiness for promotion.

Tests Also Catch The Liars

People are generally very honest when answering questionnaires.  However, if they aren’t, many tests are designed to catch those who “lie” or who try to skew the results in their favour by providing “socially acceptable” answers.  People often ask us how one can test for honesty.  They make the assumption that if someone’s not honest, then they will give dishonest answers on a test.

Correct?

Wrong!  People who are dishonest (likely to steal for example) have a mindset that dictates that they are “normal” and that everyone else thinks like they do.  This is a common human trait that we all share and one which assessments capitalize upon.  For example, if one is the type of person who thinks that it’s OK to “borrow” money from the cash register on a Friday night (even if they honestly intend to repay it), they tend to believe that other people would also do this and also see nothing wrong with it.  Thus, when given a test that measures honesty, people who are like this tend to be very honest and open about how dishonest they actually are.  The test will identify that as an undesirable trait and recommend that the individual not be hired.

What’s more, if you had simply asked the question in an interview, it is not very likely that the person would have admitted to that type of behaviour to your face.

Testing can tell you things that you simply can’t find out by any other method. 

So, yes, they work, and you should be using them.

No, we do not create the products that we offer.  However, we only deal with the best test and assessment developers, and only offer high-quality products that have stood the test of time.

Developing a test and conducting the research trials needed to prove that it is accurate, valid, reliable, and measures what it says it will measure, takes a great deal of time and money. 

The tests that we offer have undergone rigorous validity testing and are used by a wide range of companies.  Creative Organizational Design’s advantage is in having a vast array of options available (now numbering over 5000 tests) along with the decades of expertise to help customers identify the right options for their unique and specific needs.

Buying a test is not and should not be a “just pick one” exercise.  Having a good understanding of the user’s end-goals and desired outcomes and the problem(s) that they’re attempting to resolve is critical in identifying the right test to apply to a given challenge.

We carry a wide number of instruments and prices vary widely.  We intentionally keep pricing off of our website because we want to encourage you to contact us to discuss your needs in more detail.

In this industry it is absolutely not a case of “just pick one”.  Nuance is king in the test industry and there’s certainly much more to consider than just the price.  It might be well worth your while to spend a few dollars more on a more robust, more-in-depth, assessment than the one that you were considering.  The only way to determine this is to have a conversation with us and ensure that you’re buying the right tool for the job, and the best option available.

We can help you to determine which assessment and which format or version will best suit your needs and your budget.  Our expertise is in helping you find the most appropriate tool for your requirements and in recommending other assessments that you may wish to consider or may not have sourced on your own.  We have 1000s of titles available and it’s not unusual for people to miss seeing other relevant options.

People also often enquire about a particular tool but overlook other options that are available.  The test that we end up recommending might even be cheaper or better-suited than the one that first caught your eye!  We’d hate for you to look at one test, dislike the price and then not contact us when there were other suitable options available that you didn’t see.  

A quick conversation will enable us to perform a needs analysis and help you find the right tool for the job.

Volume discounts are also available for larger quantities.

Different tests are available in different formats:

• Online tests are taken via the Internet.
• Paper tests are usually hand-scored by the test administrator or self-scored by the person who takes the test.

Different tests and assessments are scored in different ways.  Every product is different.  How a test is scored and how a report generated depends upon the particular test in question.

Here are some of the ways in which this occurs:

• Online tests are generally scored automatically and the results are sent by email in Adobe format or are downloadable via an online platform that you have access to.
• Most paper assessments are self-scoring, meaning that they can be scored by hand by the person administering the test.
• A very few tests are scored by COD.  This has become more and more rare as the testing industry has moved online.

Whether the assessment that you’re using is self-scoring or done entirely electronically, there’s little delay involved.  Tests that are scored by COD are generated very quickly.  It’s often just minutes to score, generate a report, and forward it by email.  Clients rarely find themselves waiting to receive results.

The scoring time for tests ranges from instantaneous (online) to up to ten or fifteen minutes per test (for paper/hand-scoring).

Yes.

In most cases, scoring is done for you automatically (online tests).  In other cases (paper assessments) they are scored on-site by you or your staff.

Note, online tests are designed to generate more information, charts, graphs, indicators of Hire/Don’t Hire, identify suspect scores (cheating/unlikely virtues), and longer more detailed narrative reports.  Paper tools are rarely able to provide this kind of detail.

The majority of our tests have been designed for use by employers or HR Managers and require no special training or licensing in order to purchase or use them.  

90% of what we offer are what are called A-Level tests, accessible to anyone.  A very few products that we offer are B-Level tests that require specific user qualifications (be that training or advanced degrees or designations) before they can be purchased.  Most B-Level tools are not designed for pre-screening uses and thus, not often required by employers.  The third category are C-Level tests which are clinical in nature and use primarily by psychiatrists and those involved in counselling.  COD does not offer C-Level assessments (but we can help you locate them if need be).

Note: some tests must be administered under controlled conditions, be proctored, and/or scored and interpreted only by trained professionals.  In some cases (i.e. the Bennett Mechanical Comprehension Test) agreeing to only administer in a proctored environment is a requirement that the purchaser must agree to prior to purchasing the assessment.  

Generally, tests cannot be customized.

Standardized assessments use proprietary and trade-secret algorithms to generate results.  Therefore, assessments are intended and required to be used as-is.  Changing/deleting/adding questions or response options instantly invalidates the assessment (making it unreliable) and violates copyright was well.  Nor can assessments be translated to other languages by us or by the end-user, for the same reasons. 

Customizing a test is a very costly and time-consuming process.  Doing so often requires re-validation.  Validation entails conducting studies to ensure that the test measures what it purports to measure, and does so consistently and accurately over time.  This process can run into thousands of dollars.

There are so many existing, validated, accurate assessments already in existence that there’s rarely a need to customize one or create one from scratch.

However, in some cases, there are built-in language options available but those are very much on a case-by-case or title-by-title basis and it should not be assumed that because Test X is available in German or Spanish that the same will be true for Test Y. 

Finally, some tools can be tied to a specific job using customizable profiles can be created for assessments that have this component built-in. 

For the most part, however, it should assumed from the outset that the products available are being offered only as-is unless specifically indicated otherwise.

Yes, but you must have the qualifications to do so, and must meet rigorus developmental standards; meaning graduate level training in tests, measurements, statistics and psychology.

Test development is done by trained professionals in order to ensure validity and reliability, as well as, compliance with EEOC and other legislation to ensure that adverse impact against protected groups does not occur.

Creating and using your own test, without being able to prove that it is accurate, reliable, non-discriminatory and measures what it was designed to measure, can leave you wide open to costly lawsuits.

Unless you have a very unique and specialized testing need, you should be able to find a standardized tool that will provide the information you want.

Creative Organizational Design does not create assessments (customized or otherwise) for our clients.

Yes.

In most jurisdictions in North America is it legal to test people for any skills, attitudes or aptitudes that have been demonstrated to be requirements for success for the job in question.

Creative Organizational Design cannot provide legal advice or information about specific legislation in various jurisdictions.  It is the responsibility of the end-user to comply with all applicable employment laws and related regulations.  If you are unsure about whether a particular tool may be used in your jurisdiction, we encourage you to query your legal counsel or appropriate legislative body.

Different States, Provinces and countries have specific employment legislation in place.  Tests that measure “job-specific” skills or aptitudes that are a necessary requirement for a position can always be used legally to pre-screen employees.  However, be aware that not every test can be used in every case.  Some tests are designed specifically to be used only for pre-employment purposes, and cannot and should not be used on existing employees.  Others have certain measurements that may or may not be legal to use in your particular State, Province or country (i.e. drug and alcohol avoidance scales).

Legal assessment best practices: One may decline to hire an applicant for a customer service position if they do not have the required customer service skills.  For example, one may reasonably refuse employment to a person applying for a proofreading job if they cannot read.  However, you may not use an IQ (intelligence quotient) test for pre-employment purposes because it probably cannot be proven that a high IQ is essential for success a particular job.  Note: The RiotIQ is an exception to this rule!

Personality tests generally fall under the same restrictions.  Although some tests are based on personality measures and are acceptable, generally, one may not use a personality test as a pre-selection tool for pre-screening applicants.  To be more specific, personality-based assessments like the Work Personality Index or Employee Attitude and Personality Test may be used for pre-screening, training, and dvelopment purposes.  However, tools like the Edwards Personal Preference Schedule, Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) or Personality Assessment Inventory (PAI®) cannot be used for this purpose.

 

 

A Note To Canadians: Due to Canadian Human Rights legislation, tests containing Drug Avoidance scales are not legal for use for applicant pre-screening in Canada.

In general, the human rights laws of Canada are fairly similar to those in the United States and prohibit discrimination based on characteristics that are not job-related such as gender, race, and religious beliefs. Test developers work closely with legal experts and with employment laws in mind in order to ensure their ability to be sold and used widely. Some tests have been modified to take into account certain differences in cultures or offered in different languages. For instance, Canadian laws prohibit discrimination against those dependent on drugs and alcohol. We offer some special tests for Canadians that do not contain drug-avoidance measures. Some are also available in Canadian French.

Creative Organizational Design cannot provide legal advice or information about specific legislation in various jurisdictions. It is the responsibility of the end-user to comply with local employment laws and related regulations. If you are unsure about whether a particular tool may be used in your jurisdiction, we encourage you to query your legal counsel or appropriate legislative body.

Many customers use instruments outside the US and Canada. It is impossible to be knowledgeable about the employment law for all possible locations. Generally, most tests can be used in most countries. However, there may be issues to contend with. For example, the test may not take into account cultural differences or may not be available in the necessary language. Translating a test can change the use or meaning of words and invalidate the test. It is important to use tests as-is and not make on-site modifications.

If you have concerns about the use of a particular tool, we strongly recommend that you consult with legal counsel familiar with your applicable employment laws or a psychologist within your jurisdiction.