I'll post to this thread because this is very relevant for the hiring companies. Hunter and Schmidt did a meta-study of 85 years of research on hiring criteria. [1]
There are three attributes you need to select for to identify performing employees in intellectual fields.
- General mental ability (Are they generally smart)
Use WAIS or if there are artifacts of GMA(Complex work they've done themselves) available use them as proxies.
Using IQ is mostly illegal[2] in the US, so you'll have to find a test that acts as a good proxy.
- Work sample test. NOT HAZING! As close as possible to the actual work they'd be doing. Try to make it apples-to-apples comparison across candidates. Also, try and make accomidations for candidates not knowing your company shibboleth.
- Integrity. The first two won't matter if you hire a sociopath.
There are existing tests available for this, you can purchase for < $50 per use.
This alone will get you > 65% hit rate [1], and can be done inside of three hours. There's no need for day long (or multi-day) gladiator style gauntlets.
There are three attributes you need to select for to identify performing employees in intellectual fields.
This alone will get you > 65% hit rate [1], and can be done inside of three hours. There's no need for day long (or multi-day) gladiator style gauntlets.[1] http://mavweb.mnsu.edu/howard/Schmidt%20and%20Hunter%201998%...
[2] The illegality comes from IQ tests disadvantaging certain minority groups.