Evaluating a pre-screening questionnaire's predictive validity at a large financial institution

Abstract

This study investigated whether a pre-screening questionnaire was able to predict job performance at a large financial institution. The pre-screening questionnaire comprised a biographical, integrity and interest subscale as predictors of job performance. A sample of 2145 job applicants completed the pre-screening questionnaire and these scores were used to establish the internal consistency of the pre-screening questionnaire. For the validity testing, a smaller sample of 449 job applicants was drawn to compare their test scores of the pre-screening questionnaire to their performance scores obtained, as the criterion. Each subscale was evaluated in terms of its predictive validity. The loglinear analysis revealed that the biographical subscale was a valid predictor of job performance. Despite being reliable i.e. integrity subscale with Kuder-Richardson coefficient of (r =.63) and interest subscale with an overall Cronbach Alpha of (r =.98), both subscales were found to be poor predictors of job performance. The findings suggest that the pre-screening questionnaire demonstrates predictive validity and utility in the selection process to some extent. Recommendations are listed to improve the overall reliability and validity of the pre-screening questionnaire.