Lethe wrote on Feb 7
th, 2009 at 6:19am:
Then take a look at the officers hired in the few years before they started or stopped using the polygraph and the officers hired afterwards.Look at the following:
Number of official complaints lodged against them;
How many were fired for cause;
How many had internal investigations launched against them;
Scores on any assessments or reviews;
Number of reprimands issued against officers;
Number of crimes committed by such officers;
And other similar metrics that can be quantified.
Lethe
Your project looks like excellent research. However, the data would not have any relationship to pre-employment polygraph screening. Lets just take a look at your impracticable research one point at a time.
• Number of official complaints lodged against them;
o Polygraph screening is not predictive on future behavior.
As such, this data, if it could be obtained, does not relate to pre-employment screening.
• How many were fired for cause;
o This has nothing to do with polygraph screening. Polygraph screening is not predictive on future behavior. A perfect applicant and subsequent employee could be terminated for cause for acts committed AFTER they have been employed. As such, this data does not relate to pre-employment screening. You do understand this fundamental principle, yes?
• How many had internal investigations launched against them;
o Pre-employment screening is not predictive of future behavior. As such, this data does not relate to pre-employment screening.
• Scores on any assessments or reviews;
o Pre-employment screening is not predictive of future behavior. As such, this data does not relate to pre-employment screening.
• Number of reprimands issued against officers;
o Pre-employment screening is not predictive of future behavior. As such, this data does not relate to pre-employment screening.
• Number of crimes committed by such officers;
o Criminal offenses committed after being hired have nothing to do with the previously administered pre-employment polygraph. Again, the polygraph is not a predictive device. As such, this data does not relate to pre-employment screening.
• And other similar metrics that can be quantified.
o Without identifying similar and specific metrics, I can’t comment, but I suspect my response would be similar since your criteria, thus far, does not relate to pre-employment polygraph screening.
Your premise appears to be that pre-employment screening does not weed out applicants who will at some future time have problems. Your use of the polygraph in this fashion would be useless because, that’s right………… Pre-employment screening is not predictive of future behavior.
Now, if you really want to get an idea what, if anything, pre-employment screening is doing. You need to look at data that is actually verifiable and readily available.
• Number of pre-employment exams conducted during a specific time period.
• Number of “DI” tests
• Number of verified “DI” tests based upon confessions/admissions/or disqualifying admissions after a “DI” test. If there is no confession/admission/or disqualifying information, it is not verified and should not be used as the sole reason to disqualify.
• Number of disqualifying admissions prior to the administration of the test and obtained during the pre-test interview
• Number of “NDI” test in which information later surfaced that disqualified or resulted in the termination of the applicant/employee. This would be information in which the applicant lied to a specific question on the pre-employment polygraph test and was scored as “NDI” (This would be the most significant finding and I, for one, would be interested in this statistic)
• And just for the sake of detailed information, the number of “NDI” tests in which the applicant was hired, and then subsequently counseled and/or terminated, and the reason for the counseling and or/termination. Was the counseling/termination for activity that occurred prior to the pre-employment test, or was it post-pre-employment test?
So, Lethe, that is your assignment. Do let us know the result of your research.
There was a time when I was skeptical of pre-employment screening, until I actually started running these tests. I was concerned that they were not effective. It did not take long for me to realize it is an invaluable process that weeds out a remarkable number of verifiable and confirmed unqualified applicants. The scary part is this……..how many unqualified applicants were easily able to slip through the hiring process before the tests were implemented? That number will never be known.