Chicago, IL, September 21, 2011 — Vangent, Inc., a leading provider of pre-employment risk assessments, continued its history of developing innovative new assessment tools, presenting a paper at the 2011 Association for Psychological Science conference, held May 25th-29th in Washington, DC. The poster presentation, by Dr. Kelly D. Dages, a Senior Organizational Psychologist & Program Evaluator with Vangent’s Risk and Talent Management unit, was on Development and Validation of a Brief Pre-Offer Measure of Sexual Harassment Potential. This study was co-authored by Dr. John W. Jones, Vangent’s Chief Scientist and Vice President, and a Fellow of the Association for Psychological Science (APS). The Annual APS Conference is an important scientific meeting which includes the presentation of contemporary academic research, including a focus on applied experimental psychology. Dr. Dages’ presentation focused on the development of new instrumentation that can prove an important tool for organizations in screening of job candidates to reduce human capital risks and improve job fit.
Dr. Dages’ presentation described the development of a disguised-purpose measure of sexual harassment potential for use in protective services personnel screening programs. The Sexual Harassment Potential Index, a human capital risk management scale, was developed on a large sample of protective services professionals to predict sexual harassment potential in the workplace. Such protective service professionals are oftentimes placed in positions of trust with citizens and suspects they are investigating and the opportunity for such harassment exists. A pre-offer measure of such risk would clearly complement a sexual harassment prevention program based on complementary risk management approaches and a zero-tolerance policy. The EEOC’s expansion of its staff has led to an increased ability to respond to harassment complaints, and signals the continued importance of this risk exposure for organizations.
Vangent researchers established both the construct- and criterion-related validity of common workplace counterproductivity admission and attitudinal scales to a variety of dimensions related to the profile of a self-reported sexual harassment abuser (and associated behaviors including Crude/Offensive Behavior, Unwanted Sexual Attention, Sexist Behavior, Sexual Coercion and Sexual Assault). Assessment items from the Reid Report® Risk Assessment (Vangent, Inc., 2010), a leading preemployment measure of employee unreliability, were empirically-keyed against admissions of harassment. This new empirically-keyed scale exhibited useful levels of validity and reliability that offer a measure that can be used for preemployment screening or placement when evaluating applicants for positions at high risk for sexual harassment, helping to reduce an organization’s overall sexual harassment risk exposures.
Having pioneered some of the industry’s earliest pre-employment assessments to identify high-risk candidates, Vangent helps organizations in two strategic areas: Risk and Talent Management. Vangent’s research continues a longstanding commitment to developing valid and reliable assessment tools that help organizations to optimize their workforces by minimizing risk, identifying top talent and improving their hiring process. For more than 60 years, Vangent has provided assessment tools that help organizations to get a better sense of who they are evaluating, and has worked with clients to demonstrate the impact of improved employee selection and development programs.
“We’re extremely proud of our team’s research in this area, which shows the efficacy of critical new assessment instrumentation that employers can utilize to further reduce costly risk exposures,” said Andre Allen, Vice President of Vangent’s Risk and Talent Management unit. “Whether helping to identify high-risk job candidates or to efficiently identify top talent and strong person-job fit, Vangent’s assessment tools can help organizations in any number of critical areas that help reduce risk and improve organizational performance, and we are committed to continuing that mission.”
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About Vangent, Inc.
Vangent, Inc. is a global provider of consulting, systems integration, human capital management, and business process services to the U.S. federal and international governments, higher education institutions, and corporations. Vangent’s more than 7,000 employees support clients including the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the U.S. Departments of Defense, Education, Health and Human Services, Justice, Labor, and Veterans Affairs; and the U.S. Office of Personnel Management, the U.S. Census Bureau, as well as Fortune 500 companies. Headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, the company has offices throughout the U.S. and in the U.K. and Canada. For more information, visit www.vangent.com or www.vangent-hcm.com. Did you know? Four out of 10 Americans connect with Vangent, but never know it. Learn more at www.vangent.com/4outof10
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