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Monday, April 22, 1996
UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
company," he said.
Continued from Page 1A
PDI determines what skills and knowledge are needed for a position, and its psychologists then develop tests that single out applicants possessing those skills.
College graduates could face four types of tests when they apply for jobs, Johnson said.
--questions aren't necessarily related to how well they'll do on the job."
The job-oriented skill test is now used in place of the old-fashioned intelligence test.
Instead of assessing abstract intelligence, a job-oriented skill test evaluates practical intelligence. Such tests ask applicants to solve problems based on actual situations.
"They imagine themselves in a situation and choose one of four solutions," Johnson said.
--questions aren't necessarily related to how well they'll do on the job."
Some of the solutions are good, some are bad and some are mediocre. Such tests are valid, Johnson said, because studies show a relationship between the test's results and job performance.
The personality test is used to determine whether the applicant has the right character traits for the job. This test presents statements such as, "I enjoy interacting with people." Applicants indicate how much the applicants apply to them.
Johnson said some of the statements were designed to reveal test takers who tended to lie. These statements tempt test takers to make what Johnson calls improbable claims. The statement, "I have never told a lie" would be an example, Johnson said, adding that Personnel Decision's secret lie detectors are more subtle than that.
Fred Madaus, placement director for the school of business, said companies used such tests because research showed that successful people in certain careers tended to have similar likes and dislikes.
But unfit answers to just a few questions won't disqualify an applicant.
It's no use lying on the test to try to appear as a better candidate, Johnson said.
"A single question does not say who you are," he said. "It takes a whole pattern."
--questions aren't necessarily related to how well they'll do on the job."
The structured interview is used to find out how well applicants would face work-related situations. This kind of screening interview is more focused than a regular job interview.
"Many regular interviews are unstructured," Johnson said. "The
A structured interview includes questions about skills needed for the position. That could mean asking sales job applicants to describe a time when they were particularly successful in making other people do what they wanted them to do.
--bill was triggered by a Kansas Health and Environment Department's suggestion to loosen drug testing laboratories' rules by no longer requiring laboratories to run a second test when they encountered positive samples. The bill would have stopped the loosening of the rules, but State Rep. Dale Swenson, R-Wichita, who introduced the bill, said it never was taken to a vote because the Health and Environment department did a 180-degree turnaround and promised the current regulations would stay.
"They ask you to do something very similar to what you would do on the job." Johnson said.
In-basket tests are sometimes used for entry-level managerial positions, a position many college graduates apply for.
This test consists of a fictitious in-basket filled with problems and messages. Applicants solve the problems, and although the exercise usually takes only one or two hours, Johnson said, it represents many of the challenges that could come up on the real job.
Kemmis' Ford Motor Credit Co. assessment test was two hours of role play during which she was faced with customer service-related situations. She passed this test, as she had the personality test, the initial interview and a structured interview. A letter confirming that she had been hired informed her that her employment was contingent upon passing two more tests: a background check and a drug test.
Kemmis said she did not mind those tests either.
"I've got nothing to hide, so it's not an issue for me" she said.
"They were checking that I haven't been convicted and that I am who I say I am," Kemmis said.
Kemmis' has already passed the background check.
Companies who spend money to hire and train somebody need to be sure that the person is who he or she claims to be, said Francis Dillon, director of the company. To be sure, they use a consultant company such as hers.
Job applicants who are tempted to pad their resumes or cover up past misdemeanors may want to think twice. Companies check more details than they used to. Background Research International, a Falls Church, Va., based company, specializes in public record searches similar to Kemmis'.
Job applicants submit their name, date of birth, drivers' license number and similar information on a form. The form tells applicants that their public records will be searched.
Urine is distributed into small viles in a plastic case. The case is then placed into a computerized machine that tests the urine for drugs. The results show up on a computer print-out that is given to the company requesting the test.
The company checks court records to see whether the applicant has been convicted, Motor Vehicle Department records to get the person's driving history and records of state professional agencies such as the state bar association to check whether the person has the licenses he or she claims to have. Many companies also request a credit check, Dillon said. To run a credit check, the company needs a release form.
Dillon said it would be possible to run some of the checks without a person's knowledge, but that his company encouraged its clients to get release forms.
Dillon said the release form not only made it possible to run more checks but also to give the applicant a chance to quit the process.
Karen Jackson, chemistry coordinator at Lawrence Memorial Hospital, removes testing chemicals from the refrigerator. These chemicals are used to test for illegal drugs in urine samples.
"If somebody has something serious to hide, they may just go away," Dillon said.
Background Research International also checks resumes for accuracy. In fact, Dillon said, resume verifications likely would become the company's main business.
A 1992 study made by the New Jersey Law Journal found that 75 percent of all resumes contain misrepresentation or erroneous data.
Resumes are more often exaggerated than false, Dillon said. Applicants realized that no one was checking, so they inflated their resumes, he said.
"The market is expanding, and the reason is that employers are more concerned about having employees that are honest," he said.
Background Research International has existed for two years, and its future is bright. Dillon said.
SBC Communications Inc., formerly known as Southwestern Bell, may require their applicants to take yet another test in the future, said Bill Crichton, manager-corporate staffing.
"We're considering requiring a writing sample that is to be written in our presence and checked for content, grammar and structure," Crichton said. "We get some really bright people who can't communicate in writing. People just have to be able to communicate effectively these days."
About 30 percent of all applicants are screened out by Southwestern Bells' testing and interviewing procedures. Those who pass are ranked, and top applicants may be interviewed further to compete for the best positions available to college graduates. But before anybody is put on SBC's payroll, they also have to pass a drug test.
Crichton said the screening of a urine sample was the last test because of legal reasons. Regulations surrounding drug-testing say that companies can't perform drug tests until a job offer has been made.
For Kemmis, the drug test will be just a formality. She does not find the urine test bothersome nor intrusive.
"I can see their point of view," she said. "I've worked in business. I understand the very practical need for it."
But Wendy McFarland, American Civil Liberties Union lobbyist in Topeka, said there was no need for urine testing unless the employer had reasonable suspicions that the employee was abusing drugs.
"They can't stop you if you're not doing anything wrong," she said. "That's what freedom is all about. We believe that that same law should be applied to drug testing."
She compares routine drug testing to a policeman stopping cars routinely without any suspicion of wrongdoing.
The ACLU recently testified in support of a Kansas bill that would put the rules and regulations surrounding drug testing in Kansas laboratories into law. The ACLU-supported
"I got everything I wanted without passing the bill." Swenson said.
McFarland said the strict regulations, including the requirement of re-testing positive tests were needed, because false positives could be caused by such innocent actions as eating a poppy seed bagel or taking cold medicines.
But before job hunters give up poppy seed bagels for breakfast they may want to listen to Jim Skanner, chief laboratory technician at Lawrence Memorial Hospital. He said it was unlikely that poppy seeds would give a positive result because the amounts required for a positive test were high enough to rule out such factors.
"If we detect it, it's because of intentional ingestion in most cases," he said. "It's because of drug abuse."
Karen Jackson, chemistry supervisor at the lab, said false positives, or cross reactions as they are called, were more common 20 years ago because the equipment used then was not as sophisticated.
But pseudoephedrine, which is an ingredient in the cold medicine Sudafed, may give a positive result when it is mixed with the chemical that is supposed to reveal amphetamine abuse, Jackson said.
The Lawrence Memorial Hospital laboratory is one 25 Kansas laboratories accredited by the Kansas Department for Health and Environment to test urine samples. Skanner said the lab staff performs at least 50 employment drug tests a month.
Most employers ask for a standard test which checks for abuse of 10 broad classes of drugs: amphetamines, methamphetamines (speed),
barbiturates (downers), benzodiazepines, cannabinoids (marjuana), cocaine metabolites, methadone, methaqualone, propoxyphene and phencyclidine (angelust).
Drugs can be detected in the urine immediately after use and up to 30 days later, Skanner said. Exactly how long drugs can be detected varies and depends on factors such as the person's metabolism and the drug's purity.
Although urine samples could tell a lot more than just whether the person abuses drugs, such as what medications a person is taking and what diseases he or she may have, Skanner said the hospital laboratory only tested for illegal drugs. The person whose urine is to be tested is told in advance what the urine will be tested for.
"We run our lab ethically," Skanner said.
Jackson said positive tests were sent to a reference lab that runs the sample through more sophisticated checks. These tests reveal exactly what drugs are found and how concentrated they are. But most samples tested in the hospital laboratory are negative, Jackson said.
Kemnis is sure her sample will be negative, and she will begin her new job at Ford Motor Credit Co. in June.
"The whole process has given me a realistic picture of what is going to be expected of me," she said. "The company has more of a chance to keep me because they gave me enough indication of what tasks I will be expected to do and what skills I need."
And what about Becky Todd, who spent and hour and a half trying to fill a paper cup with urine?
She passed her urine test and since has been working part-time in the jewelry department at SuperTarget, 3201 Iowa St. The jewelry job turned out to be a springboard to a full-time managerial summer internship.
"It's going to be a great experience," Todd said. "Especially learning about management."
She does not hesitate one second when she thinks about whether the time she spent in the Lawrence Memorial Hospital paid off.
"It definitely did," she said.
Drug users find tricks, pass urine screenings
Some say drinking lots of vinegar will work. Others claim that plain water works, if consumed in giant amounts.
Myths about how to pass a urine test despite last week's pot party are many. Several home pages on the Internet claim they have a solution. In the end, a hair cut may do the trick.
An Internet page posted by Cannibis Action Network at http://www.ljs.net/~deadhead/piistest.html says that the best way to pass a urine analysis is to use Houston Enterprises' products.
The page claims that Houston Enterprises herbal teas will give clean tests if used as directed. The web site also highlights a powdered drink mix called The Stuff, which supposedly cleans out drug users urine for pre-employment drug tests.
According to the home page, The Stuff forms a jelly-like barrier in the bladder which keeps solids in the body but lets water, dyed by vitamin B. through. The gel is dissolved and expelled by the body after three hours.
However, a customer service employee of Houston Enterprises, who refused to give his name, said the company had nothing to do with the information on the Internet.
"We don't even have the Net in the office," he said.
The employee said the company's teas and drink mixes were meant to be used for herbal cleansings and not to clean urine samples. He also said he did not know whether the products would give drug users clean urine samples.
Karen Jackson, chemistry supervisor at Lawrence Memorial Hospital's laboratory, said it was not a good idea to try to manipulate urine to pass a test.
Werner Baumgartner, founder of Psychemedics Corp. in Culver City, Calif., said companies that suspect their employees may be passing urine tests despite drug use can test employees' hair instead.
"People wind up doing silly things like that, and sometimes those things tend to intensify the drug," she said. "It's foolish to try."
All that is needed is a hair sample as thick as the tip of a pen that is 1 1/2 inches long, he said. The hair is cleaned and tested for drug use at the company's California laboratory.
A hair sample will not only show whether the person uses drugs, Baumgartner said, but also whether the abuse has increased or decreased during the past three months.
Many big companies, such as Steel Case and MGM Grand, drug test their employees through hair analysis, Baumgartner said.
Research has shown that drug traces in the hair come from the blood and not from external sources, such as smoky air. Permanents or dyes will not affect the test results either, although they will decrease the accuracy of changes in the amount of drugs used, Baumgartner said.
Baumgartner thinks hair testing will gain control of the pre-employment drug testing market, because hair shows potential drug use for a longer period of time.
"It's by far more effective," he said.
"With urine tests, they simply abstain from using drugs before the test."
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