Employee assessment tests are typically developed in the same country as the organization's headquarters, but health systems should ensure their tests stand up in foreign countries, too.
A blog post from employee assessment and hiring firm Select International discusses what can become misinterpreted when assessment tests are translated and administered abroad. Aside from technical problems when translating test content, cultural differences must also be accounted for.
The post mentions the following cultural differences organizations will commonly encounter when developing and delivering employee assessments on an international scale.
1. Construct differences. The psychological constructs employers intend to capture in a selection test, whether it be a personality trait or cognitive ability, may be defined dissimilarly or not even exist in another culture
2. Stimulus familiarity differences. People from different countries may have unequal exposure to materials in the test, depending on their customs and conventions. One example is a quantitative problem using inches and feet opposed to metric measurements.
3. Test administration differences. Some cultures people prefer larger social distance, for example, so ensuring enough amount of space between test takers when in a group setting is important.
4. Response style differences. Some cultures are more tolerant to conflicting ideas, whereas other cultures advise people not to stand out from their social group and others encourage people to be unique. These differences are hard to measure but may affect the style in which candidates respond to questions.
More Articles on Employee Assessments and Hiring:
5 Common Hiring Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
9 Statistics on Healthcare Hiring in Second Half of 2013
How Has the Rise of Physician Employment Changed Hospitals' Recruitment Strategies?