IQ and recruiting (the story about g)
Trying to conclude a couple of studies that I read lately. Most of it comes from ”Where and Why g Matters: Not a Mystery” by Linda S. Gottfredson.
The other study is called ”Genetics and intelligente differences: five special findings” by Plomin and Deary (2015).
Gottfredsons paper is a much recommended read for everyone generally interested but also for everyone interested in finding the right personell for their business.
Cognitive ability is one of the most important abilities in our complex society. As jobs and everyday tasks get more and more complex, cognitive ability is increasingly important.
IQ is short for Intelligence quotient, but today we refer to g (General factor of ability)
When scores on a large, diverse battery of mental ability tests are factor analyzed, they hold a large common factor, labeled g.
g is now the working definition of intelligence for most researchers, because it is stable, replicable and unlike the IQ score - is independent of the tests for measuring it.
g is the ability to process information. It is not the amount of knowledge that one have accumulated. In fact, when it comes to work performance, experience is a very low predictor for success and should be taken only moderately into consideration when you recruit your next co-worker.
Experience will have a decisive effect at first but the less experienced, higher g, co worker will catch up and soon overtake the more experience workers in both efficiency and productivity.
Also g is generalizable, but experience is not.
Complex jobs will always be benefitted by higher g and so will performance in simpler jobs, but to a much smaller degree.
Combining personality and measures of g provides an incomparable precision in predicting work performance. Having these tests done in the very beginning of the process gives you as an employer a unique selection of candidates. Sorting among the candidates before testing is nothing but inefficient and ignorant behavior.
It is also the only way to bypass bias in the process. Biases that account for major parts of the challenge of the so called lack of competence.
Testing is efficient, clean and cheap. Make sure not to miss out on the high g people. They will add strikingly efficiency to your organization.
