Fairness in Technology-Enhanced Selection Assessments in Employment Settings: Promises and Challenges

Abstract

Rapid technological advances have greatly changed the nature and role of assessments in employee selection. These changes have occurred without a full consideration of how they may increase construct-irrelevant variance, a central point of concern with regard to fairness as outlined in the Standards for Educational and Psychological Testing (American Educational Research Association, American Psychological Association, & National Council on Measurement in Education, 2014). Technological advances raise new concerns in relation to assessment content, assessment context, response modalities, opportunity to learn, accommodation, and modification. Technology-enhanced assessments in hiring contexts hold much promise, but research is needed to ensure that their development and implementation provide fairness to all those assessed.

Keywords: fairness in hiring; technology and assessments; employee selection