B-PAD: AN ALTERNATIVE FOR PERSONNEL SELECTION
From "The Florida Police Chief," August, 1994.
No one knows just how well a new police officer will respond to the challenges of the job. A growing number of agencies, however, think they have found a selection method that may predict it. That method is B-PAD, Behavioral Personnel Assessment Devices.
The Vancouver, Washington Police Department is one such agency. Having implemented community oriented policing, the department places a premium on selecting officers with strong interpersonal skills and sound judgement. Asked why the agency uses B-PAD, Sergeant Janet Thiessen, supervisor of the Department's Research, Development and Training units, said B-PAD gives them "a more realistic view of how an applicant will act on the job." Comparing B-PAD to oral interviews, Sergeant Thiessen added, "applicants can't rely on canned textbook responses . . . they must be able to read a situation and react appropriately. The applicant's comfort level in dealing with various types of problems really comes across in B-PAD."
B-PAD is a series of video-based behavioral tests designed to measure interpersonal skills and common sense judgment. Unlike interviews, in which applicants state what they would do in response to situational questions, B-PAD requires applicants to demonstrate their skill in carrying out these responses. The tests are based on the theory of "behavioral consistency," which concludes that the best predictor of future behavior is observed behavior. Toward this end, B-PAD utilizes professionally acted, job-relevant video simulations. Applicants are videotaped in action as they respond to a series of "real-world" scenarios. Trained, in-house personnel numerically rate each application utilizing B-PAD's validated scoring criteria. B-PAD is typically administered early in the selection process to reduce the number of applicants requiring more expensive procedures.
Background
B-PAD tests are produced by the B-PAD Group, a Sonoma, California, company specializing in public safety selection and assessment. The company's founder, Dr. David Corey, says B-PAD was developed in response to research indicating that "interpersonal competence is a critical domain of skills and abilities for police officers and is one of only two constellations of abilities found to be significantly correleated with police performance."
B-PAD's construction began with the collection of numerous problematic vignettes, obtained from a variety of sources. Sixty scenarios were gathered initially from a diverse group of subject matter experts consisting of law enforcement professionals, including women, ethnic minorities, offices with urban and rural experience, supervisors and administrators. A core group of experts wrote scripts for the scenarios with input from the B-PAD group.
The final decision about which scenes to videotape was made by considering the expert's input and the need for a representative range of human relations situations. Each vignette reflects a job function regarded by the experts as essential and realistic, and is portrayed in a realistic fashion and context.
The procedures used for validity and reliabilty testing of B-PAD were conducted in accordance with the Standards for Education and Psychological Testing published jointly by the American Education Research Assocation, the American Psychological Association and the National Council on Measurement in Education.
Does B-PAD Work?
Early criterion validity research has documented impressive correlations between B-PAD results and on the job performance. According to Sergeant Todd Dissinger of the Vacaville, California, Police Department, if testing "common sense" is a major consideration in hiring an officer, B-PAD will be well worth the money. "B-PAD provides really valuable information about a person's problem-solving capabilities and it's very consistent," he said. Vacaville Police Department has been using B-PAD for nearly four years, and it continues to meet their hiring needs.
In Fairfield, California, their 80-sworn officer department uses B-PAD as the first step in the hiring process, in place of written and physical agility testing, which they generally don't do. Training officer Dave Clark reports that Fairfield only accepts certified police applicants, for the most part, so they don't see a need to test written skills since the applicants received that testing prior to certification. Since their hiring process is less extensive than many departments, B-PAD provides them with the necessary information regarding the applicant's common sense and character traits.