Case Studies Technology Company Improves Performance of its Software Engineers
The Challenge
A technology company wanted to predict performance for its incoming candidates. The company hired at scale for a wide variety of roles in technology, particularly software engineering. It needed a way to better predict which job candidates were most likely to succeed long-term in software engineering roles.
The Solution
The company partnered with Criteria to conduct a predictive criterion validation study to evaluate its incoming applicants with assessments. The company selected two assessments: the first was the Criteria Cognitive Aptitude Test (CCAT), a test that identifies a person’s ability to pick up on training and learn quickly on the job by measuring problem solving ability, critical thinking, attention to detail, and the ability to learn and digest new information. The second was the Employee Personality Profile (EPP), a general personality assessment that measures twelve personality traits that are predictive of a person’s work style.
The goal of the validation study was to see how predictive these assessments were of the applicants’ ultimate performance. The study was conducted on a group of 96 incoming software engineers. Several months after joining the company, the original assessment results would be compared with the actual performance of these individuals.
The Results
The company found that the two tests were highly predictive of an applicant’s ultimate performance. Most notably, high scorers on the two assessments performed 42% better than low scorers. Pass rates on the assessments were similar across all demographic groups.
These results gave the company the confidence to incorporate the assessments into its application process in order to improve the performance of incoming software engineers.