Volume 3 
January 2001 
Issue #1

Megatrends in Personnel Testing: A Practitioner's Perspective, John W. Jones, Ph.D., Kelly D. Higgins, M.A., NCS Pearson, January 2001

Abstract

This paper briefly reviewed current personnel testing trends as documented in the literature. Yet research literature often misses fast-moving megatrends that will ultimately change the face of personnel testing practices. Therefore, the primary purpose of this paper was to list and describe, from a practitioner's perspective, 10 dominant megatrends that are impacting the personnel testing industry. Five megatrends were classified as being "technocentric," and five were classified as being "content-specific." Technocentric themes were related to virtual career centers, integrated assessment platforms, a number of Internet-age access concerns, media-rich assessments, and data warehousing and mining. Content-specific trends were related to certification testing, 21st century test constructs, human resource lifecycle assessments, technology-friendly tests, and bottom-line impact and return on investment (ROI) studies. A review of these 10 megatrends suggests that the personnel testing industry is keeping pace with rapid technological innovations.