Ethical Testing Policy

•  Our Companies Aims & Intentions 
•   Assessment Choice
•   Test Administration
•   Confidentiality 
•   Client Feedback
•   Ethics Committee

Aims & Intentions

Our company aims to help individuals, teams and organisations to recognise their abilities and potential, whilst also providing development and direction that will enhance their performance and so improve the quality of their lives, business and or Career.  This will be achieved by offering clients a high quality but affordable Holistic Career and Personal Coaching Service. Utilising Psychometric tools – Personality inventories and Ability questionnaires in support of many of the Human Resource initiatives and processes, notably in:

•     Career Exploration
•     Personal Development 
•     Recruitment Selection

In order to maintain the quality of services that we provide we recognise the importance of adhering to ethical standards in the use of psychometric instruments and coaching. This will protect and preserve clients rights, as well as the integrity of the instrument(s) and services provided. This statement is intended to reassure employees and clients that their individual rights are protected and that the company will do all in its power to ensure good testing and coaching practice.  

Assessment Choice

(a) Tests and other assessment materials will be carefully selected, ensuring that they are reliable, valid and well constructed, and that they are relevant for the purpose in question.

(b) They will be selected so as to meet the requirements of the Equal Opportunities and Sex Discrimination Legislations.

(c) No organisational nor personal decisions will be solely based upon interpretation of data from one personality inventory.

(d) Normative data will be the basis for comparison of all scores derived from normative tests / assessments.

(e) Where tests/assessments are being used for selection, personality assessment and ability test data will only be used to supplement available data from other sources such as interviews and similar. Personality tests will not be used as the sole means of screening individuals. 

Test Administration

(a) Those undertaking either a test or questionnaire shall be given sufficient time as to prepare for the session. They will be provided with relevant practice and / or preview literature, where possible, together with information as to the purpose of the assessment and why this method is used, and also the conditions under which it will take place and how feedback is to be communicated. Their informed consent in taking part in the process will be obtained. Should they decline to take part they will not be coerced and their non-completion will not be viewed negatively in any decisions arising from the assessment process.

(b) The administration, scoring and interpretation instructions that are contained within the manual(s) of the instrument(s) will be followed to ensure that tests and questionnaires are properly used. Only appropriately qualified persons will undertake this.

(c) Background information from each client will be requested and used to support any assessment results obtained as part of our development programmes.

(d) The company will collect supplementary data on all candidates for equal opportunities monitoring. We will also, from time to time request test takers to give supplementary data for the purposes of research. All data collected in this way will be stored without personal identifiers.

Confidentiality

(a) All applicable laws on the protection of personal data will be observed. (The Data Protection Act 1998 and all subsequent revisions)

(b) Clients will be informed as to how their data will be stored, who will have access to it and under what circumstances data will or will not be released and for how long it will be stored.

(c) Clients will be informed as to who will see their personality data and or reports written on the basis of these data.

(d) Test data will be destroyed after 6 months from the date of test completion.

(e) The test taker will have control over the disclosure of the data, i.e. the clients personality data will only be revealed to others with their prior informed consent.

(f) Information discussed during coaching sessions will remain confidential and will not be disclosed to third parties without written permission from the client.

Client Feedback 

(a) Clients will be offered the opportunity of receiving feedback on their results. This will be clearly stated to each person prior to taking the exercise(s) and during the administration of the session itself.

(b) When communicating results, we will ensure the client receives sufficient information about the theory on which the test or scales are based and full feedback on their results will be given preferably in a face-to-face setting.

(c) We will communicate to test takers and those making assessment decisions the implications of the results and how it relates to other information about the test taker(s) abilities and personality.

(d) The limitations of the psychometric instrument(s) used will be made clear in any report(s). 

 Ethics Committee

(a) A committee will oversee all test use with the company, acting as a referral body where questions arise. It will be headed by Janette Stoppard (Company Director)

(b) The committee will have access to advice from OPP Limited our main UK test suppliers and will meet bi-annually to review test use in the company and report directly to Paul Stoppard (Managing Consultant).