Liberty Munson, Ph.D. : "How Technology is Shaping the Future of Assessment: Rethinking Outside the Box" 

Advances in technology and Covid-19 are an opportunity for us to challenge the status quo of assessment, allowing us to rethink what assessment means and how it’s done. How can assessment professionals leverage the power of these advances to more effectively identify the skills and competencies needed to be successful on the job? How can they change the way we design, develop, deliver, and sustain our assessments? Can we leverage ML to reimagine the JTA process? Can we teach machines to write items? Can we leverage bots to perform low level tasks so that we have the time to play a more strategic and influential role in the organizations that are using our assessment processes? Can advances in technology allow us to assess people while they are performing the work (providing a higher fidelity assessment) rather than through the more traditional assessment process (which is often lower fidelity)? What can we do now to change the way we think about assessment now in light of Covid-19 and in the future?

Throughout the history of skills assessment, we have relied on structured multiple choice questions on tests because they are easy to score and scale, but now technology (and Covid-19) are challenging us to rethink how we approach.

Liberty Munson, Ph.D. is the Lead Psychometrician for Microsoft’s Worldwide Learning organization. She is responsible for ensuring the validity and reliability of Microsoft technical certification program. She is considered a thought leader in the certification industry, especially in areas related to how technology can fundamentally change our approach to assessment design, development, delivery, and sustainment, and has proposed many innovative ideas related to the future of certification.

Prior to Microsoft, she worked at Boeing in their Employee Selection Group, assisted with the development of their internal certification exams, and acted as a co-project manager of Boeing’s Employee Survey. She received my BS in Psychology from Iowa State University and MA and PhD in Industrial/Organizational Psychology with minors in Quantitative Psychology and Human Resource Management from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Christina Norris-Watts: "Demystifying AI-Enhanced Assessment: Real-World Strategies and Lessons Learned"

Recent years have seen significant innovation in pre-hire assessment beyond the ‘traditional’ multiple choice format: vendors now offer testing on mobile devices, automated video interviewing and scoring, game-based assessment, Virtual Reality assessments, artificial intelligence-based approaches and more. Keeping up with these new techniques can easily become its own full-time job.

These AI assessment approaches have emerged across talent management, not just in the selection space, as we look to better understand the skills of our workforce and deploy that workforce effectively. With Covid-19 continuing to affect hiring across organizations and industry, many organizations are looking to better understand their current workforce, the skills they have, and how to best make the most of those skills.

When evaluating these new assessments organizations need to look beyond traditional psychometrics, to additional criteria such as: candidate and employee reactions, technological integration with HRIS, and data privacy rules and regulations. Bias and fairness continue to be critical drivers in the evaluation of any and all assessments, and in the current social climate is likely to receive even more attention from business leaders. Evaluating these new assessment methods for J&J I became both an evangelist for, and critic of, new AI-enhanced assessments depending on their effectiveness and the businesses intended use of them. 

In this talk, I will share some materials I’ve created to explain new assessments across the organization to a variety of business audiences. I will explore the real-world criteria used to evaluate the new assessments, as well as explore practical strategies and advice for others looking to implement, or just learn more about, new AI assessment techniques. 

Dr. Christina Norris-Watts is the Head of Selection Assessment and Competencies at Johnson & Johnson. In this role she’s responsible for defining and leading the enterprise-wide selection assessment strategy as well as overseeing the strategy and guidance for J&J’s enterprise-wide leadership and functional competency models. Christina has over fifteen years of experience in talent assessment and talent management. She previously worked at Two Sigma Investments where she was Vice President, Talent Architect. In this role, she led the design and implementation of their performance management process and was also accountable for job analysis and architecture as well as various OD initiatives. Prior to Two Sigma, Christina was Senior Manager, Selection Specialist for Macquarie Group with responsibility for selection assessments, competency modeling, and organizational analytics. She began her career as a consultant with APT Metrics focusing on litigation support, job analysis, competency modeling, and test validation.

Dr. Charles Handler:  Assessment Technology and You: Finding Sanity & Direction

Understanding assessment technology can present a significant obstacle to those looking to create their own assessments or choose and implement tools provided by 3rd parties. This session will help clear the air via a guided journey through the major types of assessment technology, their ideal use cases, benefits, and pitfalls. The workshop will also teach attendees how to ask technology vendors the questions needed to find the real truth about their products.

Specific topics covered will include:

• Assessment authoring platforms- A do it yourself-er’s guide
• Solution provider platforms- how to get the most out of your vendor
• All in one hiring platforms- when do they make sense?
• Games and gamification- are they right for you?
• Simulations- digital work samples can be fun
• Assessment center platforms- what is available and how it works
• The mobile technology real estate crisis- getting mobile technologies right
• Digital interviews- How to differentiate in a crowded marketplace
• AI based assessments- should you run screaming or keep an open mind?
• Applicant tracking systems- fun and games with integration
• Finding the right match for your needs- dos and don’ts

 Dr. Charles Handler is a thought leader, analyst, and practitioner in the talent assessment and human  capital space. Throughout his career Dr. Handler has specialized in developing effective, legally defensible  employee selection systems.

Since 2001 Dr. Handler has served as the president and founder of Rocket-Hire, a vendor neutral consultancy dedicated to creating and driving innovation in talent assessment. Dr. Handler has helped companies such as Intuit, Wells Fargo, KPMG, Scotia Bank, Hilton Worldwide, and Humana to design, implement, and measure impactful employee selection processes.

Through his prolific writing for media outlets such as ERE.net, his work as a pre-hire assessment analyst for Bersin by Deloitte, and worldwide public speaking, Dr. Handler is a highly visible futurist and evangelist for the talent assessment space. Throughout his career, Dr. Handler has been on the forefront of innovation in the talent assessment space, applying his sound foundation in psychometrics to helping drive innovation in assessments through the use of gaming, social media, big data, and other advanced technologies.

Dr. Handler holds a M.S. and Ph.D. in Industrial/Organizational Psychology from Louisiana State University.

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/drcharleshandler