HARM Pre Employment Screening

The Holden Applicant Reliability Measure was developed by Dr. Ronald Holden at Queen’s University in Canada and has been further researched by Dr. Angela Book at Brock University. This is a dynamic psychometric instrument and provides valuable insights into employment candidates to ensure the right decisions are made about suitability, reduction of insider attacks, as well as a cost-saving in terms of recruitment and training.

Assess On-The-Job Behaviour

The HARM is a 100-item true/false self-report measure that assesses on-the-job behaviour. In addition to a total scale score, it has eight subscales that can also provide summaries on factors of employment misdemeanours and workplace anti-sociality.

• Alcohol Use
• Interpersonal Conflict
• Unauthorized Absenteeism
• Missing Deadlines
• Drug Use
• Unauthorized Resource Usage
• Dishonesty
• Arrival Tardiness

Validity

The HARM instrument demonstrates both face and construct validity. HARM has been shown to have construct validity as it is related to various measures of antisocial behaviour and traits, including Primary and Secondary Psychopathy (Levenson Self Report Psychopathy Scale; Levenson et al., 1995) and Social Symptomatology (Holden). The table below gives correlations between the HARM and these measures of anti-sociality. Most of the relationships are moderate in strength. The fact that all of the relationships were significant and most were moderate indicates that the HARM is effectively predicting other measures of antisocial behaviour and traits, supporting its validity.

Reliability

Internal consistencies for the HARM Scales are acceptable to excellent. Alpha coefficients are shown here and represent how well the items in the subscale fit together. Alphas can range from .00 to 1.00, with 1.00 being perfect reliability.

Credibility Assessment – Detection of Deception

Independent sample T-tests were conducted to examine group differences on the subscales, total H.A.R.M. score, and a measure of socially desirable responding (Paulhus’ Deception Scales). Scores on three of the HARM subscales (Alcohol Usage, Arrival Tardiness, and Unauthorized Resource Usage) and the Impression Management aspect of Paulhus’ Deception Scales distinguished between the individuals instructed to answer honestly, and those instructed to answer deceptively. These variables were used in a discriminant function analysis and were found to significantly predict whether an individual was answering deceptively (Chi squared (4) = 67.43, p<.001).