1. Fit for duty: towards optimal testing in the safety domain
- Author
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Koedijk, Matthijs, Oudejans, Raôul, Hutter, Vana, Renden, Peter Gerrit, IBBA, AMS - Sports, and Motor learning & Performance
- Subjects
police officers ,professional skills ,testgetrouwheid ,gevangenbewaarders ,veiligheidspersoneel ,testen ,psychological assessment ,public safety personnel ,lichamelijke fitheid ,beroepsvaardigheden ,testing ,representatieve testopzet ,correctional officers ,representative test design ,physical fitness ,veiligheidspersoneel, politieambtenaren, gevangenbewaarders, testgetrouwheid, representatieve testopzet, testen, lichamelijke fitheid, psychologische evaluatie, beroepsvaardigheden ,test fidelity ,reality-based scenarios ,politieambtenaren ,psychologische evaluatie ,public safety personnel, police officers, correctional officers, test fidelity, representative test design, testing, physical fitness, psychological assessment, reality-based scenarios, professional skills - Abstract
This thesis aims to gain more insight into how public safety organizations can increase the predictive value of their test practices for operational performance. It addresses the challenge for public safety organizations to develop test contexts that are representative for duty. The thesis also addresses a second challenge for public safety organizations, namely that they must be able to interpret complex and dynamic behaviour in order to arrive at assessment conclusions. The two challenges of representativeness and interpretation of complex behaviour are not separate but go hand in hand. Representative contexts usually consist of complex and dynamic situations in which a variety of skills, such as decision-making and situational awareness, are crucial to the result. This thesis therefore aims to answer two questions: • How can public safety organizations develop test contexts representative for duty? • How can public safety organizations score and interpret complex and dynamic behaviour in such representative contexts? The first study of this thesis (Chapter 2) investigated whether a fitness test (ProfFit) physically challenges police officers to become optimally fit rather than "just" fit enough for duty. The results showed that the ProfFit measures an all-round range of fitness characteristics of recruits and is perceived as more demanding than the standard job-specific fitness test. This finding can be a starting point for further discussion about, and research into, the development of testing practices aimed at optimising performance beyond minimum standards for duty. In Chapter 3, a representative test context was developed to investigate the ability of correctional officers to apply self-defence skills from their training in practical situations. By stressing representativeness in the test environment, it could be revealed that the training did not sufficiently prepare the correctional officers to adequately solve practical situations. Chapter 4 investigated the effects of wearing a uniform during the Physical Competence Test (PCT) of the Dutch National Police compared to wearing sportswear (as currently done during the test). It was found that the police officers were slower in police uniform than in sportswear and also experienced the test as more physically demanding. Wearing a police uniform during the test therefore seems an essential way to increase the representativeness (for duty) of the PCT. Taken together, Chapters 3 and 4 show the importance of representativeness in test situations and provide insight into factors that influence employees' test performance. Understanding these factors and how to incorporate them into testing practice can help safety organizations increase the predictive value of their testing practice for performance on duty. Chapters 3 and 5 provide insight into how safety organizations can score and interpret complex and dynamic behaviour in a representative test context. An important first step in this direction is to have scoring methods that allow the evaluation of a multitude of complex and dynamic skills for duty, rather than evaluating a single, isolated skill. Chapter 3 describes a scoring method in which performance characteristics (e.g., environmental awareness, positioning, communication) are defined to help assessors evaluate performance in representative contexts. Chapter 5 proposes methodological steps on how safety organizations can (usefully) derive performance from a rich and detailed account of observed behaviour. The scoring methods in Chapters 3 and 5 contribute to the knowledge and practice of methods that enable the evaluation of whether employees are capable of solving complex situations using a multitude of (nested) skills. Together, the chapters highlight a variety of testing practices in the safety domain and help to increase the predictive value of testing for complex and dynamic work situations. In this way, this thesis contributes to the testing of professional fitness and skills in the safety domain.
- Published
- 2022