Thought Leadership Articles
Kenexa HR Thought Leadership™ articles are experience-driven pieces that discuss best practices in the Human Capital Management (HCM) space. These articles are written by skilled HR practitioners or technologists who initiate or provide new thinking on a specific component of HR. Kenexa HR Thought Leadership articles discuss strategies on new or existing HR topics and educate readers about future possibilities and considerations on those topics. The overall purpose of these thought leadership articles is to engage readers through original, innovative ideas that are supported by the knowledge and experience of the author.
Biodata: A Tried and True Means of Predicting Success
By Jeff Weekley, Ph.D., Kenexa
The use of biodata, information about one’s life experiences, as a means of predicting future performance in corporate settings has been prevalent for over a hundred years. Using knowledge of someone’s past behavior to predict their likely future behavior certainly predates that by a large margin. Indeed, the adage that “behavior predicts behavior” is one of the oldest and most strongly supported principles in the behavioral sciences. For better or worse, we are all likely to repeat our past behaviors. This is why insurance companies charge higher premiums to drivers with a history of accidents and traffic violations—they are more likely to have an accident in the future than someone with a spotless driving record.
The use of biodata in organizational settings got its start in the early 1900s in the insurance industry. It later saw widespread use during World War II as a means of predicting training success (purportedly the item “Have you ever built and flown a model airplane?” was one of the best predictors of success among pilot trainees). The use of biodata in corporate settings has expanded greatly since then as behavioral scientists have learned more about its uses, benefits and limitations.