Kelley Krokos of the American Institutes for Research in Washington and Lycia Carter of Aon Consulting say testing a candidate's cognitive ability to learn all aspects of the job and a test to measure personality fit for a job will help find those who will perform to high expectations at places like a nuclear facility or trauma center.

"Not everyone is well-suited to work in a high-risk job," Krokos says in a statement. She defines a high-risk occupation as any job for which the possibility of error is significant and "for which the consequence of error is likely to result in harm, physical injury or death to not only the individual performing the job but for others as well."

"Selection doesn't occur in a vacuum," Carter says in a statement. "If there is a performance problem you have to look at all the potential causes, not just the selection process. There are training and performance management considerations as well."

The findings are scheduled to be presented at the annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology April 10-12 in San Francisco.