Chapter 6 – Employee Selection Flashcards
Selection
the process of choosing individuals who have the relevant qualifications to fill existing or projected job openings
The goal of selection: maximize “hits” and avoid “misses”
Hit are accurate predictions, and misses are inaccurate ones - the cost of one type of miss (false positive) is the direct and the indirect expense of hiring an employee who turns out to be unsuccessful
The cost of the other type of miss (false negatives) is an opportunity cost - someone who could have been successful did not get the chance
Begin with a Job Analysis
Job specifications help identify the individual attributes employees need for success - the KSAOs that lead to superior performance (knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics)
Also have a high priority on selecting individuals who match the culture of their organization
Value based hiring
organizations list their company values on their company website and then seek to hire candiantes who share those values
The Selection Process
Completion of application, initial interview with HR department, employee testing, preliminary selection in HR department, supervisor/team interview, background investigation and reference check, hiring decision
Reliability
he degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection procedures yield comparable data over time
Interrater reliability - agreement among two or more raters - ensures consistency
Without reliability it cannot be valid
Validity
the degree to which a test or selection procedure measures a persons attributes and predicts future behaviour
Initial Screening
Cover Letters and Resumes
- Evaluating resumes - subjective with low reliability, evaluators can have a difficult time setting a consistent standard across multiple candidates
Validity is also an issue because work experience from resume has low correlation with job performance
Biased based one name of applicant
Application Forms -
Quick and systematic means of obtaining a variety of information about the applicant
Weighted application blank (WAB) -
common standardized employment application that is designed to establish between sucessful and unsuccessful employees
Biodata
collects biographical information about candiatees, questioned about events and behaviours that reflect attitudes, experiences, interests, skills, and abilities
Internet Checks and Phone Screening - Video resumes -
short video clips tht highlight applicants qualifications beyond what they can communicate on their resume,
googling applicants - reduces privacy and opens the possibility of biasness/discrimination
Employment Interviews
Doubts of validity, but remains a mainstay because
It is especially practical when there are only a small number of applicants
It serves other purposes, such as public relations
Interviews maintain great faith and confidence in their judgements
The Structure of Interviews
- non directive
- structured
Nondirective interviews
an interview in which the applicant is allowed the maximum amount of freedom in determining the course of the discussion, while the interviewer carefully remains from influencing the applicants remarks
Strucutered interviews -
an interview in which a set of standardized questions with an established set of answers is used
Type of structured interviews
- situational interview
- an interview in which an applicant is given a hypothetical incident and asked how they would respond to it
Behavioural description interviews (BDI) -
an inteview in which the applicant is asked questions about what they did in a given situation - focuses on actual work incidents in an intervieww’s past
Methods for Administering Interviews
Panel and sequential interviews
panel interview in which a board of interviews questions and observes a single candidate
Sequential interview -
a format in which a candidate is interviewed by multiple people, one right after another
Video interviews
interviews are conducted via videoconfrenecing or over the web
Computer administered (automated) interview
interview in which the questions are administered to applicants via computers; the interview can be conducted at a firms facilities, using kiosks, online, or via phone
Post-Interview Screening
Reference checks
most reliable information usually comes from previous supervisors, who are in the best position to report on an applicants work performance
Background checks -
prevent embezzlement and theft of merchandise to workplace violence
Credit checks -
for positions of trust, such as those involving financial responsibility of positions such as CFO
Preemployment test
an objective and standardized measure that is used to guage a persons knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) relative to other individuals
Job knowledge tests -
CPA exam, found to be a predictive of job performance
Work Sample tests -
based on job knowledge tests, work sample tests which are developed based on an outline that includes the major job functions - tests are considered valid
Organizations that are interested in competency based selection - which is hiring based on an observation of behaviours
Cognitive ability tests -
measure mental capabilites such as general intelligence, verbal fluency, numerical ability, and reasoning ability - ex - general aptitude test
Personality and interest inventories
Measure dispositionate and temperament
The big 5 personalities - extraverison, ageeablemess, conscientiousness, emotional stability, openness to expereicne
Polygraph tests -
lie detector - measures the physiological changes in breathing, blood pressure, and the pulse of a person who is being questioned - lack of reliability
Honesty and integrity tests -
common in retail stores where employees have access to cash and merchandise - good predictor of job performance
Physical ability tests -
firefighters or other jobs that can be dangerous or physically demanding
Medical examinations
ask the candidate if they have any disaibilites, and it is the employers duty to accommodate
Assessment centers -
a process by which individuals are evaluated as they participate in a series of situations that resemble what they might encounter on the job
Determining the Validity of Tests
- Criterion-related validity -
the extent to which a selection tool predicts, or significantly correlates with, important elements of work behavior
Concurrent validity -
the extent to which test scores (or other predictor information) correlate with criterion data obtained at about the same time from current employees
Predictive validity -
the extent to which applciants test scores predict criterion data obtained from those applicants/employees after they have been on the jobs for a period of time
Cross-validation
verifying the results obainted from a validation study by administering a test or test battery to a specific sample
Content Validity
the extent to which a selection instrument, such as a test, adequately samples the knowledge and skills needed to perform particular job tasks
Construct Validity -
the extent to which a selection tool measures a theoretical construct or trait
Summarizing information about applicant
Can do - knowledge, skills, abilities, aptitude
Will do - personality, values, motivation
Decison making strategy -
Clinical approach -
review all the data of the applications, basis of their understanding of the job they makr their decision - room for personal biases
Statistical approach -
decision making is more objective - most valid predicirs and weighting them using statistical methods - quantified data
Compensatory model -
a seleciton decision model in which a high score in one area can make up for a low score in another area
Multiple cutoff model
a selection decision model that requires an applicant to achieve a minimum level of proficiency on all selection dimensions
Multiple hurdle model
- a sequential strategy in which only the applicants passing the cutoff score at an initial evaluation statege go on to the next stage
Selection ratio -
he number of applicants selected to be compared with the total number of applicants
