personnel selection Flashcards
How can we chose the right person for the job (ie based on what)
- Based on: understanding of the task understanding of the user understanding of the environment predictors (preemployment tests)
What is the human rights legislation in Canada
- prevents intential and unintentional discrimination in policies pertaining to employees
- supercedes any employment contract or collective agreement
how does the human rights legislation define discrimination
- the use of any selection procedure that has an adverse impact on the hiring or promotion of a defined minority group
list some groups that are protected under the human rights legislation
- Race, sex, religion, color, age, ancestry, marital status, sexual orientation, criminal convictions, disabilities
Define what is meant by intentional discrimination
- refusal to train, hire or promote an individual based on any of the prohibitory grounds
- can be overt, includes differential treatment
Give an example of unintentional discrimination
- height requirements
What are 4 questions one might ask to determine if there is discrimination
1) is there a policy that discriminates directly/indirectly on a prohibitory ground
2) is he skill/trait reasonably necessary to accomplish the work
3) is there honest and good faith belief that it is a BFOR
4) is accommodation possible without undue hardship
What does BFOR stand for; define BFOR
- bona fide occupational requirement
- core and essential function of the job
what are the 4 criteria of a BFOR
- must be imposed in good faith and honestly
- is in the interest of safety and economy
- does not defeat the purpose of the human rights code
- related to the performance of he job without endangering the employees/general public
How can we identify a BFOR
- physical task analysis
- cognitive task analysis
- job demands analysis
- worker related analysis
What is the purpose of the human rights tribunal
- to determine whether an action in the workplace was discriminatory
Discuss the Grismer case and its results
- worker had no left side peripheral vision in both eyes
- passed all drivers tests except peripheral vision test
- was therefore let go
- supreme court then determines that 120 degree vision was not reasonably necessary
Discuss the tawney meiorin case and its results
- female forest fire fighter who was let go after she couldn’t meet the criteria for a newly introduced aerobic test
- Supreme court then appealed because the values were based off male scores
what are examples of BFORs
- working in a catholic school and practicing the religion
- prison guards = same sex as inmates
if a workplace rule/procedure puts an employee at a disadvantage on account of a prohibited ground the employer must:
1) make every reasonable effort short of undue hardship to remedy that disadvantage
2) proactively identify and change any rules/practices/procedures that have or may have a discriminatory impact
what qualifies as undue hardship
- financial cost, impact on collective agreement, problems with employee morale, interchangeability of the workforce/facility, size of employers operations, safety
What are 3 responsibilities of the employer
1) to create up to date job descriptions that detail the duties of all positions in the workplace
2) review employees current job and ask: what duties are essential, what can the employee do, what modifications can be made…
3) if an employee cannot perform an essential duty even with accommodation identify other job possibilities in the work place and ask the same questions again
what are the steps involved in personnel decisions
- job/organization analysis
- Criteria/measures and predictors/measures
- validity
- design of recruitment strategy
- selection systems
- assessing utility of selection systems
what qualifies as a criteria
- KSAOs
what is a predictor
- a variable used to forecast performance criterion
differentiate construct, criterion-related, content and face validity
- construct: degree to which a test represents the actual construct
- criterion-related: degree to which the test measures performance
- content: is the content of the test related to the job performance
- face: how vaild does the test seem to the taker
how can we assess construct validity
- SMEs
how can we assess criterion related validity
- prospective analysis
how can we assess content validity
- comprehensive task analysis, subjective evaluation by incumbents,
what results in high vs low validity of cutoff scores for selection tests
- high: Utilizing incumbents to determine cutoff scores
- low: using normative data to get cutoff scores
what is the reliability of the general (G) intelligence test as a predictor of successful information processing and verbal skill performance
- r = 0.51
what is the Flynn effect of G-scores
- age bias; g increases through the lifespan, 15 point/generation
what are skills relating to emotional and social knowledge
- knowing emotions, handling emotions, recognizing emotions and handling relationships
Are emotional intelligence tests good predictors of performance; why do we use it
- no; have high face validity but low reliability and actual validity
- use it because it shows values in prescreening methods
what is the validity of sensory/motor ability test
- 0.2-0.25
what makes up the big five theory of personality
- OCEAN
- openness to experience
- conscientiousness
- extraversion
- agreeable
- neuroticism
Are personality tests good for prescreening
- strong face validity
- issues with truthfulness; do people answer truthfully or how they think they’re expected to answer
- r = 0.20
- more predictive for motivational aspects
What is the Meyers Briggs test
- personality inventory that will assign letter scores for different categories based on how people use their perception and judgment
- no scientific evidence to back this
What is overt vs covert integrity
- overt: attitudes towards something, admissions of doing something
- covert: Traits which will predict future behavior (ex conscientiousness/emotional stability)
What are issues associated with integrity testing
- people will tell you what you want to hear
what is a skill
- “practiced acts”
- dependent on abilities and personalities
- developed through practice
what is “knowledge”
- collection of discrete but related facts about a particular domain
- acquired through formal education and training/experience
what can’t you use physical abilities tests for
- to test for people “prone” to injuries
when can you do a physical abilities test
- if its a BFOR
what does the validity of a physical demands test depend on
- fidelity
- ie. how close does the test actually match what they’ll do on the job
what are issues associated with physical abilities tests
- gender and age
what are characteristics of good cutoff scores
- reasonable and consistent with normal expectations of the workforce
- sensitive and specific
- minimize adverse effects
- sufficiently high to ensure minimally accepted job performance
what are measurements of strength, aerobic capacity environmental tolerance and movement quality
- strength: static, dynamic endurance and whole body strength, grip dynamometers
- aerobic: HR, VO2
- ET: surface/core temp, sweating rates
- MQ: flexibility, sit and reach, balance, neuromuscular coordination
what are some ethical considerations that need to be made when carrying out physical ability tests
- equal treatment for all, same scoring process, reconsider failure, consider prior experience
what are the 8 steps involved with establishing a pre-employment physical abilities test
- job analysis
- establish physically demanding BFORs & assess them in detail
- characterize these tasks through a PDA
- identify, approve and validate the criterion task
- develop a physiological screening test and procedure
- standardize it
- evaluate the validity/reliability of tests and procedures
- develop, approve and validate performance standards/cutoffs
what is the validity of structured vs unstructured interviews
- structured: r = 0.4
- unstructured: r = 0.04
describe the human equity program and who it applies to
- laws which go beyond human rights for specific groups meaning that if a woman, aboriginal oerson, person with a disability or a visible minority has equal qualifications as another candidate, they will be given preference for the job
- this is in order to remedy past discriminations
what is the consensus on pre-employment drug screening
- it is discriminatory because it doesn’t relate to use on the job
- however disclosure of drug use is mandatory for safety sensitive positions
can you randomly test for drugs while on the job
- no it is illegal because it does not determine current impairment
- only legal for safety sensitive positions
can you test for drugs post incident
- yes if you have a reasonable cause
- must accommodate for those with a drug dependency
what is the consensus on pre-employment alcohol screening
- it is discriminatory because it doesn’t relate to use on the job necessarily
can you randomly test for alcohol on the job
- no it is illegal unless its a safety sensitive position (determines current state) OR somone was previously dependent on it
can you test for alcohol post incident
- yes if you have a reasonable cause
- must accommodate someone with an alcohol dependency
what is a utility analysis
-determin eif a selection test is needed; considers costs of not being able to perform tasks, probability of not being able to perform the task and the cost of testing
- incremental gai in efficiency due to good hiring practices
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