Human resource - uni - chapter 6

Selection

Choosing individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill existing or projected job openings

Reliability

The degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection procedures yield comparable data over time

Validity

The degree to which a test or selection procedure measures a person’s attributes and predicts future behaviour

Initial screening

includes reading cover letters, résumés, and application forms, and doing internet checks and phone/video screening.

Application Forms

Provide a fairly quick and systematic means of obtaining a variety of information about the applicant

Cover Letters and Résumés

• Reviewed first with the goal of determining who can be eliminated because they do not have the skills, abilities, education, or experience outlined in

the job advertisement

• Evaluating résumés can be a subjective process.

• Bias can also enter the process.

• Many firms are now using software to scan résumés to find qualified applications.

Internet Checks and Phone/Video Screening

• HR professionals and hiring managers will often “Google” applicants’ names and check their online social networking sites before deciding whether to

invite them for a face-to-face interview.

• The downside of conducting internet searches relates to the privacy of applicants as well as the potential for bias and discrimination.

Although researchers have raised some doubts about its validity, the interview remains a mainstay of selection because:

1. It is especially practical when there are only a small number of applicants.

2. It serves other purposes, such as public relations.

3. Interviewers maintain great faith and confidence in their judgments based on interviews.

Nondirective interview

An interview in which the applicant is allowed the maximum amount of freedom in determining the course of the discussion, while the interviewer carefully refrains from influencing the applicant’s remarks

Structured interview

An interview in which a set of standardized questions with an established set of answers is used

Situational interview

An interview in which an applicant is given a hypothetical incident and asked how they would respond to it

Behavioural description interview

An interview in which an applicant is asked questions about what they did in a given situation

Panel interview

A board of interviewers questions and observes a single candidate

Sequential interview

A candidate is interviewed by multiple people, one right after another

Remote or virtual interview

Conducted via videoconferencing or over the Web

Computer-administered (automated) interview

− Questions are administered to applicants via computers; the interview can be conducted at a firm’s facilities, using kiosks, online, or via phone

− Managers can watch the interviews at their convenience.

− A disadvantage is that interviewers cannot ask candidates follow-up probing questions based on their answers.

Guidelines for Interviewers

• Interviewers should value equity, diversity, and inclusion as well as have a thorough understanding and awareness of the legal obligations that need to be fulfilled when conducting employment interviews.

• Best practices to follow include understanding the job, establishing an interview plan, recognizing biases and stereotypes, and standardizing the questions asked.

Reference checks

− The most reliable information usually comes from previous supervisors.

− Organizations should feel free to evaluate their former employees because they cannot be sued by those former employees so long as the information provided is accurate.

Background checks

Have become standard procedure for many organizations

preemployment test

is an objective and standardized measure that is used to gauge a person’s KSAOs relative to other individuals.

Assessment centre

A process by which candidates are evaluated as they participate in a series of situations that resemble what they might encounter on the job

Three approaches to validation

1. Criterion-related validity

• The extent to which a selection tool predicts, or significantly correlates with, important elements of work behaviour

2. Content validity

3. Construct validity

Two types of criterion-related validity

1. Concurrent

2. Predictive

Concurrent

The extent to which test scores (or other predictor information) correlate with criterion data obtained at about the same time from current employees

Predictive

The extent to which applicants’ test scores predict criterion data obtained from those applicants after they have been on the job for a period of time

cross-validation

Process in which a test or battery of tests is administered to a specific sample of people for the purpose of verifying the results obtained from a larger validation study

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 candidates

− An employer is interested in what a candidate can do and will do.

− Evaluating candidates requires systematically organizing all the relevant information about them.

Decision-Making Strategy

The strategy used to select managerial and executive personnel will likely be different from the strategy used to select administrative and technical personnel.

Questions managers must consider include

− What impact will the hiring decision have on the organization meeting its employment equity plans and diversity considerations?

− How will the new hire’s job performance be 'smeasured and communicated?

Two basic approaches to selection

1. Clinical (personal judgment) – subjective

2. Statistical – objective

Compensatory model

A high score in one area can make up for a low score in another area

Multiple-cutoff model

Requires a candidate to achieve a minimum level of proficiency on all selection dimensions

Multiple-hurdle model

Sequential strategy; only the candidates passing the cutoff score at an initial evaluation stage go on to the next stage

Selection ratio

− The number of applicants to be selected compared with the total number of applicants

− A ratio of 0.10, for example, means that 10 percent of the applicants will be selected; if it is 0.90, that means that 90 percent will be selected