Chapter 6 - Selecting Employees Who Fit

Personnel Selection

This process through which organizations make decisions about who will or will not be allowed to join the organization

• Selection begins with the candidates identified through recruitment.
  It attempts to reduce their number to the individuals best qualified to perform available jobs

• It ends with the selected individuals placed in jobs with the organization

Steps in the Selection Process

1. Screening Applications and Resumes

2. Testing and Reviewing Work Samples

3. Interviewing candidates

4. Checking References and Background

5. Making a Selection

Aligning Talent and HR Strategy

Short-Term Generalists

Provide a variety of different inputs but do not have areas of special skill or ability

This is most often associated with the Bargain Laborer HR Strategy

• Most positions are filled by hiring people away from other organizations

• The objective is to identify and hire employees to produce low-cost goods and services

• To selection people who can perform simple tasks that require little specialized skill

Benefits of Short-term Generalist Strategy

• People without specialized skills do not generally demand high compensation, which keeps payroll costs as low as possible

• Because Short Term Generalist lack Specific expertise, they are also usually more willing to work in routine jobs and do whatever they are asked

• The number of fixed employees working for the organization can be flexed up or down as demand for goods and services increases or decreases.

• Work Procedures are simple, and employees who demand higher wages are simply replaced by new workers

Long-Term Generalists

• Individuals who have developed skills and knowledge concerning how things are done in a specific organization

• Long-term generalists are beneficial for organizations using the Loyal Soldier HR strategy

• HR strategy is focused on keeping employees once they are hired

Benefits of Long-Term Generalist Strategy

• Lack of specific expertise allows firms to reduce payroll costs

• Employees have developed skills and abilities that are only valuable to the specific organizations, which reduces the likelihood that they will move to another employer

• Reduction in the recruitment, selection, and training expenses

• Because they stay long, they tend to develop relationships and form a strong sense of commitment to the organization

Long-Term Specialist

• These are people who have an expertise in a particular area, such as pharmaceutical sales representative and research scientists

• The use of long-term specialists fits the committed Expert Hr strategy

• Selection is to identify people who can assist the company in innovating and produce superior goods and services over time

• People are hired who can develop specialized skills over time and create a resource of talent

Benefits of long-term specialists

• it enables organizations to create and keep a unique resource of talent that other organizations do not have

• Employees are given the time and assets to develop the skills they need to be the best at what they do and add value back to the organization

Short-term Specialists

• Are employees who provide specific inputs for relatively short-periods of time

• Associated with the Free Agent HR strategy

• Staffing is aimed at hiring people who have already developed skills that they can bring to the organization to produce innovative goods and top-quality service

Benefits of Short-term specialists

• Employees provide services for relatively short periods

• Allows the organization to quickly acquire needed expertise, without waiting for hire to acquire the skills

• The organization pays premium dollars for this knowledge and skills but makes no long-term commitments and both parties can end the employment relationship at any time

Making Strategic Selection Decision

Focus is on two factors

• Job-Based Fit

  • Seeks to match an individual’s abilities and interests with the demands of.a specific jobs

• Organization-based fit

  • Is concerned with how well the individual’s characteristics match the broader culture, values, and norms of the firm.

Criteria for Measuring the Effectiveness of Selection Tools and Methods

Reliability

Validity

Utility

Legality/Fairness

Acceptability

Reliability

The extent to which a measurement is free from random error

• a reliable measurement generates consistent results

Organizations use statistical tests to compare results over time

• correlation coefficients

• A higher correlation coefficient signifies a greater degree of reliability

Validity

The extent to which the performance on a measure (such as a test score) is related to what the measure is designed to assess (such as job performance)

Three ways of measuring validity

1. Criterion-related

2. Content

3. Construct

   1. Consistency between a high score on a test and a high level of a construct as well as between mastery of this construct and successful performance of the job

Criterion - Related

A measure of validity based on showing a substantial correlation between test scores and job performance scores

Two kinds of research are possible for arriving at criterion-related validity

1. Predictive Validation

2. Concurrent Validation

Predictive Validation

Research that uses the test scores of all applicants and looks for a relationship between the scores and future performance of the applicants who were hired

Concurrent Validation

Research that consist of administering a test to people who currently hold a job, and then comparing their scores to existing measures of job performance

Content Validity

Consistency between the test items or problems and the kinds of situations or problems that occur on the job

Utility

Selection methods should cost significantly less than the benefits of hiring new employees

Legality

All selection methods must conform to existing laws and legal precedents

Acceptability

How does the applicant view the selection process and consequently the organization

Three most common Selection methods

1. Gathering

   1. Application forms and resumes, biographical data, and reference checking

2. Testing

3. Interviewing

Application Forms

• Used to make initial cuts among applicants

• Applications are often used to verify resumes and set specific on employment history

• Approx. 1/3 of applications have some form of misrepresentation

• A low cost way to gather basic data from many applicants

Resume

• Most valid when the content of the resume is evaluated in terms of the elements of a job description

• Technology helps manage resumes

Letters of Reference

Issues?

• Applicant selects referents → positive bias?

• Too Vague?

  • “List strengths and Weaknesses”

• Fear of Lawsuit?

Giving References on Former Employees

Risk: May be held liable for defamation, invasion of privacy, or retaliation for statements made about former employees.

Risk of Negligent Hiring

It occurs when an organization hires someone who harms another person and the organization could reasonably have determined that the employee was unfit

Four testing (Aptitude vs Achievement)

Cognitive ability

Physical Ability

Performance tests and work samples

Personality and Integrity

Aptitude test

Asses how well a person can learn or acquire skills and abilities

Achievement tests

Measures a person’s existing knowledge and skills

Cognitive Ability Testing

Ability to Learn, Problem-solving, Language Skills, Math skills, General Knowledge

Personality Testing

Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, Neuroticism

Situational Judgment Test

Ask the job applicant what they would do or should do in a hypothetical situation

Physical Ability Testing

Asses muscular strength, cardiovascular endurance, and coordination

Integrity Testing

Asses the likelihood that applicants will be dishonest or engage in illegal activity

Work sample Testing

Measures of actual or simulated on-the-job performance

• What can it measure?

  • Most job-related KSAOs

  • Assessment Center

    • High validity - expensive to develop

    • Low EEO problems

• Guidelines for use

  • Assess cost-to-benefit value of test

  • Often use after less expensive screening

  • Not useful if Provide lots of training in job

Interview

• Most Commonly used selection tool, but can have low reliability and validity

  • Structure vs unstructured

  • Behavioral or situational

  • Panel or series

Advantages and Disadvantages of Interviewing

Advantages

• Can provide evidence of communication and interpersonal skills

• Most valid when they focus on job knowledge and skills

Disadvantages

• Can be unreliable

• Low of validity

• Costly

• Subjective / Biased

Types of Interviews

Structured Interviews

Unstructured Interviews

Structured Interviews

Uses a list of predetermined questions

• all applicants are asked the same set of questions

Situational Interview

The interviewer asks questions about what the applicant would do in a hypothetical situation

Behavioral (Description) Interview

The Interviewer asks the candidate to describe how he or she handled a type of situation in the past

Unstructured Interviews

Open-ended questions are used such as “Tell me about yourself”

• this allows the interviewer to probe and pose different sets of questions to different applicants

How to interview Effectively

1. Be prepared

2. Assign responsibilities

3. Put the applicant at ease

4. Ask about past behaviors

5. Figure out what your employees do, and ask questions that look for similar behaviors

6. At the end of the interview, make sure the candidate knows what to expect next

Background Checks

• Prospective employers want them, but former employers are hesitant to give

• Defamation suits are filed when poor references aren’t based on documented evidence

Predictor Weighting

Combines. a set of selection scores into an overall score in which some measures count more than others

Minimum Cutoff Approach

The applicant’s strength in one area to compensate for weakness in another area

Multiple-Hurdle Model

Applicants must meet the minimum requirements of one selection metho before they can proceed to the next

Banding Approach

Uses Statistical analysis to identify scores that may not be meaningfully different

Selection Decision Model

Communicating the Decision

When a candidate has been selected, the organization should communicate the offer to the candidate

• Job responsibilities

• Work Schedule

• Rate of Pay

• Starting Date

• Other relevant details