Talent Acquisition Exam 2

Sourcing

Identifying and locating high-potential recruits.  For external and internal job candidates. 

Involves analyzing different sources of recruits to identify those best for meeting staffing goals.

Types of Job Seekers

Active Job Seekers

Semi-Passive Job Seekers 

Passive Job Seekers 

Active Job Seeker

People who need a job and are actively job searching. 

Semi-Passive Job Seeker

People who are interested in a new position, but only occasionally job-search.

Passive Job Seekers

currently employed and are not actively seeking another job, but could be tempted by the right opportunity.

Many high-quality candidates are usually in this group, but difficult to find them and steal them away.

Internal Recruiting Sources

People who currently work for the company who would be good recruits for other positions.

External Recruiting Sources

People outside the firm. (Referrals, career fairs, resume databases, online job boards)

Boolean Searches

An internet search technique that allows a search to be narrowed by using special terms before keywords.

Example: (Or, And, Not)

Creating a Sourcing Plan

1: Profiling desirable employees to identify promising sources.

Creating a Sourcing Plan Step 1:

1.Profile desirable employees to identify promising sources.

Find out what desirable talent and successful current employees in targeted jobs like to do and how to reach them, if you were to try to recruit them now.

Surveys or focus groups

Creating a Sourcing Plan Step 2:

Perform ongoing recruitment source effectiveness by tracking metrics.  You want to use as many metrics as possible.  

Yield Ratio Metric 

Equals the percent of people who successfully move from one stage of recruitment to the next.

Organizational Image

A general impression of a company based on both feelings and facts.

Employer Image

Attitudes toward and perceptions of the organization as an employer.

Two Kinds of Correlations

1. Predictors (things that happen before the hiring/job).

2. Outcomes/Criterion (things that happen during or after the hire/job).

Reliability

How dependable or consistent a measure is in assessing a particular characteristic. A measurement error influences reliability and can be either random or systematic.

Test-retest reliability 

Repeatability of scores over time. 

Inter-rater reliability

Consistency of score across raters using the same item, scale, or instrument.

Validity

The degree to which your test measures what it’s supposed to measure. The degree to which a selection test predicts actual job performance, and the extent to which we can make specific predictions based on selection test scores.

Content-related Validation 

Demonstrating that the content of a measure asseses important job-related behaviors. assesses

Criterion-related validation

Demonstrating that there is statistical relationship between scores from a measure and the criterion, usually some aspects of job success.

Sourcing Philosophy

“Know your audience” philosophy with a mentality to target specific pools of people.

Creating a Sourcing Plan: Step 3

3.Prioritize recruiting sources based on staffing goals, employee profiles, and the results of the recruiting source effectiveness analysis. Referring to the table below:

oIf quality is the most important goal, college hiring would be the preferred source.

oIf hiring speed is more important than quality, employee referrals can be given priority since it still results in good hires.

Recruiting

•Persuading the leads generated during sourcing to become job applicants, generating interest in a company and its jobs, and persuading candidates to accept extended job offers.

§Involves selling the job and the company!

§Can be done by full-time recruiters, hiring managers, or employees.

Who should Recruit? 

Internal recruiters, External recruiters, Employees, Hiring managers, The recruiter should be able to relate to a targeted recruit and persuade him or her to apply and/or accept a job offer

Signaling

§When people have limited information about a company or job, they rely on the recruiter to provide signals about the company and the job.

§E.g., A CEO involved in recruiting may signal a job’s importance.

Organizational Image

•a general impression of a company based on both feelings and facts.

company’s image =        attractiveness of company as    a place to work!

Employer Image

attitudes toward and perceptions of the organization as an employer.

Brand

A symbolic picture of all the information connected to a company or its products including its image.

Nature of the Recruiting Message

§Different types of recruiting materials attract different job seekers and entice them to apply.

Message content should appeal to the goals and values of the targeted recruits.

§E.g., Verizon Wireless “technology” push for college grads

Non-compensatory screening factors should be communicated to facilitate self-selection.

§The job’s location, the type of job, pay, etc.

Distributive fairness:

perceived fairness of the outcome.

Procedural fairness

•: beliefs that the policies and procedures that resulted in the hiring or promotion decision were fair.

§Respect applicants’ privacy, avoid delays, use job-related assessments, give fair opportunity to perform.

Interactional fairness

•: fairness of the interpersonal treatment and amount of information received during the hiring process.

§Honesty, respect, recruiter warmth, and effectiveness of information.

Recruiting guides

§Formal document detailing the recruiting process to follow for an open position (both internal and external positions).

§Addresses both recruiting processes.

§Clarifies policies and procedures for sticking to a budget and timeline.

§Details which employees do specific recruiting activities, legal issues, and the steps taken in recruiting for a position.

Standardizes hiring

Desirable Recruiter Characteristics

§Familiarity with the job and organization

§Listening, communication, and social skills

§Intelligence and self-confidence

§Extroversion

§Enthusiasm about the job and company

§Trustworthiness

§Credibility

How do we know if a recruiter is effective?

§Time-to-hire

§New hire performance appraisals & reviews

§New hire failure rate

§Turnover rates of new hires

§Manager satisfaction

§New hire satisfaction with the job and company

§New hire time to full productivity

§Training success

§Other indicators: onboarding time, customer satisfaction with new hires, new hire surveys, etc. 

Affirmative action

–Companies who are federally funded by some amount, have been ordered to implement an affirmative action plan (AAP) by the court, or who voluntarily develop an AAP to right a past wrong.

§Step 1: Utilization analysis (“Workforce Utilization Review”)

Determine if there are any neglected or underutilized pools of talent

§Step 2: Develop goals & timetables

Goals reflect availability of employees in local labor pool.

§Step 3: Implement new recruiting & selection practices

Use nontraditional sources and better, valid selection tools

§Step 4: Monitor progress

–Every year or so, track the applicant pool and hiring rates.

Measurement

•quantifying aspects of people, jobs, job success, or aspects of the staffing system.

•Quantifying things improves the staffing system by identifying patterns.

Predictive data

§measures used to make projections about outcomes.

§E.g., previous job experience, personality

Criterion data

§important outcomes of the staffing process.

oEmployee job performance or job success is the most common kind of criteria data collected. 

oCan also include time-to-hire, promotion rates, tenure rates, fit with company values, etc.

A correlation coefficient

•shows the direction (positive or negative) and magnitude (strength) of the relationship between two variables.

•Relationship between:

§The time to fill a job and new-hire quality

§Applicant reactions to selection tests and organizational image

§Quality of new hires and customer satisfaction

Positive Correlation 

•Direction of relationship: As one decreases (or increases), so does the other.

•Strength: 0 to +1

Negative Correlation

•Direction of relationship: As one decreases, the other increases (and vice versa).

•Strength: 0 to -1

Zero correlation

•Direction =  no relationship

•As one increases, nothing happens with the other.

•Strength = weak (e.g., -.08 or .04) or none (.00)

Correlation or Causation

•A correlation between 2 variables does not prove that one causes the other!

Statistical significance

likelihood that a correlation exists in a population, based on the correlation we see in our sample.

Our sample is much smaller than the population (e.g., working adults in the U.S.), so we hope we’ve captured a representative sample from which to make predictions.

Test-retest reliability

•repeatability of scores over time. 

Inter-rater reliability

consistency of scores across raters using the same item, scale, or instrument.

Deficiency error

§error that occurs when you fail to measure important aspects of the attribute you would like to measure.

Contamination error

error that occurs when other factors unrelated to whatever is being assessed affect the observed scores. 

Validity

Degree to which your test can make specific conclusions or predictions based on observed scores. 

Content-related validation

Demonstrating that the content of a measure assesses important job-related behaviors.

Criterion-related validation

•Demonstrating that there is a statistical relationship between scores from a measure and the criterion, usually some aspect of job success.

•Content validity

•Extent to which the content on a test is representative of job content.

A validity coefficient

§is a correlation between a predictor (such as a selection test score) and the criterion (such as a measure of actual job success).

§Validity coefficients rarely exceed .40 in staffing contexts.

Face validity

subjective assessment of how well items seem to relate to the job requirements.

Behavioral interviews:

using information about what the applicant has done in the past (used to predict future behaviors

Situational interviews:

asking people how they might react to hypothetical situations.

Job knowledge

§asking questions related to job content (e.g., “What is your experience with [insert computer language]?” for a software engineer position)

Worker requirement

typically getting at minimum requirements and absolute requirements (e.g., certain hours, being able to lift 20 lbs)

Biodata

§Information about applicants’ life and work experiences; can also include values and attitudes.

§E.g., “how many jobs have you held in the past 5 years?” ß getting at stable work ethic, using the idea that past behavior predicts future ones.

Reducing Adverse Impact

§Use targeted recruitment to attract more qualified minority applicants.

§Test for areas of contextual performance such as commitment and reliability in addition to task performance.

§Combine predictors to reduce adverse impact.

§Use simulations (or other good predictors) rather than cognitive ability tests if possible.