Staffing, Measurement, and Internal Assessment Flashcards

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering recruitment, sourcing methods, measurement statistics, selection techniques, validity, and internal talent management concepts.

Sourcing

The staffing function focused on identifying candidates and building a list of potential talent before persuasion occurs.

Recruiting

The staffing function dedicated to persuading an already-identified candidate to want the job, apply, and accept an offer.

Succession Management

The practice of identifying and preparing a successor before an opening arises, which is most critical for suddenly vacated or key leadership roles.

Job Slotting

An informal internal placement method where a manager assigns an open role to a chosen insider without an open competition, creating risks of like-me bias and decreased coworker engagement.

Employee Referrals

An external sourcing channel associated with higher candidate performance, stronger culture fit, and lower turnover, but with risks of demographic homogeneity and cliques.

Contingent Search Contract

An executive search agency contract in which payment to the search firm is rendered only if a candidate is successfully hired.

Retainer Search Contract

An executive search agreement where the agency is paid for conducting the search regardless of whether a candidate is hired.

Trade Fair

An industry-wide event showcasing new technology where organizations send their best talent, making it an effective channel to network with high-performing passive candidates.

Selection Ratio

A staffing metric calculated as the total number of hired individuals divided by the total number of applicants.

Coworker Reports

The primary evaluation source used to measure how well an incoming employee fits an organization's culture.

Employer Value Proposition (EVP)

The comprehensive package of benefits, culture, technology, compensation, and prestige an organization uses to explain why prospective employees should join.

Attraction-Selection-Attrition (ASA) Model

A framework stating that candidates are attracted to and select organizations matching their preferences, but will quit if the actual workplace reality does not fit expectations.

Recruiter Signals

The inferences job candidates draw about an organization based on recruiter behavior, specifically competency, interest, and trust.

Distributive Fairness

A facet of organizational justice centered on whether the final outcome of an employment or promotion decision is seen as fair.

Interactional Fairness

A facet of organizational justice shaped by the interpersonal quality of the process, specifically being treated with timeliness, kindness, and transparency.

Procedural Fairness

A facet of organizational justice concerned with whether the formal policies, rules, and procedures used to reach a decision are fair.

Face Validity

The extent to which an assessment tool subjectively appears relevant to the job, which directly affects candidate perceptions of procedural fairness.

Ordinal Measurement

A level of measurement where values signify rank order only, without conveying equal or meaningful intervals between ranks.

Median

The middle value in an ordered data distribution, serving as the most representative measure of central tendency when extreme outliers exist.

Standard Deviation

A statistical metric that quantifies the degree of dispersion in a set of scores, where wider spread produces a higher value.

Incremental Validity

The degree to which an additional assessment method increases predictive accuracy for an outcome beyond existing measures, evaluated via multiple regression by examining the change in $R^2$.

Predictive Validity

A criterion-related validation design where applicants complete an assessment, are hired without using the test scores, and are later evaluated on performance to prevent range restriction.

Data Distortion

A graphical representation error where visual features, such as bar lengths or heights, do not scale proportionately to the actual numbers represented.

Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)

A personality assessment framework noted as invalid and unsuitable for employee selection under any hiring circumstances.

Integrity Test

A selection instrument evaluating honesty and trustworthiness that provides the highest incremental prediction ($\Delta R^2 \approx 0.14$) of counterproductive work behavior beyond cognitive ability.

Job Knowledge Test

An assessment that directly measures technical expertise and trade-specific facts required for a job, independent of general cognitive ability, typically demonstrating low adverse impact.

Structured Interview

An interview procedure using predetermined questions, standardized scoring rubrics, and fixed follow-up inquiries to yield stronger predictive validity than unstructured formats.

Multiple Hurdle Approach

A non-compensatory selection strategy where candidates must achieve minimum passing scores on each sequential assessment, with failure on any test resulting in elimination.

Compensatory (Regression) Approach

A selection model using a weighted linear combination ($y = mx + b$) where an exceptional score on one assessment can offset a deficient score on another.

Banding

A scoring practice that groups a range of test scores into an equivalent score tier to minimize adverse impact while preserving selection validity.

Complementary Fit

A staffing approach where a candidate is selected because they bring a missing skill, characteristic, or attribute that the current work group lacks.

Supplementary Fit

A staffing approach focused on hiring an individual whose skills and characteristics match those already present in the team or organization.

Black-Box Machine Learning Algorithm

An opaque artificial intelligence selection system whose predictive mechanisms cannot be explained or verified as job-related, creating severe legal defense risks.

Trait-Reputation-Identity (TRI) Model

A psychological model showing that internal assessment captures candidate reputation and uncovers blind spots that cannot be detected through self-reported identity alone.

Tournament Theory

An organizational theory stating that promotion decisions depend on a candidate's relative performance compared to competing peers rather than their absolute raw score.

Backfilling

The staffing challenge and process of filling a new vacancy left behind when an internal employee is promoted or transferred into another role.

Skills Inventory

A searchable internal repository cataloging employee capabilities, software expertise, and competencies to quickly identify matches for new projects.

Multisource (360-Degree) Evaluation

A performance appraisal system gathering ratings from multiple perspectives (coworkers, subordinates, managers) to evaluate performance aspects a supervisor cannot see.

Horns Effect

A cognitive rater bias where an initial negative impression or error causes an evaluator to rate the individual poorly across all other independent criteria.

Halo Effect

A cognitive rater bias where a single positive impression or strength causes an evaluator to inflate ratings across all other unrelated performance criteria.

Nine-Box Matrix

A talent appraisal grid plotting employee performance against growth potential to gauge promotability and detect when an individual has reached their professional ceiling (Peter principle).