Selecting Applicants

1
Selecting Applicants
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Validity

• The appropriateness, meaningfulness, and
  usefulness of selection inferences
• The technical term for effectiveness
• concerns whether a measure is actually measuring
  what it claims to be measuring
• Achieving validity
• Must have a clear notion of the needed job
  qualifications.
• Must use selection methods that reliably and
  accurately measure these qualifications.

3
Determining Job Qualifications

• Some qualifications, such as technical KSAs and
  nontechnical skills, are job specific, others are
  universal.
• By basing qualifications on job analysis
  information, a company ensures that the qualities
  being assessed are important for the job.
• Job analyses are also needed for legal reasons.

4
Choosing Selection Methods

• Use selection methods that reliably and
  accurately measure the needed qualifications.
• Reliability refers to the consistency of a
  measurement.
• refers to whether a specific technique, applied
  repeatedly to the same concept, would have the
  same result each time
• When selection scores are unreliable, their
  validity is diminished.
• high reliability is a necessary condition for
  high validity, but high reliability does not
  ensure validity

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Increasing Reliability

• Establish a good rapport with candidates
• Make them feel at ease
• Ask questions that are clear
• Ask questions that are moderately difficult
• Administer several measures to assess each
  important KSA

6
Selection Techniques

• Behavior consistency model
• Specifies that the best predictor of future job
  behavior is past behavior performed under similar
  circumstances
• Implies that the most effective selection
  procedures are those that focus on the
  candidates past or present behaviors in
  situations that closely match those they will
  encounter on the job

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Implementing Behavior Consistency Model

• Thoroughly assess each applicants previous work
  experience to determine if the candidate has
  exhibited relevant behaviors in the past
• Evaluate the applicants success on each behavior
  relevant to the job
• Estimate the future likelihood of these behaviors
  by administering various types of assessments

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Assessing and Documenting Validity

• Content-oriented strategy Assesses the degree
  to which the content of a selection method
  represents (or assesses) the requirements of the
  job
• Criterion-related strategy Provide statistical
  evidence showing a relationship between applicant
  selection scores and subsequent job performance
  levels
• Validity generalization strategy Demonstrate
  that other companies have already demonstrated
  the validity of the selection instruments

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Content-Oriented Strategy

• A firm gathers evidence that it followed
  appropriate procedures in developing its
  selection program.
• Evidence would show that the selection devices
  were properly designed and were accurate measures
  of the needed worker requirements.
• The employer must demonstrate that the selection
  devices were chosen on the basis of an acceptable
  job analysis.
• The employer must demonstrate that they measured
  a representative sample of the KSAs identified.

10
Criterion-Related Strategy

• Attempts to demonstrate statistically that
  someone who does well on a selection instrument
  is more likely to be a good job performer than
  someone who does poorly
• Two pieces of information are required.
• Predictor scores represent how well the
  individual fared during the selection process.
• Criterion scores represent the job performance
  level achieved by the individual, usually based
  on supervisor evaluations.
• Validity coefficient Calculated by statistically
  correlating predictor scores with criterion scores

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Criterion-Related Validation Study

• Predictive validation study
• Information is gathered on actual job applicants.
• Criterion scores cannot be gathered until the
  applicants have been hired and on the job for
  several months.
• Concurrent validation study
• Information is gathered on current employees.
• More commonly used Can be conducted quickly
• Research indicates that the two types of studies
  seem to yield approximately the same results.

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Validity Generalization Strategy

• Established by demonstrating that a selection
  device has been consistently found to be valid in
  many other similar settings
• Organization must present the following data
• Studies summarizing a selection measures
  validity for similar jobs in other settings
• Data showing the similarity between jobs for
  which the validity evidence is reported and the
  job in the new employment setting
• Data showing the similarity between the selection
  measures in the other studies composing the
  validity evidence and those measures to be used
  in the new employment setting

13
Legal Constraints on Selection

• National Origin Discrimination Guidelines
• Pregnancy Discrimination Guidelines
• Age Discrimination Guidelines
• Religious Discrimination Guidelines
• Disability Discrimination Guidelines

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Constitutional Constraints

• Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Pertains to an individuals privacy rights
• Protects job candidates and employees from
  unreasonable intrusions by the employer (i.e.,
  the government)
• Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Provides citizens with equal protection under the
  law
• Applies to federal employees
• Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution
• Provides citizens with equal protection under the
  law
• Applies to state employees

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Tort Law Constraints

• Negligent hiring
• Refers to situations in which employers hire an
  applicant who is somehow unfit for the job, and
  because of this unfitness, commits an act that
  causes harm to another
• Defamation
• The unprivileged publication of a false oral or
  written statement that harms the reputation of
  another person.

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Selection Methods

• Application blanks
• Biodata inventories
• Background investigations
• Reference checks
• Employment interviews
• Employment tests
• Assessment centers

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Background Investigations

• Traditionally used for two purposes
• Positions of trust in occupations such as law
  enforcement, private security, and nuclear power
• Special duty of care positions in order to
  satisfy requirements imposed by negligent hiring
  law
• Employers must avoid violating the legal rights
  of applicants.
• Fair Credit Reporting Act
• Applicants must be notified if employment is
  denied because of information obtained during an
  investigation.

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Reference Checks

• Involves collecting information from applicants
  previous employers
• Provides another potentially useful means of
  assessment
• Serve two important purposes
• Verify information provided by applicants
• Provide additional information about applicants,
  which may be predictive of job performance

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Legal Guidelines for References

• Truthful and its truth can be proven
• Not conveyed with malicious intent
• Communicated only to individuals who are
  interested parties
• Job related
• The information pertains to issues about which
  the reference-seeker has a legitimate need to
  know.

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Reference Checks and Background Checks

• Roles of reference and background checks
• verify information provided by the applicant
  regarding previous employment and experience
• assess the potential success of the person for
  the new job
• Potential problems
• lawsuits directed at previous employers for
  defamation of character, fraud, and intentional
  infliction of emotional distress stop many former
  employers from providing any information other
  than dates of employment and jobs
• extremely positive letters of reference

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Employment Interviews

• Provides an opportunity for applicants to
  describe their previous work experience,
  educational history, career interests, likes and
  dislikes, etc.
• Four types of valuable information sought during
  an interview
• Technical knowledge
• Self-evaluative knowledge
• Situational information
• Behavior description information

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Assessment Centers

• Associated with work sample tests
• May last from two to five days
• The most commonly used work sample tests are
• The leaderless group discussion
• Management games
• In-basket
• Found to be quite valid when appropriately
  developed and used

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Screening for Dysfunctional Behavior

• Dysfunctional Tendencies
• Drug addiction
• Dishonesty
• Assessing applicant honesty
• Polygraph tests
• Employee Polygraph Protection Act (EPPA)
• Paper-and-pencil honesty tests
• Overt tests
• Personality-based measures