Employee Selection

Copyright @ 2016. Cengage Learning. Human Resource Management. Snell, Morris, Bohlander
Learning Outcomes
● Explain what the objectives are of the personnel selection
process, its steps, and why the information gathered during the
process must be reliable and valid

● Describe the tools used to initially screen applicants, the types

of employment interviews and methods to administer them,
and post-interview screening tools firms use
Learning Outcomes
● Compare the value of different types of employment
tests, how their validity and reliability are assessed

● Explain how firms evaluate the information they collect

on a group of candidates and the decision strategies
they use to select employees
Selection

● Process of choosing individuals who

have relevant qualifications to fill
existing or projected job openings
● Goal is to maximize hits and avoid
misses

○ Hits - Accurate predictions

○ Misses - Inaccurate predictions

The Goal of Selection: Maximize
Hits
 Job Analysis
● Job specifications help identify the
competencies employees need for success

○ Knowledge, skills, abilities, and other

factors (KSAOs)
● Applicants whose KSAOs are well matched to
the job are hired
● Firms need to be cautious about hiring too
many of the same type
 Steps in the Selection Process

01 02 03
SUBMISSIO COMPLETION INTERVIEWS 04
N OF OF
RESUME APPLICATION REFERENCE
AND
BACKGROUND
0 06 05 CHECKS
7
HIRING MEDICAL AND PRE
DECISION DRUG TEST EMPLOYMENT
TEST
 Obtaining Reliable and Valid Information

Reliability: Validity:

Degree to which interviews, tests, Degree to which a test or selection

and other selection procedures procedure measures a person’s
yield comparable data over attributes
time and alternative measures

• Interrater reliability -
Agreement among two or
more raters
 Initial Screening Methods

Internet checks
and phone Cover letters
screening and résumés

Assesses the
Internet and online
applicants based on
social networking
the skills, abilities,
sites are checked
education, and
before inviting
experience outlined
applicants for face-
in the job description
to-face interviews
Initial Screening Methods

Phone screening is used to narrow down

the field and save managers time

Video resumes: Short video clips that

highlight applicants’ qualifications beyond
what they can communicate on their
résumés
Initial Screening Methods
● Application forms
○ Provide quick and systematic means of
obtaining a variety of information about the
applicant

○ Weighted application blank (WAB) or scored

application form

■ Designed to distinguish between

successful and unsuccessful
employees
Interviews

Plays a central Practical when Serves other Interviewers maintain

role in the there are only a purposes, such as great faith and
selection small number of public relations confidence in their
process applicants judgments
 Types of Interviews

Nondirective Structured Situational

interviews: interviews: interview:
Maximum amount of freedom is Uses a set of Applicant is given a
given to the applicant in standardized questions hypothetical incident
determining the course of the that have an and asked how he or
Behavioral
discussion established set of she would respond
answers to it
description Sequential Panel
interview interview: interview:
(BDI):
Format in which a Board of interviewers
Applicant is asked questions candidate is interviewed by questions and observes a
about what he or she actually multiple people, one right single candidate
did in a given situation after another
Variables in the Employment Interview
Methods for Administering Interviews
● Video interviews: Conducted via videoconferencing or over the
web

● Phone interview - Effective method and actually helps expand a

company’s talent pool

● Computer-administered (automated) interview: Questions are

administered to applicants via computers
○ Conducted at a firm’s facilities, using kiosks, online or via phone
Diversity Management
● Avoid asking questions related to race, color, age, religion, sex, or
national origin
● Questions are acceptable if job-related, and do not discriminate
against a protected class
● Consult EEOC and FEP information when
constructing guidelines for interviewers
Post-Interview Screening
● Reference Checks
● Background Checks
○ Negligent hiring: Failure of an organization to discover, via due diligence, that
an employee it hired had the propensity to do harm to others

○ Criminal records checks

○ Credit checks
Pre-Employment Tests
● Objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior that is
used to gauge a person’s KSAOs relative to other individuals
○ Process of evaluating individuals
● Has the potential for legal challenges by applicants
Types of Tests
Job knowledge tests

• Designed to measure people’s level of understanding about a

particular job

Work sample tests

• Require the applicant to perform tasks that are actually a part of the
work required on the job

Assessment center tests

• Process by which managerial candidates are evaluated at an

assessment center as they participate in a series of situations that
resemble what they might need to handle on the job
Types of Tests

Cognitive ability tests

• Measure mental capabilities such as general

intelligence, verbal fluency, numerical ability, and
reasoning ability

Biodata tests

• Collect biographical information about candidates

that has shown to correlate with on-the-job
success
Personality and Interest Inventories
● Dimensions that summarize personality traits
○ Extroversion

○ Agreeableness

○ Conscientiousness

○ Neuroticism

○ Openness to experience
Types of Tests

Polygraph tests
• Used to determine if a person uses drugs, has stolen from an
employer, or has committed a serious undetected crime

Honesty and integrity tests

• Used for predicting job performance and disruptive behaviors of the
applicant by asking series of questions
Types of Tests
Physical ability tests

• Assess a person’s physical abilities for demanding and

dangerous jobs

Medical examinations

• Ensure the health of an applicant is adequate to meet the job

requirements

Drug tests

• Right of an employer in accordance with Drug-Free Workplace

Act of 1988
Criterion-Related Validity
● Extent to which a selection tool predicts, or significantly correlates
with, important elements of work behavior
○ Concurrent validity: Extent to which the test scores of current employees
correlate with job performance

○ Predictive validity: Extent to which applicants’ test scores match criterion data
obtained from those applicants after they have been on the job for some indefinite
period
Criterion-Related Validity
● Cross-validation: Verifying the results obtained from a validation
study by administering a test
○ Validity coefficient - Obtained by applying statistical formula to the data
Correlation Scatterplots
Determining the Validity of Tests

● Content validity: Extent to which a selection

instrument, such as a test, adequately samples the
knowledge and skills needed to perform a particular job

● Construct validity: Extent to which a selection tool

measures a theoretical construct or trait
Summarizing Information about Applicants
● Employer takes into consideration all the gathered information
about the applicants by organizing it systematically

● Each applicant is evaluated and rated according to the tests

undertaken by him/her

● Employer weighs applicant based on can-do and will-do factors

before recruitment
Test Scores Scatterplot with
Hypothetical Cutoffs
Decision Making Strategy
● Should individuals to be hired according to their highest potential or
according to the needs of the organization
● At what grade or wage level to start the individual
● Should selection be for employee-job match, or should
advancement in potential be considered
Decision Making Strategy
● Should those not qualified
but qualifiable be considered
● Should overqualified
individuals be considered
● What effect will a decision
have on meeting affirmative
action plans and diversity
considerations
Clinical Approach
● Those making the selection decision review all the data on the
applicants
● Decision is made on the basis of applicant’s understanding of the
job and his/her previous success in that job
○ Varies according to the evaluator
Statistical Approach
● Identifying the most valid predictors and weighting them using
statistical methods

● Compensatory model: Selection decision model in which a high

score in one area can make up for a low score in another area
Statistical Approach

Multiple cutoff Multiple hurdle

model: model:

● Selection decision model that ● Sequential strategy in which

requires an applicant to only the applicants with the
achieve some minimum level highest scores at an initial test
of proficiency on all selection stage go on to subsequent
dimensions stages
Statistical Approach

Cutoff - Point Selection ratio:

● in the distribution of scores ● Number of applicants

above which a person should compared with the number of
be considered and below which people to be hired
the person should be rejected
○ When low, most
promising applicants are
hired

○ When high, selectivity is

reduced for filling the
vacancies
Statistical Approach
● Cutoff - Point in the distribution of scores above which a person
should be considered and below which the person should be
rejected

● Selection ratio: Number of applicants compared with the number

of people to be hired
○ When low, most promising applicants are hired

○ When high, selectivity is reduced for filling the vacancies

Final Decision