HR Chpt 6 Notes
PREEMPLOYMENT TESTS
A preemployment test is an objective and standardized measure of a sample of behavior that is used to gauge a person's knowledge skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) relative to other individuals. One of the drawback of preemployment testing is that it creates the potential for legal challenges by claiming that the test taken were discriminatory. More organizations use professional test consultants to improve their testing programs and to meet EEO requirements. Other considerations are the cost, time, and ease of administering and scoring the tests. For some jobs, the costs of testing may outweigh the benefits.
THE STRUCTURED INTERVIEW
A structured interview has a set of standardized questions (based on job analysis) and an established set of answers against which applicant responses can be rated, it provides a more consistend basis for evaluating job candidates. Structured interviews are twice as likely than nondirective interviews to predict on-the-job performance. Structured interviews are also less likely than nondirective interviews to be attacked in court.
JOB KNOWLEDGE TESTS
A type of achievement test designed to measure a person's level of understanding about a particular job. (The Uniform CPA Examination)
COMPUTER INTERVIEWS
A typical computer interview requires candidates to answer 75 to 125 multiple-choice questions tailored to the job. The computer interview can also be used as a screening device to help filter out unqualified applicants applying online who do not merit a personal interview. So far, organizations have used computer and phone interviews mainly as a complement to, rather than as a replacement for, conventional interviews.
ASSESSMENT CENTER TESTS
An assessment center is a process (not a place) used to evaluate candidates as they participate n a series of situations that resemble what they might be called on to handle on the job. These are the types of activities at assessment centers: (1) In-basket exercises: given several problems with a time limit, has to prioritize and solve them (2) Leaderless group discussions: trainees gathered together with little instruction, observed on how they handle in a group, who shows initiative (4) Role-Playing: A trained assessor assesses the participant using a structured rating scale (5) Behavioral interview: Asked what they would do in a particular situation. Because of the costs involved, assessment centers are usually used to select managers.
DIVERSITY MANAGEMENT: ARE YOU QUESTIONS LEGAL?
An interviewer can ask about physical disabilities if the job involves manual labor, but not otherwise. In general, if a question is job-related, is asked of everyone, and does not discriminate against a certain class of applicants, it is likely to be acceptable to government authorities.
APPLICATION FORMS
Application forms provide a fairly quick and systematic means of obtaining a variety of information about the applicant, such as whether the applicant meets the minimum requirements for education and experience. For scientific, professional, and managerial jobs, a more extended form is likely to be used. Even when the applicants come armed with elaborate resumes, it is important that they complete an application form because it is a way to gather consistent information about candidates. Asking applicants to transcribe specific resume material onto a standardized application form can help alleviate the problem of lying. The applicant is then asked to sign a statement that the information contained on the form is true and that he or she accepts the employer's right to terminate the candidate's employment if any of the information is found to be false. The following are some disclaimers to put on an application: EEOC employer and at-will statement (hired at will) Reference Checks (gives the firm right to call references) Employment testing (any test should be listed) Information falsification (they can be fired) Some organizations use what is referred to as a weighted application blank (WAB), sometimes called a scored application form, which is an application that is designed to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful employees. The WAB has been especially helpful for reducing the turnover costs in the hospitality industry.
BACKGROUND CHECKS
Companies can be held liable for negligent hiring if they fail to do adequate background checks. Federal law requires comprehensive background checks for all child care providers. It also prohibits convicted felons from engaging in financial and security-oriented transactions. Among the checks are Social Security verification, past employment education, and certification and license verification. If criminal histories are taken into account, employers must also consider the nature of the job, seriousness of the offense, and how long ago it occurred.
CONTENT VALIDITY
Content validity is assumed to exist when a test adequately samples the knowledge and skills a person needs to do a particular job. The closer the content of the selection instrument is to actual work samples or behaviors, the greater its content validity. Content validity is the most direct and least complicated type of validity to assess. It is generally used to evaluate job knowledge and skill tests. Content validity is not expressed as a correlation. Instead, an index is computed (from evaluations of an expert panel) that indicates the relationship between the content of the test items and a person's performance on the job.
SUMMARIZING INFORMATION ABOUT APPLICANTS
Fundamentally, an employer is interested in what an applicant can do and will do. The "can-do" factors include a candidates knowledge and skills, as well as the aptitude (the potential) for acquiring new knowledge and skills. The "will-do" factors include the candidates motivation, interests, and other personality characteristics.
REFERENCE CHECKS
Generally, telephone checks are preferable because they save time and provide for greater candor. But references via fax, mail, and email are also used. The most reliable information usually comes from supervisors, who are in the best position to report on an applicant's work habits and performance. Based on the Privacy Act of 1974, individuals have a legal right to examine letters of reference about them (unless they waive the right to do so). Many employers will only verify former employee's employments dates and positions. Other firms have found themselves sued for negligent hiring--knowing a former employee posed a danger to others but failing to disclose the fact. Recognizing this predicament, a number of states have enacted statues offering protection from liability for employers who give references in good faith.
FINAL DECISION
IF, at this point, findings from the medical examination or drug test are not yet available, an offer is often made contingent on the applicant's passing the examination. This information can be verbally communicated initially. It is commonplace to first contact candidates by phone to inform them of the offer. The offer should then be put in writing, generally in a letter to the candidate. The manager delivering the bad news should explain to the employee that the person who got the job has skills that more closely aligned with the firm's needs but that the process has given the firm a better understanding of their background when future job openings arise. Also emphasize that the decision was made in a systematic way based on objective criteria but that it was nonetheless a hard one to make. Lastly, organizations should not fail to notify candidates who are not chosen for the position. This happens too often with both internal and external candidates. It is not uncommon for external candidates to be customer of the firms to which they apply. Not letting them know about the employment decision can jeopardize that relationship.
THE NONDIRECTIVE INTERVIEW
In a nondirective interview, the interviewer carefull refrains from influencing the applicant's remarks. The applicant is allowed the maximum amount of freedom in determining the course of the discussion. The interviewer asks broad, open-ended questions--such as "Tell me more about your experiences on your last job"--and permits the applicant to talk freely with a minimum of interruption. This method is most likely to be used in interviewing candidates for high-level positions and in counseling.
PANEL AND SEQUENTIAL INTERVIEWS
In a typical panel interview, the candidate meets with three to five interviewers who take turns asking questions. Panel interviews provide several significant advantages over traditional one-to-one interviews, including high reliability because they involve multiple inputs. They can also result in a shorter decision-making period, and applicants are more likely to accept the decisions made. A sequential interview is one in which a candidate is interviewed by multiple people, one right after another.
HONESTY AND INTEGRITY TESTS
In response to the Employee Polygraph Protection Act, many employers have dramatically increased their used of pencil-and-paper honesty and integrity tests. These tests have commonly been used in settings such as retail stores where employees have access to cash or merchandise. Questions that might appear: (1) How likely would you be to report a coworker you discovered was stealing office supplies? (2) Should an employee who lied on his application be fired if the falsification is uncovered? It is possible that the tests "work" not because they predict behavior but because they deter less-than-honest applicants from joining a company.
INTERVIEWER TRAINING
Interviewer training programs should include practice interviews conducted under guidance. The following list presents ten ground rules for employment interviews that are commonly accepted and supported by research findings: (1) Understand the job (2) Establish an interview plan (3) Establish and maintain rapport and listen actively (4) Pay attention to nonverbal cues (5) Provide information as freely and honestly as possible (6) Use questions effectively (7) Separate facts from inferences (8) Recognize stereotypes and biases (9) Avoid the "halo error", or judging an individual or unfavorably overall on the basis of only strong point (or weak point) on which you place high value (10) Control the course of the interview (11)Standardize the questions asked.
BEGIN WITH A JOB ANAYLSIS
Job specifications help identify the individual competencies employees need for success--the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other factors (KSAOs) that lead to superior performance. Managers then use selection methods such as interviews, references, preemployment tests, and the like to measure applicants' KSAOs against the competencies required for the job. Firms also try to hire individuals who match their values and cultures. This is referred to as values-based hiring. The drawback of this type of recruiting is that it can result in a lack of diversity, so firms need to be cautious about hiring too many of the same types of people.
DRUG TESTS
Like medical examinations, drug tests can only be given to candidates after they have been extended job offers. Since passage of the Drug-Free Workplace Act of 1988, applicants and employees of federal contractors, Department of Defense contractors, and those under Department of Transportation regulations are subject to testing for illegal drug use. Alcohol use, in fact appears to create more problems than illegal drugs do in the workplace. Federal courts have ruled that public, but not private, companies must have a special need for conducting drug tests.
DECISION MAKING STRATEGY
Managers must consider: (1) Should the individuals be hired according to their highest potential or according to the needs of the organization? (2) At what grade or wage level should the individual be hired? (3) Should the selection be concerned primarily with finding an ideal employee to match the job currently open, or should a candidate's potential for advancement in the organization be considered? (4) To what extent should those who are not qualified but are qualifiable be considered? (5) Should overqualified individuals be considered? (6) What effect will a decision have on the firm meeting its affirmative action plans and diversity considerations? Two basic approaches to selection exist: (1) clinical (personal judgment) (2) statistical
ONLINE APPLICATIONS
One of the key advantages to accepting online applications is that companies can recruit candidates and fill their job openings much faster. Companies report that the downside of accepting online applications is that it can lead to a large volume of them being submitted--many of which fail to meet minimum qualifications. The upside, is that generating a larger number of applicants tends to promote greater employee diversity.
STEPS IN THE SELECTION PROCESS
Organizations use several different means to obtain information about applicants. These methods includes gathering resumes and application, and conducting interviews, tests, medical examinations, and investigations. Because more steps are generally required when filling positions externally, companies often try to hire within and advertise externally only as a last result. However, some experts say it is a good idea to treat internal and external candidates the same way because it helps both managers and a firm's employees feel confident that the process was fair, no special treatment was given to any one candidate, and the best person for the job was chosen.
PERSONALITY AND INTEREST INVENTORIES
Personality tests measure disposition and temperament. Years of research show that five dimensions can summarize personality traits. The "Big Five" factors include: (1) Conscientiousness (2) Agreeableness (3) Neuroticism (4) Openness (5) Extroversion Well-known personality tests also include the California Psychological Inventory (CPI), the Meyers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI), and the 180-question Caliper test. Personality tests that reveal anything about a person's mental impairment or a psychological condition, even inadvertently, violate the Americans with Disabilities Act. Rather than being used to make hiring decisions, personality and interest inventories may be most useful for helping people with their occupational selections and career planning.
PHYSICAL ABILITY TESTS
Physical ability tests such as strength and endurance tend to be good predictors not only of performance, but also of accidents and injuries. An appeals court subsequently rule the test had a disparate impact on women because, although injuries at the plant fell, they actually began doing so after the company instituted new safety rules, which happened years before the strength test was implemented. The use of physical ability tests should be carefully validated on the basis of the essential functions of the job.
OVERVIEW OF THE SELECTION PROCESS
Selection is the process of choosing individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill existing or projected job openings. The overall goal of selection is to maximize "hits" and avoid "misses". Hits are accurate predictions, and misses are inaccurate ones. The cost of one type of miss would be the direct and indirect expense of hiring an employee who turns out to be unsuccessful. The cost of the other type of miss is an opportunity cost--someone who could of been successful did not get a chance to contribute to the organization.
VIDEO INTERVIEWS
Some utilize technologies such as webcams and Skype. Called virtual interviews, they have several potential advantages related to flexibility, speed, and cost. The goal is to enable faster, high-quality decisions at a lower cost. Some companies digitally record job applicants and post it to their site so other firms can view the applicants.
CREDIT CHECKS
The Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (which was designed, among other things, to make identity theft more difficult), along with the Consumer Reporting Employment Clarification Act of 1998, and the Consumer Credit Reporting Reform Act of 1996 now restrict the sharing of some credit information. To rel on a report such as this in making employment decisions, organizations must follow five important steps. First, the organization must check state laws to see if credit reports can be legally used. Organizations must advise and receive written consent from applicants if such a report will be requested. If the organization decides not to hire the applicant based on the report, it must provide an adverse action notice to the person. Many firms use the Department of Homeland Security's free e-Verify system to conduct their background checks.
DETERMINING THE VALIDITY OF TESTS
The Uniform Guidelines recognizes and accepts different approaches to validating tests: (1) Criterion-related validity (2) Content validity (3) Construct validity
OBTAINING RELIABLE AND VALID INFORMATION
The degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection procedures yield comparable data over a period of time is known as RELIABILITY. Interrater reliability--agreement among two or more raters--is one measure of a method's consistency. VALIDITY refers to what a test or other selection procedure measures and how well it measures it. There are two reasons for validating a procedure: (1) validity is directly related to increases in employee productivity and (2) EEO regulations require selection procedures to be valid.
INTERNET CHECKS AND PHONE SCREENING
The downsize of conducting internet searches related to the privacy of applicants. To give employers a "preview" of themselves, candidates are also posting VIDEO RESUMES. Video resumes are short clips that highlight applicants' qualifications beyond what they can communicate via their resumes and cover letters. The video allows employers to see how well they present themselves and decide whether they should be called in for an interview. However, there is some concern that video resumes will cause employers to screen people based on their looks rather than their qualifications.
CONSTRUCT VALIDITY
The extent to which a test measures a theoretical construct, or trait, is known as construct validity. Typical constructs are intelligence, mechanical comprehension, and anxiety (the Bennet Mechanical Comprehension Test consists of a wide variety of tasks that measure the construct of mechanical comprehension). Measuring construct validity requires showing that the psychological traits is related to satisfactory job performance and that the test accurately measures the psychological trait.
GUIDELINES FOR EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS
The qualities of a good interviewer include humility, the ability to think objectively, maturity, and poise. Qualities to avoid in interviewers include over-talkativeness, extreme opinions, and biases.
CRITERION-RELATED VALIDITY
The extent to which a test significantly correlates with important elements of work behavior is known as criterion-related validity. How well a person performs on test, for example, is compared with his or her actual production records, supervisor's ratings, training outcomes, and other measures of on-the-job success. (sales job--use sales figures as basis for comparison) There are two types of criterion-related validity: Concurrent validity and Predictive validity. Concurrent validity involves obtaining criterion data from current employees at about the same time that test scores (or other predictor information) are obtained. Predictive validity involves testing applicants and obtaining criterion data after those applicants have been hired and have been on the job for a certain period of time. Cross-validation is a process in which a test or battery of tests is administered to a different sample of people (drawn from the same population) for the purpose of verifying the results obtained from the original validation study. Correlation methods are generally used to determine the relationship between predictor information such as test scores and criterion data. Combining two or more procedures such as an interview or a test can improve the validity of a firm's selection process. The higher the overall validity is, the greater the chances are of hiring individuals who will be the better performers.
INITIAL SCREENING
The initial pieces of information for screening candidates include resumes, cover letters, and applications, and often the internet.
MEDICAL EXAMINATIONS
The medical examination is one of the later steps in the selection process because the law prohibits it being administered to an applicant before they have been made a conditional employment offer. A medical examination is generally given to ensure that the health of an applicant is adequate to meet the job requirements. The ADA prohibits companies from screening out a prospective employee because they have an elevated risk of on-the-job injury or a medical condition that could be aggravated because of job demands.
REACHING A SELECTION DECISION
The most critical step is the decision to accept or reject applicants. It is common to use summary forms and checklists to ensure that all the pertinent information has been included in the evaluation of applicants.
EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS
The next step after screening resumes, cover letters, and applications for qualified candidates is oftentimes interviewing them. The interview remains a mainstay of selections because (1) it is especially practical when there are only a small number of applicant, (2) it serves other purposes, such as public relations, and (3) interviewers maintain great faith and confidence in their judgments. Interview methods differ in several ways, most significantly in terms of the amount of structure, or control, exercised by the interviewer.
COVER LETTERS AND RESUMES
These documents are reviewed first with an eye towards who can be eliminated because they do not have the skills, abilities, education, or experience outlined in the job description for the application. Evaluating resumes can be a subjective process. Bias can enter the process. Once applicants who clearly are not qualified are eliminated, a company might use an assessment grid to take some of the guesswork out of the process. To speed up the evaluation process, many firms are now using software to scan resumes to find qualified applications. There is concern that capable people are routinely being rejected by machines, even before a human lays eyes upon their credentials. Also, applicants have learned to "pepper" their resumes with a job's keywords to get past resume-screening software.
COGNITIVE ABILITY TESTS
These measure mental capabilities such as general intelligence, verbal fluency, numerical ability, and reasoning ability. A host of paper-and-pencil tests measure cognitive abilities, including the General Aptitude Test Battery (GATB), Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT), Graduate Management Aptitude Test (GMAT), and Bennet Mechanical Comprehension Test.
POLYGRAPH TESTS
These measure the changes in breathing blood pressure, and pulse of a person who is being questioned. Employee Polygraph Protection Act of 1988 generally prohibits using lie detectors for prehire screening and random testing of a firm's current employees and applies to all private employers except pharmaceutical companies and companies that supply security guards for health and safety operations as well as government agencies. It defines the term lie detector to include the polygraph, deceptograph, voice stress analyzer, psychological stress evaluator, and any similar mechanical or electrical device used to render a diagnostic opinion about the honesty or dishonesty of an individual.
BIODATA TESTS
These tests collect biographical information about candidates that has shown to correlate with on-the-job success. The idea is that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior. Although biodata tests have been found to be good predictors of on-the-job success, they are sophisticated and must be professionally developed and validated. Another drawback is that the questions might not appear to be clearly related to the job being tested for, so applicants might question the test's validity and believe the test invades their privacy.
THE BEHAVIORAL DESCRIPTION INTERVIEW
This approach focuses on actual work incidents in the interviewee's past. The BDI format asks the job applicant what they they actually did in a given situation. Such an approach to interviewing, based on a critical incidents job analysis, assumes that past performance is the best predictor of future performance. It also may be somewhat less susceptible to applicant faking. In addition, recent research indicates that the behavioral description interview is more effective than the situational interview for hiring higher-level positions such as general mangagers and executives.
STATISTICAL APPROACH
This approach is more objective. It involves identifying the most valid predictors and weighting the using statistical methods such as multiple regression. Quantified data such as scores or ratings from interviews, tests, and other procedures are then combined according to their weighted value. The statistical approach is superior, but the clinical approach continues to be the one most commonly used. With a strictly statistical approach, a candidate's high score on one predictor (such as cognitive ability test) will make up for a low score on another predictor (such as the interview). For this reason, this model is a compensatory model. However, it is frequently important that applicants achieve some minimum level of proficiency on all selection dimensions. When this is the case, a multiple cutoff model can be used in which only those candidates who score above the minimum cutoff on all dimensions are considered. A variation of the multiple cutoff model is referred to as the multiple hurdle model. This decision strategy is sequential in that after candidates go through an initial evaluation stage, those who score well re provisionally accepted and are assessed further at each successive stage. Each of the statistical approaches requires that a decision be made about where the cutoff lies--that point in the distribution of scores above which a person should be considered and below which the person should be rejected. The score that the applicant must achieve is the cutoff score. Depending on the labor supply and diversity and anti-discrimination considerations, it may be necessary to lower or raise the cutoff score. A related factor helps ensure the best qualified people are selected: having an adequate number of candidates from which to make a selection. This factor is typically expressed in terms of a selection ratio, which is the ratio of the number of applicants to be selected to the total number of applicants. If the selection ratio is low, only the most promising applicants will be hired. When the ratio is high, very little selectivity will be possible because even applicants with mediocre abilities will have to be fired if the firm's vacancies are to be filled. When this is the situation, a firm's managers can fall prey to what some experts call the "desperation bias"--choosing someone because you are in a pinch. It is a common problem among managers because of the many time and operating constraints they face.
CLINICAL APPROACH
Those making the selection decision review all the data on the applicants. Then, on the basis of their understanding of the job and the individuals who have been successful in that job, they make a decision. Different individuals often arrive at different decisions about an applicant when they use this approach because each evaluator assigns different weights to the applicant's strengths and weaknesses. Unfortunately, personal biases and stereotypes are frequently covered up by what appear to be rational reasons for either accepting or rejecting a candidate. Plus, it can lead to a homogeneous workforce because according to the attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) model, people are often tempted to hire applicants like themselves.
PHONE INTERVIEWS
Under certain circumstances, phone interviews can be effective and help expand a company's pool of talent. (such as hiring for a resort in the Bahamas) Automated phone interviews are also used albeit as an initial screening device. Applicants may be less likely to engage in "impression management" in computerized interviews than in face-to-face interviews.
POST INTERVIEW SCREENING
When the interviewer is satisfied that the applicant is potentially qualified, information about previous employments as well as other information provided by the applicant is investigated.
THE SITUATIONAL INTERVIEW
With this approach, an applicant is given a hypothetical incident and asked how he or she would respond to it. The applicant's response is then evaluated relative to pre-established benchmark standards.
WORK SAMPLE TESTS
Work sample tests, or job sample tests, require the applicant to perform tasks that are actually a part of the work required on the job. Work sample tests are constructed from a carefully developed outline that experts agree includes the major job functions, thus making the test content valid. Organizations that are interested in moving toward competency-based selection--that is, hiring based on observations of behaviors previously shown to distinguish successful employees--increasingly use work samples to see potential employees "in action." (map reading test for traffic control officer)
