HRM Exam 2

What factors should you consider when designing a training?

· Readiness of trainees; motivation level - Ensure trainees have the right background knowledge to absorb the material Understand different learning capabilities; make necessary accommodations Recognize that it is important for trainees to understand the value of the training (i.e., why they are there) Managers should have a trainee focus, and work to create a training environment that is conducive to learning · Principles of learning

What is the multiple hurdle system?

• Efficient Hiring: Using Multiple Hurdle Systems What is a good hiring system? It picks good people It isn't expensive to use Is there a trade off? Picking good people involves time-consuming and sometimes complex processes Using cheap methods might miss some very important characteristics. Solution: multiple hurdle systems! Initial - screen people out phone interviews and resumes -using cheap stuffScreen people in using more expensive tests

Phase 2

• Phase 2: Instruction objectives - What are the desired performance outcomes of training? What type of performance improvement is needed, i.e. change in attitude, skills/knowledge. • Utilize the information gathered in the needs assessment to design an appropriate training program • Issues to consider when designing training programs: • "Readiness" of trainees; motivation level Principles of learning

What are bad/good interview questions?

Bad Interview questions: No relevance to job tasks • what animal would you be if you could? Invasive/illegal questions - Aren't you a little old to be selling this product?; Since you are married, plans to have kids? Ambiguous scoring key, Overly obvious answer Good Interview questions: Questions are exclusively about job performance/tasks • Scoring key is very specific, Range of behavioral/situational questions to see all aspects of person, Questions permit a wide range of responses that only a good candidate would get correct

What is equity theory?

Based on the premise that employees evaluate the level of their pay by comparing their contributions (inputs) and rewards (outcomes) to the contributions and rewards of comparison others, or referents. Individuals seek to achieve a balance between the ratio of their contributions to rewards to the ratio of contributions and rewards of others. Equity exists, from perspective of individual, when this ratio balance is achieved

Behavioral/ Situational interview questions

Behavioral: "Tell me about a time"... you showed leadership skills Past performance predicts future performance Situational: "Show me how to" .... calculate a demand forecast Premise: Performance best demonstrated by real life situation Have a pre-established/reliable scoring guide - score of 1-10 of possible answers

What interview questions can I ask?

Can you ask about how someone got their name? • Unlawful Inquiries: Any inquiries about names, which would divulge marital status, lineage, ancestry, national origin, or descent. (e.g., "If your name has been legally changed, what was your former name?") would be unlawful • Lawful Inquiries: Whether an applicant has worked for the company or a competitor under any other name and if so, what name. Can you ask where someone lives • Unlawful Inquiries: Names and relationships of persons with whom applicant resides, or whether applicant owns or rents a home would be unlawful to ask • Lawful Inquiries: Inquiries about address to the extent needed to facilitate contacting the applicant. (A post office box is a valid address.) "Will you have problems getting to work at 9 a.m.?" is also legal. Also asking about residence in the context of relocation is also legal, for example, "What are the challenges of you relocating for this position?" Can I ask whether a woman is planning to have more kids? • Unlawful Inquiries: All questions relating to pregnancy and medical history concerning pregnancy, such as "Do you plan on having more children?" would be unlawful • Lawful Inquiries: Inquiries about duration of stay on a job or anticipated absences, which are made to males and females alike is lawful • Physical Health • Unlawful Inquiries: General questions ("Do you have any handicaps?"), which would tend to elicit information about handicaps or health conditions that do not relate reasonably to fitness to perform the job. "Have you ever had any serious illnesses?" or "Do you have any physical disabilities?" or "What is the prognosis of your handicap?" • Lawful Inquiries: "Can you lift 40 pounds?" or "Do you need any special accommodations to perform the job you've applied for?" or "How many days did you miss from work (or school) in the past year?" Such questions must be specific and relate to requirements listed in the job description. • Arrests and Convictions Unlawful Inquiries: All inquiries relating to arrests. For example, "Have you ever been arrested?" is an unlawful question Lawful Inquiries: No questions should be asked relating to arrests. Legal inquiries about convictions include: "Have you ever been convicted of any crime? If so, when, where, and what was the disposition of case?" or "Have you ever been convicted under criminal law within the past five years (excluding minor traffic violations)?" It is permissible to inquire about convictions for acts of dishonesty or breach of trust. These relate to fitness to perform the particular job being applied for, as stipulated by FDIC requirements.

What are the goals and key considerations of a compensation system?

Compensation is a system of policies that is designed to determine amount of pay given to individuals in an organization. Strategic perspective Link compensation to organization's mission and business goals What are our core competencies? What types of behaviors and skills should be rewarded? What compensation base is most appropriate for types of jobs in the company? Example - Annual salary versus commission? How will the pay program help to retain and motivate valued employees?

What is concurrent validity and how does it differ from predictive validity?

Concurrent validity - obtaining data from current employees at the same time that test scores are obtained. Predictive validity - testing applicants and obtaining criterion data (i.e., performance data) from these applicants after they have been on the job for a period of time

What is criterion- related validity and content validity?]

Criterion- related validity - The degree to which a selection tool predicts, or significantly correlates with, important elements of behavior. any measures of work behavior, job products, or outcomes that have value to an employer. · Job performance · Production rates · Supervisor ratings · Error rates · Absenteeism • Content validity - The extent to which a selection instrument, such as a test, adequately samples the knowledge and skills needed to perform a job. The closer the content of the selection tool is to actual work behaviors, the more content valid the tool is. Most direct and least complicated type of validity to assess Examples - Job sample tests - Filing test for a file clerk, a test of cash register operation for a grocery checker.

What does transfer of training refer to?

Effective application of principles learned to what is required on the job. How well trainees apply what they learned in training to their job • Approaches to maximize transfer: Feature identical elements: Match conditions in the training program as closely as possible to the actual work environment Establish a climate for transfer: Managers must support, reinforce, and reward trainees for applying new skills or knowledge Give employees transfer strategies: Provide strategies for dealing with their transfer environment (relapse prevention)

What are the phases of the recruitment process?

First phase; identify & attract as many as qualified applicants as possible. Both organizations and potential applicants have limited information about each other and there can be little interpersonal contact, so much of this process is about making attributions about the company and working there. Second phase: Persuade acyual applicants to remain interested. until the organization makes its final choice. Both organizations and applicants search for in-depth information about the remaining possibilities and there is more interpersonal contact. Use of Realistic Job Preview. • Traditional approach: "positive sell" • can instill false expectations • discrepancies cause turnover • costly recruitment process must be repeated Third phase: Persuade selected applicants to accept job offers

Principles of Learning

Goal Setting - providing trainess with the goals of training; asking trainees to set their own goals; providing a "road map" of the course Meaningfulness of presentation- enabling trainees to connect material from training with things that are already familiar to them. Modeling- demonstrating the desired behavior to be learning (i.e real- life demo, DVD demo, pictures, visual illustrations Massed- versus- distributed learning - Massed learning: training in one, long session. Distributed learning: Training in shorter sessions spaced out over time (often this is the most effective method) Feedback and reinforcement- Feedback helps a trainees understand what they are doing right, as well as where they need t improve. Rewards- can help reinforce desired behaviors.

What types of interview questions are illegal?

Illegal: • What is your religious affiliation? • Are you pregnant? • What is your political affiliation? • What is your race, color or ethnicity? • How old are you? • Are you disabled? • Are you married? • Do you have children or plan to? • Are you in debt? • Do you socially drink or smoke?

What individual and situational characteristics contribute to trainee motivation?

Individual Characteristics: Prior Knowledge (r = .67) Anxiety (r = - .57) Organizational commitment (r = .47) Career planning (r = .36) Situational characteristics: Supervisor support (r = .36) Peer support (r = .37) Positive climate (r = .39)

How can job choice be influenced?

Influence job choice by impressive on site-visit arrangements, frequent and prompt follow-up Positive Influences - providing recruits opportunities to meet with multiple organizational constituents, build relationships, and more generally making a recruit feel "wanted." Image matters - recruits want to "work for a winner" Negative Influences - delays in feedback of recruitment process, and poor recruiter behaviors (e.g., rudeness, arrogance), feeling "like a number

What are the four levels of training evaluation? What type of assessment is least useful and which is most useful?

Less useful • Kirkpatrick's model ▫ Reactions (satisfaction) Did employees like it? ▫ Learning (knowledge acquisition) Did employees learn anything? ▫ Behavior (transfer to job) Are employees doing their jobs differently than before? ▫ Results (utility/ROI) How are our units performing differently? Do the benefits of training outweigh the costs? ROI = Results/Training Costs More useful

What are examples of various learning principles (such as distributed learning (spaced versus massed learning) that should be incorporated into the design of a training?

Massed learning: the cram session Distributed ( space) taking time everyday to learn something.

What is a needs analysis? What are the components of the needs analysis?

Needs Analysis- figuring out what a company needs. Components: Organization Analysis - Answers the question: Given our strategic goals and resources where should our training emphasis be placed? Task Analysis- Answers the question what taks do people perform and what KSAOs do they need? Person Analysis - Answers the question should receive training? Who has defencies? Systematically assess what training is needed in the organization This is an important (but often neglected) step; firms only conduct needs assessments about 50% of the time • Costly • Time intensive Requires expertise

What factors are important when measuring the effectiveness of a training program?

Pre training vs post training: training & measuremeant How committed are you? Scores on job knowledge tests, mistakes made during production Experimental with Control group: measurement training measurement & random assignment.

What is the primary difference between passive and active learning methods?

Passive: classroom instruction and seminars Active: on the job traing, self- directed learning, e-learning, simulations, role playing, case studies, and behavior modeling

How do you measure ROI?

ROI = Results/Training Costs ROI > 1 indicates a return on investment from the training • However, benefits are not always tangible or immediate—this means that assessing results can be challenging

What does trainee readiness refer to?

Refers to whether employees have the personal characteristics necessary to acquire knowledge from a training program and apply it to the job.

What are the pros/cons of using resumes, work experience, education, work samples, job knowledge tests?

Resume Scanning software new trend Pros: Applicants perceive them as fair (Steiner & Gilliland 1996), Detailed background on what a person has done, No cost to collect them. Cons: Easy to fake - college football coaches - I kind of managed people, so I'll put a bullet point saying I did, Biased information (report only good things), Hard to compare - many types of resume formats, Expensive in terms of employee time. Work Experience Pros: universal to select experience. Cons: However, there are many different ways to conceptualize experience, such as: • Levels of specificity: do you measure just the specific task the person is doing or do you measure the entire scope of the job? • Measurement mode: do you measure quantity (how many years), quality (how good were they), or type of experience (what were they actually doing)? • Education - spending 10 years in education - is that necessarily a good thing? Education Pros: Indicator for job skills - saves training on the job, Measures how smart people are, Measure conscientiousness -takes discipline to graduate, Cheap and objective - ex: transcripts - either graduated or didn't; took class or didn't. Cons: Why not measure intelligence and skills directly? - test person on specific job skill Years of education is vague- different programs have different requirements Potential for adverse impact Work Samples Cons: Why not measure intelligence and skills directly? - test person on specific job skill Years of education is vague- different programs have different requirements Potential for adverse impact Job knowledge tests: • test of specific job knowledge Cons: Questions regarding factual and procedural elements of the job Relationship with job performance r=.48 Personality • Myers Briggs is the worst personality test to use. Myers Briggs Test is notorious for being an invalid way to test personality. It does not predict with performance! • "We can train people to do things where skills are concerned. But there is one capability we don't have and that is to change a person's attitude. So we prefer an unskilled person with a good attitude...to a highly skilled person with a bad attitude"-Herb Kelleher, CEO (Southwest) • Most organizations want to hire people based on their personality, but personality is notorious for being difficult to measure Integrity tests Integrity tests do not show a demonstrated adverse impact against any demographic groups. Relationships with important constructs: If you cheat on tests, you think everyone cheat on tests - Research shows people overestimate behavior found in others as found in themselves • Relationship with job performance r= .34 • Relationship with lower counter-productivity r= .47 • Things like absence, theft, violence Interviews Interviews explain incremental validity in job performance beyond intelligence and conscientious personality Pros: Attributes that must be measured one-on-one, Non-verbal behaviors, "Liking" - gut feeling, intuition, More person-organization fit based information Cons: Evidence of applicant misinformation, Personality faking, Fraudulent references, Evidence of over-preparing, Inability to deviate from scripts

What are realistic job previews and what are the benefits of RJP's?

Telling applicants the positive and negative aspects of the job. Based on the assumption that turnover is a result of the mismatch between information that's typically provided and what jobs are really like Research shows RJP results in reduction in turnover, increase in job satisfaction, increase in initial job performance, more accurate perceptions of the psychological contract

How is selection different from recruitment? What are the goals of selection?

The process of choosing individuals who are qualified to fill existings or projected job openings. • The use of multiple, valid methods and criteria • Screen in/screen out • Range of selection methods • Valid selection criteria 3 goals: 1) Use different methods 2) identify most qualified 3) decrease candidate pool

1. What is the definition and purpose of recruitment?

The process of finding the right people to be the best match for a position. The purpose of recruitment is you want people to accept the offer you put out there. There are three goals: 1) Generate a large pool of applicants 2) Attract highly qualified applicants 3)Increase likelihood of effectiveness

On what basis should we evaluate assessment tools?

Validity—the extent to which the assessment method is useful for predicting subsequent job performance. Adverse impact—the extent to which protected group members (e.g., minorities, females and individuals over 40) score lower on the assessment than majority group members. Cost—both to develop and to administer the assessment. Applicant reactions—the extent to which applicants react positively versus negatively to the assessment method.

Which factors can enhance the effectiveness of interviewing?

Unstructured vs. Structured Unstructured: Chat - come in and tell me about yourself • No established set of questions given to all candidates • No guidelines on how questions are asked • No scoring system to determine a good versus bad response from applicant • Highly susceptible to bias - relies on intuition and emotional reaction Structured: • Questions identical for all respondents • Each question has a standardized scoring key - 1-10 points for saying certain things - prevents discrimination or a bad interviewer mood from removing good applicant • More legally defensible Does the legal system like interviews? • Factors associated with successful lawsuits related to companies interview policies • Use of general (vs. specific) criteria for success, Untrained/inexperienced interviewers, Interviewers unfamiliar with the job - given questions to ask with no prior knowledge of the job, Lack of objective validity evidence Are there trade-offs in which interview methods are the best? The major trade-off is basic preferences of the people who are doing the interviews - people overestimate their judge of character, dismiss biases Research suggests that with unstructured interviews most interviewers make up their minds about candidate in the first 2 minutes of interview process, the rest is filler!

What is validity and how does it differ from reliability?

Validity: the degree to which a predictor (test or selection procedure) accurately predicts job performance Validity is different from reliability - demonstrates that a significant statistical relationship exists between a predictor and a criterion measure of successful performance on a job.

Why is training important?

employees need to know how to do their jobs efficiently and how to adapt to changing circumstances • Training is important because: The term "training and development" broadly refers to the combination of activities organizations use to increase the skill base of their employees • Can be narrowly focused on specific skills • Can be broadly concerned with preparing an individual for future positions • Continuous learning is necessary for firms to remain competitive (i.e., rapidly changing technology) • Improve employee KSAs • Help employees develop skills for new/more demanding job assignments • There is a positive relationship between the amount of training a firm provides and overall profitability • The 100 Best U.S. companies to work for provide double the average training hours

Phases of Training

phases

How do you make a decision based on all of the available tests?

• Efficient Hiring: Using Multiple Hurdle Systems • What is a good hiring system? • It picks good people • It isn't expensive to use • Is there a trade off? • Picking good people involves time-consuming and sometimes complex processes • Using cheap methods might miss some very important characteristics • Solution: multiple hurdle systems! Making a final decision: Combination of both methods is usually ideal Clinical approach: more subjective process where the individuals making the decision consider all of the data about the potential applicants, then make a decision Statistical approach: more objective process where the most valid predictors are identified and weighted according to their value

To whom do individuals compare in evaluating their pay and how?

• Market Comparisons- When we look at the pay earned by others doing the same job as us in other companies, we are making market comparison - External Equity. • Employees compare themselves to people in other jobs in the same organization - Internal Equity • Job Comparisons- Individuals most often compare themselves to other people occupying the same/similar job in the same company - Individual/Job equity • Self Comparisons- Compare your present pay level with the amount you received at another point in time or on another job. Example: You just were required to take responsibility for two additional departments with no additional pay. You compare your present situation with your recent past situation and perceive inequity - Self Equity.

Research shows predictions

• Past performance - good or bad predictor? -is a valid predictor of future performance, but need more specific information about prior experience to know if person is a good fit for exact job specifications · Work Sample tests - are very good at predicting performance Cognitive ability - good or bad predictor? -Test scores are one of the best predictors of future job performance • Structured interviews are also a good predictor of performance as long as... The questions are standardized (and based on a job analysis) And there's an established set of answers to evaluate answers • Personality tests - good or bad predictors? -are less valid, but useful for some jobs • Resumes/work experience - good or bad predictors? -have little validity, often doesn't inform about performance on the job

What is reliability and how is it typically assessed?

• Relaibility: the degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection procedures precisely yield comparable data over time and alternative measures Extent to which interviews and tests yield similar results Extent to which interviewers standardize their questions • Screen in/screen out • Making sure you get the same results • Range of selection methods • Valid selection criteria • Unless data show stability and consistency, they are not reliable and cannot be used as predictors.

What theory explains how organizations influence attraction and fit to applicants?

• Signaling Theory - argues that job seekers face uncertainty and incomplete information, therefore they use various cues as signals about job and organizational attributes. • Generally positive or favorable impressions of organizational image/reputation are likely to be used as signals of aspects to the job, pay, benefits, type of work to be performed and promotion opportunities. • Company logo • company mission statement • Behavior of employees, behavior of CEO • Commercials • Social media, newspaper, • Online posting venues, i.e. craigslist versus monster, • Job applicants make inferences about organizational values How do you influence attraction? Socialization. • Informal sources of information, like family and friends are credible and rich sources of information • Those who are recruited by friends and co-workers: • Give employees money for recruiting their friends and family people likely to fit with the organization • reduces costs of training • Are more satisfied and committed • Are less likely to turnover • Contacts in a social network provide jobs that: • Pay more • Are more likely to be set up specifically for the applicant (by virtue of knowing someone from inside the organization, the applicant has easier time getting an interview, and easier time "selling" their qualities)