Transcript Chapter 6

Chapter 6
Selecting Applicants
Gaining Competitive Advantage
• Problem: selecting the best employees from thousands
of applicants
• 1994 SWA received more than 126,000 for 4,500
positions
• Solution—Targeted Selection (DDI)
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Identify critical requirements for the position
Organize selection elements into a comprehensive system
Use past behavior to predict future behavior
Apply effective interviewing skills and techniques
Involve several interviewers in data exchange
Augment interview with observations from behavior simulations
Gaining Competitive Advantage
• SWA—Job Analysis—to identify the specific
“behaviors, knowledge, and motivations” needed
to be successful in the job
– Managers devise interview questions to measure
those qualities
– Qualities and questions:
• Judgment—”What was the toughest decision you had to
make in your last job? Describe the circumstances
surrounding that decision, the decision itself, and the
outcome of that decision.”
• Teamwork—”Tell me about a time in one of your prior jobs
where you went above and beyond to assist a coworker.” Or.
“Tell me about a time you had a conflict with a coworker.”
Gaining Competitive Advantage
• How the use of Targeted Selection
Enhanced competitive Advantage
– Fares can be matched and routes can be
copied but not customer service (enthusiasm
and extroverted personalities (Libby Sartain—
former SVP People Development)
Linking Selection Practices to
Competitive Advantage
• How does selection practices impact an
organization’s competitive advantage?
– Improving Productivity—when a firm is able to identify
and hire the most suitable candidates, productivity
increases—because these candidates become very
productive ees (Car dealership example—Let’s
discuss—page 145
– Selecting practices improve bottom line (car
dealership and federal government (programmers)
– Achieving Legal Compliance—risk of litigation due to
selection practices—bitterness can result when
applicants see no relevance to interview questions
Linking Selection Practices to
Competitive Advantage
• How does selection practices impact an
organization’s competitive advantage?
– Reducing training costs—companies base
selections on ineffective procedures new hired
applicants often lack some of the knowledge
or skills needed for the job—good selection
procedures most need for training can be
eliminated. Assessing non-technical skills
is also critical (interpersonal, leadership,
and communication skills)
HRM Issues & Practices
• Validity
– Managers assess job applicants-infer how well each
candidate might do on the job. Validity refers to the
appropriateness, meaningfulness, and usefulness
of these inferences
– To ensure inferences regarding applicant’s job
capabilities will be valid they need a clear notion of
the needed job qualifications
– Determining Job Qualifications—master list (Figure
6-1—page 147)
– Job analysis should describe the KSAs needed to
perform each important task—Need job analysis for
legal reasons
HRM Issues & Practices
• Choosing selection methods—Attainment of
validity depends heavily on the appropriateness
of the particular selection technique used.
– Reliability of a measure refers to its consistency. It is
defined as the degree of self-consistency among the
scores earned by an individual. Reliable evaluations
are consistent across both people and time—how
close candidate evaluations are similar by different
interviewers
– To increase reliability selection practices:
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Establish good rapport with a candidate
Ask questions that are clear
Ask questions that are moderately difficult
Administer several measures to assess each important KSA
HRM Issues & Practices
• Behavior Consistency Model—specifies
that the best predictor of future job
behavior is past behavior performed under
similar circumstances. The closer the
selection procedures simulates actual
work behaviors, the greater its validity
(Southwest)
HRM Issues & Practices
• Assessing & Documenting Validity—Three
strategies:
– Content-oriented strategy—demonstrate that it
followed “proper” procedures in the development and
use of its selection devices
– 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
Content-Oriented Strategy
• Strategy firm gathers evidence that it
followed appropriate procedures in
developing its selection program—
Evidence would show that selection
devices were properly designed and were
accurate measures of the needed worker
requirements (Discuss Closer Look 6-2)
– Job analysis and KSAs were identified
Criterion-Related Strategy
• Content-Oriented Strategy is most appropriate
for selection devices that directly assess job
behavior
– Candidate would do well on the job if they performed
well on a typing test
– Sometimes the connection between the selection
device and job behavior is less direct—contentoriented evidence alone is insufficient (civil service
exam)
– Criterion-Related Strategy—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
Criterion-Related Strategy
• HR professional needs to collect two pieces of
information:
– Predictor scores represent how well the individual
fared during the selection process (as indicated by a
test score, an interview rating, etc., or an overall
selection score)
– Criterion scores represent the job performance level
achieved by the individual, usually based on
supervisor evaluations
– Validity is calculated by statistically correlating
predictor scores with criterion scores
– Correlation coefficient is called a validity coefficient
Criterion-Related Strategy
• A criterion-related validation study may be
conducted in one of two ways:
– Predictive validation study—information is
gathered on actual job applicants
– Concurrent validation study—current
employees are used (Discuss Closer Look
6-4 page 152)
• These are more common because they can be
done more quickly—assessed individuals are
already on the job, and performance measures
can thus be more quickly obtained
Validation Generalization
• A method of documenting the validity of a
selection device by demonstrating the
same (or similar) device has been
consistently found to be valid in many
other similar settings
– Some mental aptitude tests have been found
to be valid predictors for nearly all jobs—they
can be justified without performing a new
validation study to demonstrate jobrelatedness
Validation Generalization
• To use validity generalization:
– 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
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• EEOC—agency assigned to administer
employment discrimination laws—serves two
functions: enforcement and interpretation
– Discrimination laws are written in a fairly general way
thus do not address many of the specific
circumstances—several sets of written guidelines
– Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection
Procedures—apply to all orgs with 15 or more people
• Assist organizations in understanding the compliance
requirements imposed by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act
(disparate impact)
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• Guidelines specify that if an employment
decision (selection, promotion, transfer,
retention) results in disparate treatment the
organization must take one of two actions:
– Eliminate selection devices causing the disparate
impact
– Demonstrate the validity of the selection devices
No preference for type of validation strategy
needed—inappropriate to put heavy weighting on
content-oriented evidence
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• National Origin Discrimination Guidelines—
Individuals rejected for employment have just
cause for legal redress if their rejection was
based on any of the following factors:
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Place of origin
Ancestor’s place of origin
Marriage to a person of a foreign origin
Membership in an association seeking to promote the
interests of a national origin group
Discuss example of heavy accent—applicant
rejection
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• Sexual Harassment
– Employer is liable for unlawful sex discrimination of:
• An employment opportunity is granted because of a
candidate’s submission to an employer’s request for sexual
favors
• An employment opportunity is withheld because of the
candidate’s refusal to grant such favors
• Pregnancy Discrimination Guidelines
– Female applicant who is temporarily unable to
perform some job function due to her pregnancyrelated condition must be treated in the same manner
as any other applicant with a temporary disability
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• Age Discrimination Guidelines—prohibit
disparate treatment directed towards applicants
age 40 and above
– An employer may not treat applicants below 40 any
better than those 40 and above (no help wanted ad
indicating preference for younger workers)
• If charged with age-based disparate treatment firm must
demonstrate that the hiring decision was not based on age,
but on some “reasonable factor other than age,” such as lack
of skill
• BFOQ—when they bar all individuals above a certain age for
a particular job (police officers, firefighters, pilots)
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• Religious Discrimination Guidelines
– TWA vs. Hardison, The Civil Rights Act of
1964 require an organization to accommodate
a reasonable request for religious
accommodation, as long as it doesn’t impose
an undue hardship (voluntary exchange of
work schedule)
– De minimis principle—to be declared an
undue hardship, the cost of accommodation
must be more than minimal
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• ADA—aims to protect disabled individuals
from job discrimination:
– Illnesses (e.g., AIDS, cancer, diabetes
– Losses (e.g., loss of limbs, sight, hearing, as
well as learning disabilities and mental
retardation
– Emotional and mental illness (e.g., manic
depression, epilepsy, and schizophrenia
– Recovery (e.g., recovering alcoholics and
drug addicts)
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• Fourth Amendment—pertains to an individual’s privacy
rights—it protects job candidates and ees from
unreasonable intrusions by the employer (urinalysis and
blood testing)
• Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment—provides all citizens
with equal protection under the law. Fifth is federal ees
and the Fourteenth to state ees
• Tort Law—Civil Laws designed to discourage individuals
from subjecting others to unreasonable risks and to
compensate those who have been injured by
unreasonably risky behaviors
Legal Constraints on Employee
Selection
• Negligent Hiring—employers hire
someone unfit for the job, because of
unfitness, commits an act that causes
harm to another
• Defamation00the unprivileged publication
of a false oral or written statement that
harms the reputation of another person
Selection Methods
• Application Blanks—
– Meet minimum qualifications
– Help employers judge the presence (or absence) of
certain job-related attributes
– Info found as a potential “red flag”—gaps in
employment or frequent job-hopping
– Employer should refrain from asking:
• Date of birth, sex, or religious preferences
• What is your height or weight (use a strength test)
• Information to screen out members of a protected group—
”How many children do you have.” (screen out women)
Selection Methods
• Biodata Inventories—a selection technique in
which an applicant’s responses to background
information questions are objectively scored
– Weighted application blank—a biodata inventory
containing the same questions as an application
blank
– Biographical information blank—a biodata inventory
consisting of a set of questions designed to cover a
broad array of background information
HR uses these to predict tenure “How far from the
office do you live.” & “How many jobs have you
had in the last five years?”
Selection Methods
• Background investigations
– Screen applicants for positions of trust—law
enforcement, private security, and nuclear power
– Special duty of care positions—due to 9/11
international background investigations
– Fair Credit Reporting Act—law designed to protect
applicants’ rights in the event of a background
investigation conducted by an investigative agency
– Reference Checks—collecting selection information
from an applicants’ previous employers (or
associates) (Discuss Exhibit 6-3 page 164)
Employment Interviews
• Employment interview is a vital selection tool
– Let’s candidates discuss previous work experience, educational
history, career interests, likes and dislikes
– Technical knowledge—educational history and work experience
– Self-Evaluative Information—applicants’ likes and dislikes,
strengths and weaknesses, goals, attitudes, and philosophies
(Fit)
– Situation Information—how the applicant would react in certain
hypothetical job-related situations—”What would you do if you
saw your subordinates act rudely towards a customer?”
– Behavior Description Information—how applicants have behaved
in past situations that are similar to those that would be faced on
the new job—”Tell me about the last time you faced the situation
in which one of your subordinates wasn’t performing well?”
What was the situation, how did you deal with it, and how did the
employee respond?”
Employment Tests
• Mental Ability Tests—designed to measure
intelligence or aptitude. Aptitude is a very
general mental capability that involves the
ability to reason, plan, solve problems,
think abstractly, comprehend complex
ideas etc..
– Aptitude is the most powerful single predictor
of overall job performance
Employment Tests
• Personality Tests
– Supplement interviews
– Among the Big Five, conscientiousness seems to be
the best predictor of performance
– Trait of agreeableness to be valid for predicting
performance in many jobs
• Work Sample Tests—perform actual duties of
vacant position
• Assessment Centers—managerial candidates
– Leaderless group discussion
– Management Games
– In-Basket
Screening for Dysfunctional
Behavior
• Drug Abuse—eliminates drug users from further
consideration
– Test results are not always accurate
• Polygraph Testing –lie detector tests
– Employee Polygraph Protection Act—bans most
private sector employers from using polygraph tests
in the selection of candidates (not public sector)
• Paper & Pencil Honesty Tests—alternative to
polygraph testing for predicting theft