Chapter 6 Selecting Applicants. Gaining Competitive Advantage Problem: selecting the best employees from thousands of applicants 1994 SWA received more

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)– 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


• 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.”


• 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


• 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:• 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


• 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)


• 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—content-oriented 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


• 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


• 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 job-relatedness

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)


• 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


• 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:– 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 groupDiscuss example of heavy accent—applicant

rejection


• 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 pregnancy-related condition must be treated in the same manner as any other applicant with a temporary disability


• 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)


• 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


• 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)


• 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


• 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

Documents

Chapter 6 Selecting Applicants. Gaining Competitive Advantage Problem: selecting the best employees from thousands of applicants 1994 SWA received more