HRM634 Week 6 Discussion

Chapter 9 Assessing

External Candidates

External Assessment Goals

· Maximize fit

· Accurate assessment

· Maximize return on investment

· Generate positive stakeholder reactions

· Support talent philosophy and HR strategy

· Establish and reinforce employer image

· Identify new hires’ development needs

· Assess ethically

· Ensure legal compliance

Complementary and Supplementary Fit

· Complementary fit: when a person adds

· something that is missing in the organization or

· work group by being different from the others

· Supplementary fit: when a person has

· characteristics that are similar to those that

· already exist in the organization

The Importance of Fit

· “TEDxMileHigh – Natalie

· Baumgartner – Fit” (9:49)

Possible Assessment Outcomes

Calculating Return on Investment

Return on Investment

· The savings from avoiding bad hires reflects the

· fact that bad hires can actually cost the

· organization money.

· The return on investment from a new assessment

· method is the sum of the economic value of

· improved performance and the savings from

· avoiding bad hires.

· Although staffing should be seen as an

· investment rather than a cost, cost is still

· important for many companies that simply don’t

· have the money to invest in more expensive

· systems even if they are more accurate at

· identifying the best new hires.

· The formula provides a way to estimate the return

· on investment of any new assessment method.

Identify Development Needs

· Assessment tests can also identify new hires’

· developmental needs.

· If a top candidate’s assessment scores show that

· his or her organization and time management

· skills are good but their customer service skills

· need further development, post-hire training

· can improve these skills.

· Some assessment methods even identify

· applicants’ preferred learning styles, which can

· decrease training time, improve training

· effectiveness, and increase retention.

Legal Compliance (from the UGESP)

· A test of knowledge and abilities must measure a

· representative sample of knowledge, skills, or

· abilities necessary to perform the job and be

· operationally defined.

· Knowledge

· Must be defined in terms of behavior.

· Each knowledge must be part of a body of

· learned information that is used in and

· necessary for required and observable job

· behaviors.

· Abilities

· Must be defined in terms of observable aspects

· of job behavior.

· Each ability should be necessary for the

· performance of important work behaviors.

· Any selection procedure measuring an ability

· should closely approximate an observable work

· behavior.

· To the extent that the setting and manner of the

· administration of the selection procedure fail to

· resemble the work situation, it is less likely that

· the selection procedure is content valid, and the

· need for other validity evidence is greater.

Hiring Stages

· When people first apply for a job, they are

· considered job applicants and are evaluated

· against the minimum acceptable criteria for the

· job, such as relevant education and skills.

· Those applicants passing the initial screen are

· considered job candidates and are assessed in

· more depth to evaluate their characteristics and

· qualifications as defined by the job specification

· as well as on dimensions relevant to person-

· organization and even person-group and person-

· supervisor fit.

· A series of evaluative assessments are often

· performed, with the lowest performing

· candidates being screened out after each phase.

· The organization then makes its hiring decision

· from the group of finalists that remains after all

· assessment methods have been completed.

Google’s Hiring Process

· “How to: Work at Google — How We

· Hire” (4:00)

Assessment Methods

Some External Assessment Methods

· Screening methods: narrow a pool of job

· applicants down to a smaller group of job

· candidates

· Resumes and cover letters

· Job applications and weighted application

· blanks

· Biographical information

· Telephone screens

External Assessment Methods

· Evaluative methods: evaluate the pool of job

· candidates to determine who should receive job

· offers

· Cognitive and noncognitive ability tests

· Values assessments

· Personality assessments

· Integrity tests

· Polygraph tests

· Job knowledge tests

· Behavioral, situational, and case interviews

· Situational judgment tests

· Graphology

· Job simulations

· Work samples

· Reference checks

· Contingent methods: job offers are contingent on

· passing these

· Medical and drug tests

· Background checks

· Derailers: characteristics related to poor fit or

· performance that should be screened out

· Being too micromanaging

· Being too sensitive to criticism

· Being too attention-seeking

· Being too moody

· Being high on the dark triad traits of narcissism,

· psychopathy, and Machiavellianism

Comparison of Commonly

Used Assessment Methods

Evaluating a Method’s Effectiveness

· Validity—whether the assessment method

· predicts relevant components of job performance

· Applicant reactions—including the perceived job

· relatedness and fairness of the assessment

· method; perceiving sufficient opportunity to

· perform, or believing that one had an adequate

· opportunity to demonstrate one’s ability to do the

· job, influences perceptions of the fairness of the

· selection process, particularly if the person is

· rejected for the job

· Return on investment—whether the assessment

· method generates a financial return that exceeds

· the cost associated with using it

· Selection ratio—having a low selection ratio

· means hiring only a few applicants, which allows

· an assessment method to have maximum impact

· in improving the performance of the people hired

· Adverse impact—an assessment method is more

· effective if it predicts job performance and other

· important hiring outcomes without discriminating

· against members of a protected class

· Usability—people in the organization must be

· willing and able to use the method consistently

· and correctly

Types of Interviews

· Unstructured interview: questions vary across

· candidates and across interviewers; no scoring

· key

· Not as job related as structured interviews; legal

· risks

· Difficult to compare candidates because the

· content differed

· Structured interview: use standardized, job-related

· questions with predetermined scores for different

· possible answers

· Behavioral interview question: based on the

· idea that what an applicant did in the past is a

· better indicator of their future job success than

· what they believe, feel, think, or know

· “Tell me about a time when you…”

· Situational interview question: appropriate if

· not all candidates can be expected to have had a

· certain experience (e.g., leading, managing a

· crisis, etc.)

· “What would you do if…”

STAR Technique

· When answering behavioral interview questions it

· can be useful to follow the STAR response format:

· Situation or Task: describe a specific event or

· situation, giving enough detail for the interviewer

· to understand the situation and your goals

· Action that you took

· Results that you achieved and what you learned

STAR Response Example

· “Interview Techniques – STAR Method” (6:18)

· https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0nN7Q7DrI6Q

Types of Interviews

· Semi-structured interview: the interviewer asks a

· set of pre-identified open-ended questions, often

· behavioral, that prompt discussion and give the

· interviewer the opportunity to explore some

· responses or themes further

· Case interview: interviewer gives the candidate a

· situation, problem, or challenge and asks him or

· her to address and resolve it

· Popular for consulting positions and jobs that

· require strategic thinking, problem-solving,

· logical reasoning, and analytical skills

Behavioral Interview Question

Situational Interview Question

Weighted Application Blank

Cognitive Ability Tests

Using Multiple Methods

· No assessment method is appropriate for all

· purposes

· Applicant reactions to how they are evaluated are

· important; more rigorous assessment processes

· can not only be more accurate, but tend to

· impress good candidates

· Getting consistent evaluations from multiple

· assessments increases confidence in the accuracy

· of the evaluation

Reducing Adverse Impact

· Begin with a valid job analysis

· Use strategic sourcing and targeted recruitment to

· increase the numbers of qualified minority

· applicants

· Expand the definition of job performance to

· include areas of contextual performance such as

· commitment and reliability in addition to task

· performance

· Use well-developed simulations, interviews,

· assessment centers, and situational judgment

· tests rather than cognitive ability tests

· Combine predictors – if a cognitive ability test

· predicts job performance but discriminates

· against women, using it in conjunction with

· another valid assessment method that either does

· not have any adverse impact based on sex or that

· discriminates against men, can reduce or

· eliminate the adverse impact of the cognitive

· ability test

· Ensure that verbal ability and reading levels of the

· assessments are consistent with job requirements

· based on a valid job analysis

· If only a few applicants are ultimately hired (low

· selection ratio), use assessment methods with less

· adverse impact early in the selection process and

· those with greater adverse impact later in the

· process

· Use banding to assign the same score to

· applicants who score in a range on the

· assessment

· Think of grades – students scoring from 93 to

· 100% are placed in the “A” band, from 85 to 95%

· are placed into the “B” band, etc.

· Only the banded score (A, B, C, etc.) is used to

· compare applicants

· This technique can reduce an assessment’s

· adverse impact but will also reduce the validity

· of the test

Assessment Plan

· After creating a job requirements matrix, the next

· step is to identify the best way of assessing each

· important job qualification.

· The assessment plan describes:

· Which assessment method(s) will be used to

· assess each of the characteristics on which

· applicants will be evaluated

· In what sequence the assessments will take

· place

· What weight each assessment will receive in

· determining an overall score for that

· characteristic based on the importance of each

· characteristic to job performance.

· Characteristics that will be trained after hire are

· not assigned to any assessment method, but any

· existing qualifications required to qualify for the

· training program should be listed.

Choosing Assessment Methods

· The choice should be based on which methods

· best assess the applicant characteristics or

· competencies identified as important during the

· job analysis as well as the ability of the

· assessment method to meet other important

· goals of the external assessment process.

· Because different methods are good at assessing

· different things, and differ in their cost, validity,

· applicant reactions, and adverse impact, it is often

· necessary to use more than one assessment

· method.

· Just because an assessment method results in

· adverse impact, if it does a good job predicting

· job performance it may be worthwhile to

· investigate the usefulness of various strategies to

· reduce its adverse impact so that it can continue

· to be used.

Assessing Ethics

· Accurately assessing ethical standards is not

· always easy

· Some validated integrity tests can assess honesty,

· trustworthiness, and attitudes towards risky

· workplace behavior, theft, lying, and unethical

· behavior

· Well-validated structured interview questions can

· also work

Moral Distress

· Moral distress occurs when a person’s values and

· perceived obligations are incompatible with the

· needs and prevailing views of the work

· environment

Managing Moral Distress

Analytics

· Algorithms are sometimes used to quickly

· evaluate job applicants

· If not created properly, they can perpetuate

· existing biases

· Focus on what predicts employee success and

· why

Technology

· Artificial intelligence and machine learning

· algorithms can help us overcome implicit and

· explicit boas and improve new hire diversity

· Video scoring algorithms have features that can

· make them essentially blind to many of the

· protected characteristics we unfairly use to

· evaluate others (age, race, gender, etc.)

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