PMC

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Recruitmentand Selection Week 2
(cont.)___________________Dr. Teal
McAteer-EarlyMcMaster UniversityMGD School of
Business


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Recruitment

• The process of finding and attracting capable
  applicants to apply for employment
• Process begins when new recruits are sought and
  ends when the application is submitted
• See pg. 205 of your text for model

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Strategic Issues re Recruitment

• Can help organizations gain a competitive
  advantage
• Reap the benefits from selecting from a diverse
  pool of candidates
• Choose to recruit either skilled external
  candidates or internal candidates (to develop
  internally)
• Amount of recruitment budget affects the quality
  of recruits

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Recruitment

• 3 necessary conditions
• Common communication medium
• Job seeker must perceive a match between his or
  her personal characteristics and the job
  requirements
• Job seeker must be motivated to apply

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Recruitment Sources

• Internal Recruiting
• Current employees (e.g., promotions)
• External Recruiting
• Referrals
• from current employees, former employees,
  customers
• Print ads
• Employment / temp agencies
• Universities / colleges
• Internet

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Internal Recruiting

• Advantages???
• Ee is familiar with org and culture
• Lower recruitment costs
• Ee has proven their ability
• Improves workplace morale and motivation
• Disadvantages???
• Internal rivalry
• No new blood
• Poor morale of ees who are not selected

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External Recruiting

• Advantages???
• Can acquire skills that is not available within
  the orgn
• Newer ideas may emerge
• Disadvantages???
• Newcomers may not fit
• Newcomers need to learn about the org and its
  culture
• More expensive
• Lower morale of ees who dont see career growth
  within the firm

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Factors Affecting Recruitment

• Organizational Policies
• Promote from within (e.g. union)
• Compensation policies (recruiters dont have
  authority to set pay, etc.)
• Employment status policies (restriction of no
  part-time or temporary ees)
• Human Resource Plans
• Plan of which jobs should be filled by recruiting
  and which jobs should be filled internally

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Factors Affecting Recruitment

• Diversity Management Programs
• E.g., Employment Equity
• Recruiter Habits
• Using same sources looking for same types of
  individuals
• Environmental Conditions
• Available workforce

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Factors Affecting Recruitment

• Job Requirements
• More difficult to fill a highly specialized job
• Costs
• Inducements
• Signing bonuses, trips, fitness centre
  memberships etc.

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Research on Internet Recruiting

• 26 of students rejected employers from job
  search because of poor website design
• Study comparing effectiveness of different
  website orientations (Williamson et al., 2003)
• Recruiting orientation
• Goal is to sell and promote the company to
  prospective applicants
• Screening orientation
• Goal is to evaluate and screen applicants
• Results Websites with a recruiting orientation
  resulted in higher levels of attraction to
  organizations

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Effectiveness of Recruitment Sources

• Cost per hire
• Time-lapse from candidate identification to hire
• Source yield
• Ratio of hires applicants
• Ratio of offers applicants
• Ratio of qualified applicants total applicants
• Performance of hires
• Tenure / turnover of hires
• Diversity / Employment equity issues

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Selection
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Strategic Issues re Selection

• Organizational performance is contingent on
  performance of individual employees
• Selection decisions must reflect job requirements
• Selection strategy should consider organizational
  needs resources, labour market realities

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Selection

• Selection is about prediction
• Predicting who will be most effective at
  performing a given job in a given organization
• Want to maximize hits and avoid misses

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The Selection System

• Selection system must be
• Valid
• Reliable
• Practical
• Free from bias
• Thorndike (1949)

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Legally Defensible Selection System

• Must provide equal employment opportunities to
  all individuals without regard to race, age,
  gender, national origin, marital status, family
  status, sex, handicap etc.
• Based on Ontario Human Rights Code
• In addition to validity and reliability, need to
  demonstrate
• Active recruitment
• That selection system is job-related (job
  analysis)

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Validity

• Appropriateness of the inferences made based on
  scores of selection techniques
• E.g., if we predict an individual will perform
  well based on interview results, validity is
  concerned with the evidence that supports this
  prediction
• 3 types of validity 1st 2 are particularly
  important for selection
• Content validity
• Criterion-related validity
• Construct validity

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Content Validity

• Does the system adequately represent the KSAs
  required by the position?
• E.g., having applicants for position of secretary
  lift a 50 kg box
• No content validity if its not an essential job
  requirement
• E.g., having applicants for position of secretary
  take typing test to assess typing speed
• If certain typing speed is required, then it is
  content valid
• Hint Use Job analysis

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Criterion-Related Validity

• Does ones standing on a selection technique(s)
  relate to the outcome (criterion) of interest
  i.e., job performance?
• How is C-R validity established?
• Predictive validation
• Extent to which test scores predict subsequent
  job performance
• Collect test scores correlate scores with
  subsequent job performance ratings of those who
  are hired

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Criterion-Related Validity

• Concurrent validation
• Degree to which a test score obtained now
  predicts current performance
• Administer employment test to current job
  incumbents
• Collect current (recent) job performance ratings
  of incumbents
• Look at correlation between test scores and
  performance ratings

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Reliability

• Refers to the consistency of scores produced by a
  selection technique
• 2 important types of reliability
• Stability - Test-retest reliability
• Repeated administrations of the same measure
  yield consistent results
• Particularly important for tests
• Equivalence - Inter-rater reliability
• Agreement between 2 or more raters of same
  behaviour
• Particularly important for interviews

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Selection Techniques

• Resumes/Application Blanks
• Paper and pencil tests
• Work samples
• Assessment centres
• Reference checks
• Interviews
• Informal sources of decision-making

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Resumes/Application Blanks
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Types of Paper and Pencil Tests

• Cognitive ability tests
• General intelligence (IQ)
• Specific capacities (verbal, spatial,
  mathematical)
• Personality tests
• Traits identified as job-related
• E.g., Conscientiousness
• Integrity / Honesty tests
• Aim to avoid hiring dishonest or disruptive
  employees
• Related to reduce theft, aggression, absenteeism,
  etc.

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Other Selection Techniques

• Physical Ability tests
• Strength, speed, agility, endurance, etc.
• Potential for adverse impact
• Work samples
• Involve applicants performing actual job tasks
• E.g., typing, preparing and delivering oral
  presentation, athletic tryouts
• Assessment Centre
• Procedure involving multiple assessment
  techniques to assess reactions to real
  job-related tasks
• Often to assess managerial potential

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Reference Checks
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The Interview

• Most widely used selection technique
• 2 main types
• Unstructured
• Structured

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Interviews

• Unstructured interviews
• Open-ended questions, various topics
• Interviewers may ask different questions of
  different candidates
• Interviewer makes decision based on gut feeling
• No clear guidelines for evaluating interviewees

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Interviews

• Problems with unstructured interviews
• Poor reliability and validity
• Can lead to biases
• similar-to-me effect
• Primacy or recency effect
• Halo effect

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Interviews

• Structured interviews
• 3 distinguishing features
• Job-related questions
• Predetermined scoring system / rating scale
• Standardized - same approach for all applicants
• 2 types situational and behavioural

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Situational Interview

• Based on job analysis
• Presents candidate with a dilemma What would
  you do?
• Candidate must answer by saying how s/he would
  respond to the dilemma
• Rationale for situational interview
• intention predicts future behaviour
• Explicit scoring system
• 1 least effective 5 most effective
• Good reliability and validity

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Behaviour Description Interview

• Based on job analysis
• Candidate is asked to describe a specific
  situation s/he has been involved in that relates
  to a specific skill or competency
• Tell me about a time when you had to work on a
  team with someone you didnt get along with.
• May involve more than 1 interviewer (e.g., panel)
• Rationale for behavioural interview
• past behaviour is the best predictor of future
  behaviour
• Good reliability and validity

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Informal Sources of Decision-Making
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Issues to Consider

• Screen on hard criteria, select on soft
  criteria
• Screen out those who do not possess essential
  hard job specifications
• E.g., specific degree, license, etc. that is
  critical
• Select those who possess essential soft
  skills/characteristics
• Using structured behavioural interview

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Issues to Consider

• Focus on factors that are not readily trained
• Often, specific job content skills can be trained
• Less tangible skills/characteristics are not as
  readily trained
• Fit with organization culture
• Initiative, conflict resolution, adaptability,
  stress management, etc.
• Consider multiple hurdle approach

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Issues to Consider

• Selection system signals how organizations value
  the people they hire
• A good selection system may be costly and
  time-consuming (and demanding for candidates)
• But it has many benefits
• High quality hires
• Legal defensibility
• Fosters commitment and motivation of new hires