Foundations%20of%20Selection

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Fundamentals of Human Resource Management Eighth
Edition DeCenzo and Robbins
Chapter 7 Foundations of Selection
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The Selection Process

• The selection process typically consists of eight
  steps
• initial screening interview
• completion of the application form
• employment tests
• comprehensive interview
• background investigation
• conditional job offer
• medical/physical exam
• permanent job offer

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The Selection Process
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The Selection Process

• Initial Screening
• Involves screening of inquiries and screening
  interviews.
• Job description information is shared along with
  a salary range.

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The Selection Process

• Completing the Application Form Key Issues
• Gives a job-performance-related synopsis of what
  applicants have been doing, their skills and
  accomplishments.

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The Selection Process

• Completing the Application Form Key Issues
• Legal considerations
• Omit items which are not job-related e.g., sex,
  religion, age, national origin, race, color, and
  disability.
• Includes statement giving employer the right to
  dismiss an employee for falsifying information.
• Asks for permission to check work references.
• Typically includes employment-at-will statement.

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The Selection Process

• Weighted application forms
• Individual items of information are validated
  against performance and turnover measures and
  given appropriate weights.
• Data must be collected for each job to determine
  how well a particular item (e.g., years of
  schooling, tenure on last job) predicts success
  on target job.

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The Selection Process

• Completing the Application Form Key Issues
• Successful applications
• Information collected on application forms can be
  highly predictive of successful job performance.
• Forms must be validated and continuously reviewed
  and updated.
• Data should be verified through background
  investigations.

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The Selection Process

• Employment Tests
• Estimates say 60 of all organizations use some
  type of employment tests.
• Performance simulation tests requires the
  applicant to engage in specific job behaviors
  necessary for doing the job successfully.
• Work sampling Job analysis is used to develop a
  miniature replica of the job on which an
  applicant demonstrates his/her skills.

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The Selection Process

• Employment Tests
• Assessment centers A series of tests and
  exercises, including individual and group
  simulation tests, is used to assess managerial
  potential or other complex sets of skills.
• Testing in a global arena Selection practices
  must be adapted to cultures and regulations of
  host country.

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The Selection Process

• Comprehensive Interviews
• Interviews involve a face-to-face meeting with
  the candidate to probe areas not addressed by the
  application form or tests.
• They are a universal selection tool.

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The Selection Process

• Comprehensive Interviews
• Interview Effectiveness
• Interviews are the most widely used selection
  tool.
• Often are expensive, inefficient, and not
  job-related.
• Possible biases with decisions based on
  interviews include prior knowledge about the
  applicant, stereotypes, interviewee order.

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The Selection Process

• Comprehensive Interviews
• Interview Effectiveness
• Impression management, or the applicants desire
  to project the right image, may skew the
  interview results.
• Interviewers have short and inaccurate memories
  note-taking and videotaping may help.

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The Selection Process

• Comprehensive Interviews
• Interview Effectiveness
• Structured interviews use fixed questions
  designed to assess specific job-related
  attributes
• More reliable and valid than unstructured ones.
• Best for determining organizational fit,
  motivation and interpersonal skills.
• Especially useful for high-turnover jobs and less
  routine ones.

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The Selection Process

• Comprehensive Interviews
• Behavioral Interviews
• Candidates are observed not only for what they
  say, but how they behave.
• Role playing is often used.

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The Selection Process

• Comprehensive Interviews
• Realistic Job Preview
• RJPs present unfavorable as well as favorable
  information about the job to applicants.
• May include brochures, films, tours, work
  sampling, or verbal statements that realistically
  portray the job.
• RJPs reduce turnover without lowering acceptance
  rates.

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The Selection Process

• Background Investigation
• Verify information from the application form
• Typical information verified includes
• former employers
• previous job performance
• education
• legal status to work
• credit references
• criminal records

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The Selection Process

• Background Investigation
• Qualified privilege
• employers may discuss employees with prospective
  employers without fear of reprisal as long as the
  discussion is about job-related documented facts.
  
• One-third of all applicants exaggerate their
  backgrounds or experiences.
• A good predictor of future behavior is an
  individuals past behavior.

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The Selection Process

• Background Investigation Methods
• Internal investigation checks former employers,
  personal references and possibly credit sources.
• External investigation Uses a
  reference-checking firm which may obtain more
  information, while complying with privacy rights.

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The Selection Process

• Background Investigation
• Documentation, including whom called, questions
  asked, information obtained/not obtained, is
  important in case an employers hiring decision
  is later challenged.

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The Selection Process

• Conditional Job Offers
• Offers of employment made contingent upon
  successful completion of background check,
  physical/medical exam, drug test, etc.
• May only use job-related information to make a
  hiring decision.

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The Selection Process

• Medical/Physical Examination
• Should be used only to determine if the
  individual can comply with the essential
  functions of the job.
• Americans with Disabilities Act requires that
  exams be given only after conditional job offer
  is made.

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The Selection Process

• Job Offers
• Actual hiring decision generally made by the
  department manager.
• Candidates not hired deserve the courtesy of
  prompt notification.

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The Selection Process

• The Comprehensive Approach
• Comprehensive selection approach puts applicants
  through all the steps in the selection process
  before making a decision.
• Assesses both strengths and weaknesses and is
  considered more realistic.

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The Selection Process

• Now Its Up to the Candidate
• The candidate now has to decide whether this is
  the job for him or her.
• Applicants who are not hired this time will still
  form an impression about the company.
• Management should assure the selection process
  leaves them with a favorable impression of the
  company.

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Selection for Self-Managed Teams

• If teams are given management responsibilities,
  it makes sense for them to select their own
  members.
• Team members bring to the selection process
  varied experiences and backgrounds.
• Team members need training in selection and
  interviewing techniques.

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Reliability, validity, and cut scores can all
  help predict which applicants will be successful
  on the job.
• Reliability The ability of the selection tool
  to measure an attribute consistently.

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Validity The relationship between scores on a
  selection tool and a relevant criterion, such as
  job performance.
• Indicates how well a selection tool predicts job
  performance.
• Content
• Construct
• Criterion-related

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Content validity The degree to which the
  content of the test, as a sample, represents
  situations on the job.
• Construct validity The degree to which a
  particular trait is related to successful
  performance on the job.

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Criterion-related validity The degree to which
  a particular selection device accurately predicts
  the important elements of work behavior.
• Predictive validity uses selection test scores of
  applicants to compare with their future job
  performance.
• Concurrent validity correlates the test scores
  of current employees with measures of their job
  performance.

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors
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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Validity Analysis Correlation coefficients
  (validity coefficients) ranging from 1 to 1
  summarize the statistical relationship between an
  individuals test score and his/her job
  performance.

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Cut Scores and Their Impact on Hiring
• Cut scores on a selection device can be
  determined by validity studies.
• Applicants scoring below the cut score are
  predicted to be unsuccessful on the job and are
  rejected.

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Key Elements for Successful Predictors

• Validity Generalization This is a situation
  where a test may be valid for screening
  applicants for a variety of jobs and performance
  factors across many occupations.

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Selection From a Global Perspective

• Selection criteria for international assignments
  includes
• interest in working overseas
• ability to relate to different cultures and
  environments
• supportiveness of the candidates family
• Women executives have done well abroad in Asia
  and Latin America, despite past reluctance to
  assign them to these countries.

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Final Thoughts Excelling at the Interview

• Suggestions for making your interviews as an
  applicant successful are
• Do some homework on the company.
• Get a good nights rest the night before.
• Dress appropriately.
• Arrive for the interview a few minutes early.
• Use a firm handshake.
• Maintain good eye contact.
• Take the opportunity to have practice interviews.
  
• Thank the interviewer at the end of the interview
  and follow up with a thank you note.