Screening Job Candidates and Resumes

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Screening Job Candidates and Resumes

• MANA 4328
• Dennis C. Veit
• dveit_at_uta.edu

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Selection Mechanisms

• Personality tests
• Physical ability tests
• Job knowledge tests
• Work sample tests
• Simulators
• Situational interviews
• Unstructured interviews
• Assessment centers
• Recommendations
• Many others..

• Applications
• Resumes
• Biographical information
• Background investigations
• Checking references
• Credit reports
• Polygraph tests
• Honesty tests
• Graphology
• Drug testing
• Cognitive ability tests

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Why Use Selection Mechanisms?
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Why Use Selection Mechanisms?

• Individual judgment is poor and inconsistent
• Perceptual biases
• Individual biases
• Match applicant KSAs with job requirements
• Ensure that new hires will perform well on the
  job.

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Choosing Selection Methods

• Multiple factors need to be considered.
• Specificity of skills required
• Risk of bad hire or mistakes made by employees
• Employee reactions
• Level of adverse impact
• Cost
• Administration time
• Screening-in vs. Screening out methods

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Developing A Selection Plan

• List each of the KSAs required for the job
• Does it need to be assessed?
• What are the minimum qualifications?
• List potential selection mechanisms for those
  KSAs that need to be assessed along with costs
  and benefits.
• Validity and reliability
• Costs
• Level of adverse impact
• Detail the selection sequence
• Data to be collected at each point
• Criteria to be used to move applicants through
  the sequence

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Most Common Methods

• Application
• Interview
• Education level
• Training and experience
• Reference checks
• Resumes
• Licensing and certification
• Biodata

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Required for Every Selection Test

• Equal opportunity (non-discriminatory)
• Reliability
• Validity
• (a) Test reflects the content of the job.
• (b) Test predicts job performance.

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Test Reliability

• Reliability consistency of the measure
• If the same person takes the test again will
  he/she earn the same score?
• Potential contaminations
• Test takers physical or mental state
• Environmental factors
• Test forms
• Multiple raters
• How to determine reliability Statistical
  techniques
• Test retest reliability
• Inter-rater reliability
• Others

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Relative Reliability of Measures

• Visual acuity
  High
• Hearing
• Dexterity
• Mathematical ability
• Verbal ability
• Intelligence
• Clerical skills
• Mechanical aptitudes
• Sociability
• Cooperativeness
• Tolerance
• Emotional stability
  Low

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Test Validity

• Validity accuracy of the measure
• Are you measuring what you intend to measure?
  (CONTENT)
• OR
• Does the test measure a characteristic related to
  job performance? (CRITERION)
• Testing criterion validity
• Criterion test predicts job performance in
  general
• Predictive test predicts job future performance
• Concurrent test predicts performance at time of
  test
• How to determine validity
• Conduct a job analysis
• Collect statistics
• Use outside evidence

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The Goal of Selection Maximize Hits
Earns a Bonus
Is a Bonehead
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Correlation Scatterplots
Figure 5.3
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Reliability vs. Validity
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Blood, Sweat and Type O Japan's Weird Science

• In Japan, using blood type to predict a persons
  character is as common as going to McDonalds and
  ordering a teriyaki burger. Theodore Bestor, a
  professor of Japanese studies at Harvard Its a
  piece of information that supposedly gives you
  some idea of what that person is like as a human
  being. Japanese popular culture has been
  saturated by blood typology for decades. Dating
  services use it to make matches. Employers use it
  to evaluate job applicants.
• A person can have one of four blood types, A, B,
  AB or O, and while the most common blood type in
  Japan is Type A, many of the more prominent
  Japanese are Type O. In Japan, people with Type
  O are commonly referred to as warriors because
  they are said to be self-confident, outgoing,
  goal-oriented and passionate.
• Can any of these correlations be scientifically
  supported?
• Theres absolutely no evidence that there are
  different character traits that you can define by
  blood type, said Marc Siegel, an associate
  professor of medicine at the New York University
  School of Medicine.
• NYT 12.14.06

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Better hide the tattoo if you want the job

• Once associated with drunken sailors, felons and
  Hells Angels, tattoos have gone nearly
  mainstream, putting employers in a bind. How to
  write rules that won't alienate un-hip customers
  on the one hand or eliminate talented workers on
  the other?
• Nearly 50 of Americans between 21 and 32 have at
  least one tattoo or a piercing other than in an
  ear, according to a 2006 study by the University
  of Chicago and Northwestern University.
• Men and women alike say their tattoos make them
  feel sexy and rebellious, a 2003 Harris Poll
  found, while the unadorned of both genders see
  body art as unsightly and think those with
  tattoos and piercings are less intelligent and
  less attractive.
• .the law gives employers broad latitude to
  establish dress and grooming standards consistent
  with the images they want to convey.
• LA Times 7.6.07

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Should employers discriminate against World of
Warcraft players?

• I met with a recruiter recently (online media
  industry) and in conversation I happened to
  mention I'd spent way too much time in the early
  2000s playing online games.
• He replied that employers specifically instruct
  him not to send them World of Warcraft players.
  He said there is a belief that WoW players cannot
  give 100 because their focus is elsewhere, their
  sleeping patterns are often not great, etc.
• I mentioned that some people have written about
  MMOG leadership experience as a career positive
  or a way to learn project management skills, and
  he shook his head. He has been specifically asked
  to avoid WoW players.
• BoingBoing.com December 15, 2008

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Principles of Assessment

• Dont rely on a single method.
• Use only fair and unbiased instruments.
• Use only reliable instruments.
• Use only valid instruments for a specific
  purpose.
• Use only tools designed for a specific group.
• Use instruments with understandable instructions.
• Ensure test administration staff are properly
  trained.
• Ensure test conditions are suitable for all test
  takers.
• Provide reasonable accommodation.
• Maintain confidentiality of results.
• Ensure proper interpretation of results.

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Effectiveness of Selection Methods
A survey of 201 HR executives rated selection
methods on the effectiveness producing the best
employees. Work samples 3.68 References/recomm
endations 3.49 Structured interviews 3.42 Assess
ment centers 3.42 Specific aptitude
tests 3.08 Personality tests 2.93 General
cognitive ability tests 2.89 Biographical
information blanks 2.84 HR Focus 1996
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Steps in Pre-Employment Screening

• 1. Verify applicants employment history
• Competency-based screening
• Written or simulation tests generally reliable
  and valid
• Benefits need to be balanced with costs
• 3. Use structured interviews
• Question objectivity and job relatedness
• Standardized administration
• Multiple raters
• 4. Consider screening-out tool

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Methods and Applicant Flow
Applicants Candidates Offers Hires
Initial Substantive Contingent
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Initial Selection

• Initial Selection
• Resumes
• Application Forms
• Reference Checks
• Initial / Contingent
• Background Checks
• Drug Tests

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Application Forms

• Only ask info related to job KSAs
• Link to job performance
• Use thorough job analysis and validation
  techniques
• Consider potential adverse impact
• Consider knockout questions
• Careful collecting personal characteristics
• Race, National Origin, Gender, Age etc.
• Law assumes all questions are used in hiring
• More is not necessarily better
• Different applications for different jobs
• Instructions and Disclaimers
• Not particularly valid

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Application Forms

• How to ask non-discriminatory questions?
• You are always permitted to ask if applicant is
  qualified and able to perform primary job duties.
• You should never ask questions that indicate
  protected class status.
• Allow people to self-select as much as
  possible.
• What if you need to collect demographic
  information for EEO purposes?
• Race, National Origin, Gender, Age etc

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How to ask

• Do you have child-care for your children?
• Do you own a car?
• How old are you?
• Do you have a physical or mental disability?
• Height? Weight?
• What is your maiden name?
• Are you a U.S. citizen?
• Have you every been arrested?
• Do you smoke or use tobacco?

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Resumes

• Applicant controls the information
• Many examples of fraud or omission
• Up to 50 contain some inaccuracy
• What are possible indicators of resume fraud?
• Jobs and education should be verified
• One question honesty test
• Requirements for education and experiences should
  be job-related.

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Potential Problems

• NY Times Sept 12, 2005
• Ronald L. Zarrella, the chief executive of Bausch
  Lomb, claimed to have had a master's in
  business administration from New York University.
  Shares in the company dropped 3 percent the day
  the company divulged Mr. Zarrella's
  resume-fudging.
• David J. Edmondson, the chief executive of
  RadioShack, was fired after a newspaper
  investigation showed that his resume was padded
  with two degrees in psychology and theology,
  degrees he never got from a university that was
  not even accredited.
• Brad Fredericks, a co-founder of ResumeDoctor.com
  had his employees pull about a thousand of them
  that had been uploaded to the company Web site
  and check them for easily identifiable facts like
  job titles, education and dates of employment.
  ''What we found was shocking,'' Mr. Fredericks
  said. ''We discovered that 42.7 percent of them
  had significant inaccuracies.
• The Rutgers University Career Services office did
  an audit last year and found that 20 percent of
  students submitting resumes had inflated their
  grade-point averages.

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Common Resume Fibs

• According to a CareerBuilder.com survey, these
  were the most common falsehoods people admitted
  to using on a résumé
• 38 percent of those surveyed indicated they had
  embellished their job responsibilities
• 18 percent admitted to lying about their skill
  set
• 12 percent indicated they had been dishonest
  about their start and end dates of employment
• 10 percent confessed to lying about an academic
  degree
• 7 percent said they had lied about the companies
  they had worked for
• 5 percent disclosed that they had been untruthful
  about their job title
• CNN 8.14.08

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Reference Checking

• Relatively low reliability and predictive
  validity
• Used primarily as a screening out mechanism
• 80 - 95 of organizations attempt
• Two-thirds of organizations limit info they will
  share.
• Companies decline to report negative information
  to protect from defamation suit.
• What type of questions are more likely to get
  good responses?
• Should ask for applicant permission
• Failure to conduct reference check may create
  negligent hiring liability.

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Reference Checking

• Verify resume or application information
• Education
• Work history
• Information on personality or character
• Motivation and job performance
• Willingness to rehire

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Qualified Privilege

• Aimed at protecting companies that provide good
  faith reference information
• Information must be given without malicious
  intent
• Information can be substantiated
• Information given is limited to specific inquiry
• Information must be given at proper time, through
  proper channels, with proper methods.
• Is the employee eligible for rehire?

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Potential Problems

• FW Star-Telegram 2.12.04
• ARLINGTON - A University of Texas a Arlington
  official voiced regrets that a part-time
  lecturer's background was not checked after he
  talked about his personal life in class and
  alarmed students.Ronnie Robert Molina was fired
  after his first lecture on communications law. In
  August, Molina was fired as an attorney for
  Dallas for inappropriate behavior.
• Shorthorn 1.28.04
• Several students in the class said Molina spent
  the first day discussing a range of personal
  topics and that many in the class were appalled
  and disturbed.After arriving 25 minutes late,
  Molina started a monologue about religious
  values, sexual orientation and drug useStudents
  said Molina wrote the initials of the attorney
  that he previously worked for and distinguished
  his initials D.L., as devil and Lucifer.