HRM373 Assessment and

Selection
(Lesson 1)

Your Instructor will be with you shortly…

Jan 2021

Andrew Chan
MSPS; MBPsS
andrewchan002@suss.edu.sg
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HRM373 in the Virtual Classroom

• Use of webcam & microphone

• In-class discussions through break-out rooms
• Recordings
• Observe netiquette rules

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Course Objectives

Knowledge & understanding (theory component)

1. Distinguish between the various assessment measurement models and
concepts
2. Analyse the different types and styles of selection methods
3. Describe some of the theoretical and practical problems associated with
various assessment and selection tools

Key skills (practical component)

1. Apply key measurement concepts for a variety of selection situations
2. Develop an appropriate assessment toolkit for hiring personnel
3. Plan an assessment and selection system to support staff recruitment

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Course Structure
Lesson 1 Assessment in Organisations
Study Guide: Unit 1
Reading: Chapters 1 & 2 of recommended text
Lesson Prediction and Measurement
2 Study Guide: Unit 2
Reading: Chapters 3 & 5 of recommended text
Lesson Predicting Performance
3 Study Guide: Unit 3
Reading: Chapters 3 & 6 of recommended text
Lesson Assessment Methods I
4 Study Guide: Unit 4
Reading: Chapters 3,10, & 11 of recommended text
Lesson Assessment Methods II
5 Study Guide: Unit 5
Reading: Chapters 12 & 13 of recommended text
Lesson Making Wise and Fair Decisions
6 Study Guide: Unit 6
Reading: Chapters 1, 4, 8, & 9 of recommended text
Don’t worry so much about Chpts 4 (legal) and 7 (statistics).

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Required Reading
Dessler, G. (2015). Human Resource Management. Harlow, UK: Pearson.

Gatewood, R. D., Feild, H. S., & Barrick, M. R. (2016). Human Resource Selection.
Boston, MA: Cengage.

Hay Group (2003). Using competencies to identify high performers: an overview

of the basics.

McClelland, D. C. (1998). Identifying competencies with behavioral-event

interviews. Psychological Science, 9(5), 331-339.

Woehr, D. J., & Roch, S. (2012). Supervisory performance ratings. In N. Schmitt

(Ed.), The Oxford handbook of personnel assessment and selection (pp. 517–531).
Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

[Note the APA referencing style above]

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Finding Journal Articles
More useful journals with A&S research:
International Journal of Selection and
Assessment; Personnel Psychology; Academy
of Management Journal; Journal of Applied
Psychology; Journal of Occupational and
Organisational Psychology

Go to Settings within
Google Scholar and
create a link to SIM
Library

Use OneSearch (SIM Library link in Canvas)

or Google Scholar (see below)
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 Course Assessment (FT)
Assessment Description Weight
Allocation
Summative Multiple choice questions 5%
Assessment (check Canvas for quiz details)
(Pre-class quiz)

TMA Essay question 20%

GBA Essay question 25%

Examination Written examination 50%

TOTAL 100%

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GBA Grouping

Instructions
• You should form a group of FOUR members ONLY from your
seminar group (T group).

• Each group should nominate one leader, who will submit the
assignment on behalf of the group via Turnitin in your T group
Canvas webpage.

• Please inform the various group members after the group

assignment has been submitted. The group leader is advised to
keep the acknowledgement receipt of submission as evidence that
the group assignment has been submitted.

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What is Plagiarism?
• “Plagiarism: representing the words or ideas of another as one’s own without properly
acknowledging their source.” (SUSS Student Handbook, 2017, p. 29)
• Plagiarism may be committed due to inexperience. It is important be aware of the
different forms of plagiarism, which includes (SUSS Student Handbook, pg. 34):
– Self-plagiarism – i.e. submitting a marked assignment or part of a marked assignment that had been previously
submitted to satisfy the requirements for another course or for the same course in an earlier semester, without
first obtaining permission from the instructor of the course in which the student is currently registered;

– Using a choice phrase or sentence that you have come across and failing to differentiate clearly between your
words and the language of your source(s);

– Providing incomplete or inadequate footnotes or references;

– Using text downloaded from the Internet, borrowing statistics or assembled fact from another person or source,
and/or copying or downloading figures, photographs, pictures or diagrams without acknowledging sources
adequately or appropriately;

– Copying from the notes (which include study guide) or essays of a fellow student, or working on an assignment
with another person when asked to hand in individual work;

– Failing to note areas of agreement between your work and that of other writers; and/or

– Putting together ideas from various sources without putting them into the context of your work and/or without
offering original work.
Example of Plagiarism
• Plagiarised
– “Thus, the present study
provides evidence that
brief self-affirming
implementation intentions
can lessen work-related
pressure in downsize
survivors. Further
education college worker
anxiety lowered in both the
short- and longer-term,
extending the utility of self-
affirmation interventions
beyond student
populations and the
laboratory.”
#1: No
acknowledgement
#2: Simple changes
of original author
to original source
• Original (Morgan &
Harris, 2015, p. 11)
– “The present study
provides evidence that
brief self-affirming
implementation intentions
can reduce work-related
stress in downsize
survivors. Further
education college worker
anxiety was reduced in
both the short and longer
term, extending the utility of
self-affirmation
interventions beyond
student populations and
the laboratory.”
Sanctions for Plagiarism
• All suspected incidents of plagiarism will be investigated. There is
no tolerance level with regards to plagiarism.
• If plagiarism is established, the following penalties may be
imposed by the University (SUSS Student Handbook 2017, pg.
35):
– First Offence
• Warning letter; with or without;
• Reduction of grade

– Second Offence
• Zero score for assignment
• No refund of course fees

– Third Offence
• Expulsion from course for the semester
• No refund of course fees

– Fourth Offence
• Expulsion from the programme
• No refund of programme fees
Assessment and Selection
Understanding Personnel Assessment
Personnel Decisions
• Choosing among several equally well-qualified
candidates for a role
• Deciding which of several high performing employees
should be promoted
• Identifying an employee to be transferred from one
business unit/department to another
What is Assessment for Selection Like?

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Questions

What are the steps that an applicant has to go

through?

What do you think they are looking for in a candidate?

What do you think the candidate has to do on the job?

Group Discussion

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Understanding Personnel Assessment
Research shows …
• 45% of corporate executives rely more on gut instinct
than facts and figures when running their businesses
(Bonabeau, 2003)
• 46% of new hires fail within 18 months (Schawbel,
2012)
Understanding Personnel Assessment
Making the Right Decision
• Correct decisions are when the outcomes are positive
and as expected
• Must understand the truly important characteristics in
the anticipated role
• Must not be distracted by irrelevant characteristics
Understanding Personnel Assessment
• People have abilities and other traits that are
relatively stable across time and situations
• People differ in any given trait; i.e. traits can be
thought of as individual differences
• Relative differences in ability remain pretty much the
same even after training or experience
• Different jobs require different traits
• Required traits or abilities can be measured
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Understanding Personnel Assessment
Traditional Employment Test Validation
Understanding Personnel Assessment
Types of Validity
• Criterion validity (normal meaning)
– Genuine association between a predictor and criterion
• Psychometric validity
– Association between a given construct (theory) and the measure
used to infer the presence of that construct

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Understanding Personnel Assessment
Types of Validation Designs
• Present Employee Method
– Measure predictors and constructs simultaneously in present
employees
• Follow-up Method (Cadillac)
– Measure predictors in a sample of job candidates then assess the
relationship with criteria in those individuals who were ultimately hired
• Predictive design
– Substantial time interval between availability of predictor data and
collection of subsequent criterion data
• Concurrent design
– Predictor and criterion data are collected at about the same time

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Understanding Personnel Assessment
Problems with Traditional Research
• Number of cases
– Large sample sizes
• Consideration of prior research
– Tend to ignore relevant prior research although validities may
apply across multiple situations
• Need for judgement
– Applying in situations where it deviates from the norm
• Global or specific assessments
– See applicants as a whole not just the dimension measured

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Understanding Personnel Assessment
Ethical Testing
• People conducting the assessments must have knowledge and
understanding of the psychometric instruments being used
• Assessment process should be standardised and each candidate being
assessed should be treated the same
• Applicants should be informed of the purpose of the assessments and
how the results will be used
• Who will see the results of the assessments should be clearly explained
to the candidate
• Testing professional take reasonable steps to ensure results are not
misused by others in any way
• Where feasible, testing professional should respect applicant’s desire for
feedback

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Analysis of Job Requirements

• Organisational analysis
• Job analysis
• Person analysis

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Job Analysis
What does he do for a living?

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Group Discussion

How well do you understand his tasks and

responsibilities? And how he spends his work day?

How do we get to that information?

How do we find someone like him?

Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Organisational Analysis
• Conducted because of problems or changes in
organisational goals
• Identifies gaps between current and future states
• Generate possible required actions which could include
strategy change, capital investment, process changes,
workforce productivity improvements or reskilling

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Organisational Analysis – Approaches

• Conference methods
– Bringing key individual stakeholders from within the organisation
for dialogue and discussions
• SWOT analysis
– Identify an organisation’s strengths, weaknesses, current
opportunities and threats faced in external environment
• Organisational assessment surveys
– Employee engagement and satisfaction surveys

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Job Analysis
• Study of:
– what a job holder does on the job (work behaviour)
– what must be known in order to do it (KSAOs)
– what resources are used in doing it
– under what conditions it is done
• KSAOs
– Learned on the job, required at entry
– Criticality and importance

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Job Analysis Resources

• Previous job descriptions
• Training materials
• Performance checklists
• Online databases – O*NET
• Job observations
– Experience sampling – diary or handphone entry
• Interviews with incumbents, managers or supervisors
– Functional job analysis (FJA)
– Critical incidents
• Job analysis surveys
• Using subject matter experts (SMEs)

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Job Narrative
• Identifying information – job title, job analyst, SMEs, date of
study
• Major Responsibilities
• Job Description – list of major work behaviours
• and associated tasks
• KSAs – linked to work behaviours
• Job Specifications – job evaluation factors such as
supervisory/financial responsibility, working conditions
• Tools & equipment used
• Minimum Qualifications

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Job Analysis Precautionary Notes

• Different sources of information may yield different
information, some of which is wrong
• Not necessary to use all of the complex info in job analysis to
get accurate prediction
• Tends to yield static descriptions of “the way we’ve always
done it”
• Rarely recognise alternative ways to qualify for or do the job
• Typically descriptive, not prescriptive
• No one method of job analysis is clearly superior
• Describe the job, not the person

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Analysing Organisations and Jobs

Job Analysis – Recommended Procedure

• Review existing info and O*NET
• Create and distribute 1st draft of JD to SMEs
• Conduct 1st set of confirmatory job analysis interviews with SMEs
• Create and distribute 2nd, revised draft of JD
• Create job analysis survey or questionnaire based on draft JD
• Distribute questionnaire to a sample of incumbents and
supervisors
• Analyse data from questionnaire using Excel or statistical software
• Create final version of JD based on all info and data

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End

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TMA & GBA
• TMA – 20%; Due 28 Feb 2021 (Sunday) 11:55pm; 2000
words max
• GBA – 25%; Due 7 Mar 2021 (Sunday) 11:55pm; 3000
words max
• Multiple submissions on CANVAS allowed – Latest
submission used for grading
• Note plagiarism risk; follow APA referencing style
• Footenotes, Tables, Figures, etc… All included in word
count
• Name your file according to format

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