Recruitment and Selection
responsibility and decision making.
Recruitment - crucial activities of human
resource (HR) specialists in the organization
with the central purpose of attracting suitable
applicants for vacant posts.
Recruitment
Drafting a recruitment policy
A recruitment policy represents the
organization’s code of conduct, including the
rules to be followed and the standards to be
reached. It should include the following
areas:
■ The importance of considering internal
applications and developing existing
employees to enable them to be considered
for promotion.
■ Handling and processing applications with
due speed, diligence, and courtesy.
■ Ensuring that the successful applicants will
be chosen without regard to sex, race, age,
disability, marital status, religion or any other
factor unconnected with their ability to carry
out the job.
■ Making sure that no false or exaggerated
claims are made in recruitment literature or
job advertisements.
Does a vacancy exist?
Vacancies can occur either through an
existing occupant leaving the organisation or
through the creation of a new post through
expansion or re-organisation. In either case,
it is all too easy to opt for recruitment without
first thinking through all the alternatives that
could be considered, especially as
substantial savings can be made by not
recruiting or replacing. Here are some
alternatives:
Doing away with the work altogether-
Automate the work- re-think of the work
structure.
Contract-out the work- Sub-contracting (or
outsourcing, as it is more commonly called
today) is becoming more frequent at all
levels.
Re-organising the work- by separating
different parts of the work, eliminating those
that are unnecessary and farming out the
rest within the department or even to other
departments. Can also take the form of job
enrichment, which is to extend the work of
existing employees to cover more
Re-organising the hours-
Defining the details of the vacancy
When it has been decided that a vacancy
exists, the specific details of the position
need to be agreed. This is carried out in three
stages which will be looked at separately:
■ Investigating the nature of the work and its
key features. This is carried out through job
analysis.
■ Agreeing a summary of the job and the
nature of the person who will best fit the post.
This means drawing up a Job description (or,
in some cases, a Job profile) and a Person
specification. Alternatively, a competency
profile can be drawn up which will define the
nature of the job and the competencies
required to carry out that job efficiently. If
competencies are used, they will be part of a
wider competency framework in use in the
organization.
■ Deciding on the terms and conditions of the
post, including hours of work, salary and
benefits. This is known as an employment
package.
Job analysis
Purpose of job analysis
Analysing jobs is central to the people
management process. Establishing and
defining jobs correctly is the starting point for
not just the recruitment process; it plays a
major part in the way employees are
managed and motivated, becoming the basis
for the performance management process. it
helps to establish how employee’s training
needs are analyzed.
How to carry out job analysis
The analysis starts with a definition of what
information needs to be gathered. This can
include the instructions given as to how to
carry out the work, the processes that lead to
the job holder’s actions (communications,
flow of work, etc.) the nature of the mental
and physical processes required, the degree
of flexibility in the work itself and in the
employee’s thought patterns, the targets and
required outcomes, the relationships with
other employees – superiors, peers and
subordinates and the general terms and
conditions attached to the work.
Asking employees to complete a
questionnaire. This can be designed by the
organisation, with or without the help of
specialist consultancy services, or there are
a number of standard questionnaires
available on the market.
Asking employees to keep work diaries. This
method, if carried out properly, will get a very
accurate picture of what actually happens
over an extended period, say a week or
month.
Observe the employee. A realistic picture can
certainly be drawn up using this method.
Interview the employee. Sometimes carried
out in groups, this provides the opportunity to
get the full picture of the post by using
probing, clarifying and reinforcing questions.
Through interviewing, two specific
techniques can be used to produce an
outcome. The first is the repertory grid
technique where, through questioning, a grid
is constructed of the tasks carried out and the
skills and competencies required to carry out
those tasks, scored from, say, one to five.
This is of considerable assistance in
producing an accurate person specification.
The second technique is that of drawing out
a set of critical incidents to examine which
parts of the job are crucial to its success or
failure.
Job description
They are an integral part of the job evaluation
process, where grading and salary decisions
are taken on the basis of carefully sculpted
job descriptions.
The essential ingredients of every job
description are:
■ Job title
■ Job location
■ The superior to whom the job holder
reports
■ The staff who are responsible to the job
holder
■ The overall purpose of the job
■ Whether it can be full time or part time
■ Most frequently performed duties with
some indication of their importance
Job profile
will only indicate the main tasks and
accountabilities and use more generalized
statements as to the nature of the work.
Person specification
• to provide a focus for the organisation
to agree on the traits of the person
who is likely to be successful.
• when incorporated into advertising
material, it communicates the
required information to potential
applicants.
• the specification can be used as a
selecting aid whereby a scientific and
objective method can be used to
select applicants for the short-list by
means of measuring them for
proximity to the specification.
Attracting the applicants
Internal candidates- The candidates’
performance is known well, as are their
attendance records and their strengths and
weaknesses.
Using third parties
• Recruitment agencies, who will
handle the entire recruitment process
up to short-listing, providing
candidates from their own sources or
advertising on your behalf.
• Advertising agencies, who help
devise a single advertisement or
complete campaign and advise on
the advertising media.
• Executive Search agencies
(sometimes known as ‘headhunters’)
who will search for senior staff on
your behalf, approaching suitable
candidates directly, often under
considerable secrecy.
• Job centres can give energetic
support, especially if the organisation
is either moving into the area or has
an expansion programme with
multiple vacancies, particularly at
operative or clerical and
administrative level.
• Educational establishments –
schools, colleges, universities can
help provide a willing, if often
inexperienced, source of applicants.
 ■ Prominent display of a high-profile
corporate image, where that applies.
Recruitment advertising

SOURCES

• Local newspaper advertisements

Designing and placing advertisements • Recruitment agencies
• Specialist journal/trade press
The three key objectives of a good
• Word of mouth
advertisement are that it:
• Own website
■ Attracts attention – to successfully • Job centre
compete with other job advertisements in • National newspaper advertisement
that media. • Intranet
■ Creates and maintains interest – it has to • Speculative applications
communicate accurate information about the • Links with schools/colleges
job, the company, the rewards, the nature of • Executive search
the job and the type of person wanted and do • Others – work placements,
all this in an interesting and attractive way. promotional events, commercial job
board internet sites, secondments,
■ Stimulate action – the message must be job-preview experiences, etc.
sufficiently strong for potential applicants to
read it to the end and then make the time and Sources of recruitment
effort to respond in the required way. Internal advertising.
Attracting attention can be achieved by a External advertising.
number of means:
Selection
■ Using bold and unusual headlines
The right person can be defined as:
■ Salary and location clearly displayed.
■ somebody who matches the requirements
■ An effective illustration or striking artwork set out in the job specification.
■ Using full or part-colour, although there are ■ has had satisfactory references.
cost extras involved here.
■ where future predictions indicate their
■ Agreeing with the publisher a prominent success in the position.
location of the advertisement, again with a
supplementary cost.
■ has expressed sufficient interest in the
position at interview to indicate that they
wished to be offered the position.
The aim of selection is to find such a person
who accepts the position and who gives
satisfactory service and performance in the
long term.
Steps in the selection process
Starting from the position where the
recruitment process has produced a number
of applicants, the important steps in selection
are as follows:
■ short-listing the candidates for the next
stage.
■ setting up tests for the short-listed
candidates, sometimes in the form of an
assessment centre (although tests do not
take place on every occasion);
■ interviewing the candidates (and giving
them feedback on the tests) and allowing the
candidates to interview the selectors;
■ choosing the successful candidate;
■ obtaining references (although this is
sometimes carried out before interview);
■ offering the position, confirming in writing
and gaining acceptance;
■ organising the induction process;
■ evaluating the result.
Short-listing
- involves reducing the number of
applications received down to an appropriate
sized list of candidates to be invited for
interview.
two approaches in this reduction
process.- screening approach where
unsuitable applicants are rejected until only
the required number of applicants for
interview is left.
second method is one of inclusion where
each applicant is compared with the
requirements set out in the person
specification and given a score through a
pre-set scoring system.
How screening by ‘phone’ can reduce
discrimination
The Nationwide Building Society believes
that screening applicants by telephone is
helping to eliminate the risk of assumptions
being made on the basis of appearance, age
and qualifications.
Biodata- Another technique used in short-
listing, biodata, is to make a very detailed
examination of the candidate’s biography,
comparing it to the biography of a group of
successful incumbents in the position.
Selection testing
Ability tests - measure a candidate’s
existing ability, both mental and physical.
They can measure a variety of areas such as
verbal reasoning, numerical ability, sensory
or motor skills, spatial or mechanical ability.
These are sometimes called performance
tests or, in the case of the performing arts,
auditions; alternatively, they can be general
paper and pencil tests of mental or numerical
skills.
Aptitude tests- also measures of ability that
examine whether a candidate is likely to be
able to acquire the skills and knowledge
necessary to perform the job.
Personality tests- type of psychological
questionnaire that are designed to measure
the more permanent emotional tendencies
people have that make up their personality.
Test format There are three main formats of
the tests.
The ipsative or forced- choice question
where the candidate has to choose between
a number of statements or adjectives that
describe themselves.
A second format is to give a third
alternative in answer to a question.
This format allows candidates a greater
choice and can measure the candidate’s
degree of indecision.
A third format is to use the Likert scale
where candidates have more than three
choices.
What makes a good test?
There are a number of essential features that
make a test worth using. Firstly, it must be
valid. This means it must measure the
characteristic which the test is intended to
measure. If it sets out to measure the
aptitude for, say, bricklaying, then it must be
tested to show that it actually does do so.
Secondly, it must also be reliable in that the
results are the same if the tests are given
under identical conditions. Robust tests have
themselves been tested effectively over a
period of time before they are put on the
market, usually with the help of volunteers.
Thirdly, there must be norms available which
have arisen from standardised interpretation.
Fourthly, the tests must be free of
discrimination.
Problems associated with interviewing. ■ opening the interview, - important as it sets
the tone of the interview process. This allows
■ Different views on the person they are
the candidate to relax into the interview and
looking for. The person specification may be a chance to observe the interviewers.
too vague or ambiguous so interviewers
have different ideas on what would be the ■ listening, - It is easy to spot the
success factors in the position. inexperienced interviewer; they believe they
should dominate the proceeding and do most
■ Decide intuitively. Despite repeated calls
of the talking.
for interviewers to base their decisions on the
objective evidence which they have
collected, there remains a constant ■ asking the right questions, - right way is a
temptation to make overall judgements large subject area.
based on intuition.
■ structured interviews. -
■ Make decisions before the interview takes
place or early on in the interview.
■ Prefer candidates like themselves. The so-
called ‘clone factor’ indicates that
interviewers give higher ratings on some
traits to candidates who are similar to
themselves, rather than matching the
candidates against the person specification.
■ Continue to stereotype candidates. Despite
the illegality of judging candidates on the
basis of their sex, ethnic origin, disability or
marital status, interviewers, often
unknowingly, will allow such considerations
to cloud their judgements. This can extend to
areas such as age, geographical origin,
accent, height and even their attire.
■ Cannot take on board all the information
provided. The brain can only assimilate a
certain amount of information. Each
candidate provides a wealth of data and even
30 minutes of interview time can be
transcribed into more than 10 pages of
written text.
Who carries out the interview?
There are three options for the interview
format: One-to-one interviews, paired
interviews, or panel interviews.
one-to-one interview, the candidate is more
likely to open up, respond to careful probing
and give all the required information
regarding their skills, experience,
competencies and viewpoints.
panel interview, which can consist of up to
10 interviewers, presents its own problems.
Pure logistics is one, where simply finding a
convenient time for all the participants can be
difficult enough.
Interviewing technique
These can be divided into preparation,
operation, and summation.
Operation covers a wide area and can be
divided into a number of areas:
Importance of Job Analysis
job analysis is the foundation for almost all
human resources activities. It is difficult to
imagine how one could write a job
description, select employees, evaluate
performance, or conduct training programs
without knowing the tasks an employee
performs, the conditions under which they
are performed, and the competencies
needed to perform the tasks.
Writing Job Descriptions
One of the written products of a job analysis
is a job description—a brief, two- to five-page
summary of the tasks and job requirements
found in the job analysis.
the job analysis is the process of determining
the work activities and requirements, and the
job description is the written result of the job
analysis. Job analyses and job descriptions
serve as the basis for many HR activities,
including employee selection, evaluation,
training, and work design.
Employee Selection
It is difficult to imagine how an employee can
be selected unless there is a clear
understanding of the tasks performed and
the competencies needed to perform those
tasks. By identifying such requirements, it is
possible to select tests or develop interview
questions that will determine whether a
particular applicant possesses the necessary
knowledge, skills, and abilities to carry out
the requirements of the job.
Personpower Planning
One important but seldom employed use of
job analysis is to determine worker mobility
within an organization.
Performance Appraisal
Another important use of job analysis is the
construction of a performance appraisal
instrument. As in employee selection, the
evaluation of employee performance must
be job related. Employees are often
evaluated with forms that use such vague
categories as “dependability,” “knowledge,”
and “initiative.”
Job Classification
Job analysis enables a human resource
professional to classify jobs into groups
based on similarities in requirements and
duties. Job classification is useful for
determining pay levels, transfers, and
promotions.
Job Evaluation
Job analysis information can also be used to
determine the worth of a job. Job evaluation
will be discussed in greater detail later in this
chapter.
Job Design
Job analysis information can be used to
determine the optimal way in which a job
should be performed.
Who Will Conduct the Analysis?
Typically, a job analysis is conducted by a
trained individual in the human resources
department, but it can also be conducted by
job incumbents, supervisors, or outside job
analysis and evaluation consultants.
Conducting a Job Analysis
Step 1: Identify Tasks Performed- Th is
information is usually gathered by obtaining
previous information on the job, interviewing
job incumbents, observing performance, or
actually performing the job itself.
Step 2: Write Task Statements- Once the
tasks have been identified, the next step is to
write the task statements that will be used in
the task inventory and included in the job
description.
Step 3: Rate Task Statements- Once the
task statements have been written (usually
including some tasks), the next step is
to conduct a task analysis—using a group of
SMEs to rate each task statement on the
frequency and the importance or criticality of
the task being performed.
Step 4: Determine Essential KSAOs. - the
next step is to identify the KSAOs needed to
perform the tasks.
• A knowledge is a body of information
needed to perform a task.
• A skill is the proficiency to perform a
learned task.
• An ability is a basic capacity for
performing a wide range of different
tasks, acquiring a knowledge, or
developing a skill.
Step 5: Selecting Tests to Tap KSAOs -
• Other characteristics include such
personal factors as personality,
willingness, interest, and motivation
and such tangible factors as licenses,
degrees, and years of experience.
Step 5: Selecting Tests to Tap KSAOs-
These methods will be used to select new
employees and include such methods as
interviews, work samples, ability tests,
personality tests, reference checks, integrity
tests, biodata, and assessment centers.
Job Evaluation
Once a job analysis has been completed and
a thorough job description written, it is
important to determine how much employees
in a position should be paid. This process of
determining a job’s worth is called job
evaluation. A job evaluation is typically done
in two stages: determining internal pay equity
and determining external pay equity.
Recruitment
An important step in selecting employees is
recruitment: attracting people with the right
qualifications (as determined in the job
analysis) to apply for the job.
The first decision is whether to promote
someone from within the organization
employee selection: recruiting and
interviewing (internal recruitment) or to hire
someone from outside the organization
(external recruitment).
Outside Recruiters
outside recruiting sources as private
employment agencies, public employment
agencies, and executive search firms.
Employment Agencies and Search Firms
Employment Agencies
Executive Search Firms- Executive search
firms, better known as “headhunters,” differ
from employment agencies in several ways.
Public Employment Agencies - designed
primarily to help the unemployed find work,
but they often offer services such as career
advisement and résumé preparation.
Employee Referrals- current employees
recommend family members and friends for
specific job openings.
Direct Mail- successful in product
advertising, several organizations have used
it to recruit applicants, especially those who
are not actively job hunting. With direct-mail
recruitment, an employer typically obtains a
mailing list and sends help-wanted letters or
brochures to people through the mail.
Internet-
Employer-Based Websites-an organization
lists available job openings and provides
information about itself, and the minimum
requirements needed to apply to a particular
job.
Job Fairs- designed to provide information
in a personal fashion to as many applicants
as possible. Job fairs are typically conducted
in one of three ways. In the first, many types
of organizations have booths at the same
location.
Incentives- When unemployment rates are
low, organizations have to take extra
measures to recruit employees. One of these
measures is to offer incentives for employees
to accept jobs with an organization.
Types of Interviews
Structure- The structure of an interview is
determined by the source of the questions,
the extent to which all applicants are asked
the same questions, and the structure of the
system used to score the answers. A
structured interview is one in which ( ) the
source of the questions is a job analysis (job-
related questions), ( ) all applicants are
asked the same questions, and ( ) there is a
standardized scoring key to evaluate each
answer. An unstructured interview is one in
which interviewers are free to ask anything
they want (e.g., Where do you want to be in
five years? What was the last book you
read?), are not required to have consistency
in what they ask of each applicant and may
assign numbers of points at their own
discretion.
Style- The style of an interview is determined
by the number of interviewees and number of
interviewers. One-on-one interviews involve
one interviewer interviewing one applicant.
Serial interviews involve a series of single
interviews. a.m. Return interviews are similar
to serial interviews with the difference being
a passing of time between the first and
subsequent interview. For example, an
applicant might be interviewed by the HR
manager and then brought back a week later
to interview with the vice-president. Panel
interviews have multiple interviewers asking
questions and evaluating answers of the
same applicant at the same time, and group
interviews have multiple applicants
answering questions during the same
interview. Of course one could put together
several combinations such as a serial-panel-
group interview, but life is too short for such
nonsense.
Medium-Interviews also differ in the extent to
which they are done in person. In face-to-
face interviews, both the interviewer and the
applicant are in the same room. Face-to-face
interviews provide a personal setting and
allow the participants to use both visual and
vocal cues to evaluate information.
Telephone interviews are often used to
screen applicants but do not allow the use of
visual cues (not always a bad thing). Face validity is the extent to which a test
Videoconference interviews are conducted at appears to be job related. This perception is
remote sites. The applicant and the important because if a test or its items do not
interviewer can hear and see each other, but appear valid, the test-takers and
the setting is not as personal, nor is the administrators will not have confidence in the
image and vocal quality of the interview as results.
sharp as in face-to-face interviews. Written
Making the Hiring Decision
interviews involve the applicant answering a
series of written questions and then sending Unadjusted Top-Down Selection
the answers back through regular mail or
through email. With top-down selection, applicants are rank
ordered on the basis of their test scores.
Characteristics of Effective Selection Selection is then made by starting with the
Techniques highest score and moving down until all
openings have been filled.
Effective selection techniques have four
characteristics. They are reliable, valid, cost- Rule of Three
efficient, and legally defensible.
A technique often used in the public sector is
Reliability- the extent to which a score from the rule of three (or rule of five), in which the
a selection measure is stable and free from names of the top three scorers are given to
error. If a score from a measure is not stable the person making the hiring decision (e.g.,
or error-free, it is not useful. Test reliability is police chief, HR director).
determined in four ways: test-retest reliability,
alternate-forms reliability, internal reliability, Passing Scores
and scorer reliability. Passing scores are a means for reducing
Test-Retest Reliability- With the test-retest adverse impact and increasing flexibility.
reliability method, each one of several people With this system, an organization determines
take the same test twice. The scores from the the lowest score on a test that is associated
first administration of the test are correlated with acceptable performance on the job.
with scores from the second to determine Banding
whether they are similar.
As mentioned previously, a problem with top-
Alternate-Forms Reliability- down hiring is that the process results in the
Validity- Validity is the degree to which highest levels of adverse impact. On the
inferences from scores on tests or other hand, use of passing scores decreases
assessments are justified by the evidence. adverse impact but reduces utility. As a
As with reliability, a test must be valid to be compromise between top-down hiring and
useful. There are five common strategies to passing scores, banding attempts to hire the
investigate the validity of scores on a test: top test scorers while still allowing some
content, criterion, construct, face, and known flexibility for affirmative action.
group.
Content Validity
One way to determine a test’s validity is to
look at its degree of content validity the
extent to which test items sample the content
that they are supposed to measure.
Criterion Validity
Another measure of validity is criterion
validity, which refers to the extent to which a
test score is related to some measure of job
performance called a criterion.
Construct validity is the most theoretical of
the validity types. Basically, it is defined as
the extent to which a test actually measures
the construct that it purports to measure.
Construct validity is concerned with
inferences about test scores, in contrast to
content validity, which is concerned with
inferences about test construction.
Job analysis is the process used to identify
the work performed and the working
conditions for each of the jobs within our
organizations.
Job analysis The process used to identify the
work performed and the working conditions
for each of the jobs within our organizations
Job description Identification of the major
tasks, duties, and responsibilities that are
components of a job.
Job specification Identification of the
qualifications of a person who should be
capable of doing the job tasks noted in the
job description.
Job Analysis Methods
Five commonly used methods of job analysis
include the use of questionnaires, interviews,
diaries, observation, and subject matter
expert panels.
Job Design/Redesign
Job design is the process of identifying
tasks that each employee is responsible for
completing, as well as identifying how those
tasks will be accomplished.
Job redesign refers to changing the tasks or
the way work is performed in an existing job.
Approaches to Job Design and Redesign
1. Mechanistic (vs. organic) job design
focuses on designing jobs around the
concepts of task specialization, skill
simplification, and repetition.
2. Biological job design focuses on
minimizing the physical strain on the
worker by structuring the physical
work environment around the way the
body works.
3. Perceptual-motor job design focuses
on designing jobs with tasks that
remain within the worker’s normal
mental capabilities and limitations.
4. Motivational job design Designing
jobs by focusing on the job
characteristics that affect the
psychological meaning and
motivational potential of the job; this
approach views attitudinal variables
as the most important outcomes of
job design.
The Job Characteristics Model (JCM)
1. Skill variety is the number of diverse tasks
that make up a job and the number of skills
used to perform the job.
2. Task identity is the degree to which an
employee performs a whole identifiable task.
For example, does the employee put
together an entire television or just place the
screen in the set?
3. Task significance is an employee’s
perception of the importance of the task to
others—the organization, the department,
coworkers, and/or customers.
4. Autonomy is the degree to which the
employee has discretion to make decisions
in planning, organizing, and controlling the
task performed.
5. Feedback is the extent to which
employees find out how well they perform
their tasks.
Job Simplification
is the process of eliminating or combining
tasks and/or changing the work sequence to
improve performance. Job simplification
makes jobs more specialized.
Job expansion
Job expansion is the process of making jobs
broader, with less repetition. Jobs can be
expanded through rotation, enlargement,
and enrichment. Job expansion allows us to
focus on making the work more varied.
Job enlargement
Job enlargement involves adding tasks—at
the same level in the organization—to
broaden variety.
Job enrichment
Job enrichment is the process of building
motivators into the job itself to make it more
interesting and challenging, frequently
through increasing autonomy.
Reliability- identifies how consistent a
particular measure is.
Validity refers to whether or not we
measured what we thought we measured.
What we are measuring seems obvious to
us, but we sometimes make mistakes.
Recruitment
Recruiting is the process of creating a
reasonable pool of qualified candidates for a
job opening.
Internal Recruiting
Internal recruiting involves filling job
openings with current employees or people
the employees know.
Open recruiting consists of advertising the
job openly within the organization, and
anyone who meets the qualifications can
apply for the job opening.
Targeted recruiting we ask managers to
privately nominate workers who they feel
would be able to do the job that needs to be
filled.
closed recruiting occurs when hiring
managers have a need to fill a position and
they communicate that need to HR. HR
recruiters will then search the organization’s
files for people who have the requisite skills
and qualifications and send a list of such
individuals to the hiring manager.
External Recruiting is the process of
engaging individuals from the labor market
outside the firm to apply for a job.
External Recruiting Sources
- Walk-ins
- Educational Institutions
- Employment Agencies - There are
three major types of employment
agencies:Temporary agencies,
Public agencies and Private
employment agencies are
- Advertising
There are several different types of private
employment agencies:
-General employment agencies operate on a
for-profit basis.
-Contingency agencies offer employees to
the employer and are paid when the job
candidate is hired by the employer.
-Retained search firms or executive
recruiters are paid to search for a specific
type of recruit for the organization and will be
paid regardless of success in their recruiting
efforts.
Selection
The Importance of the Selection Process
Selection is the process of choosing the
best-qualified applicant who was recruited for
a given job.
Steps in the Selection Process
- Looking for “Fit”
- Personality-Job Fit
- Ability-Job Fit
- Person-Organization Fit
Uniform Guidelines on Employee
Selection Procedures
Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection
Procedures (UGESP) provide information
that can be used to avoid discriminatory
hiring practices as well as discrimination in
other employment decisions. Most often
called simply the “Uniform Guidelines,” they
were created to guide employers in their
efforts to comply with the federal laws
concerning all employment decisions, and
especially the selection process.
What Qualifies as an Employment Test?
Valid and Reliable Measures
Validity
Criterion-related validity is an assessment
of the ability of a test to measure some other
factor related to the test.
Content validity is an assessment of
whether a test measures knowledge or
understanding of the items it is supposed to
measure.
Construct validity measures a theoretical
concept or trait that is not directly observable.
Reliability - Reliability is the consistency of
a test measurement. In addition to being
valid, for a measure to be useful in any type
of testing (including employment testing), it
needs to be reliable.
Applications and Preliminary Screening
The first step in the selection process is to
get job applicants to fill out an application
and/or send in their résumé. Then we do
preliminary screening that may include a
quick background check, testing, and initial
interviewing to narrow down the applicants to
the best matches, or fit, for the job.
Applications and Résumés
the recruited candidates are typically asked
to complete an application to provide
biographical data. We need data to aid in
selecting the best person for the job.
1. Closed-ended questions, which require a
limited response, often a yes or no
answer,mand are appropriate for dealing
with fixed aspects of the job. Examples
include, “Domyou have a class-one license?”
and “Can you produce it if hired?”
2. Open-ended questions, which require
detailed responses and are appropriate for
determining candidate abilities and Credit Checks
motivation. Examples include, “Why do you
one of the most commonly used background
want to be a computer programmer for our
checks is the credit check. Credit checks are
company?” and “What do you see as a major
subject to the Fair Credit Reporting Act
strength you can bring to our company?”
(FCRA), which requires that employers
3. Hypothetical questions, which require disclose to the applicant that they will use
candidates to describe what they would do credit reports for employment decisions.
and say in a given situation. These questions
Criminal Background Checks
are appropriate for assessing capabilities. An
example would be, “What would the problem Reference Checks
be if the machine made a ringing sound?”
Reference checks include not only calls to
4. Probing questions, which require a references that are provided by the applicant,
clarification response and are appropriate for but also reference letters from employers,
improving the interviewer’s understanding. personal letters of recommendation, and
Probing questions are not planned. They are possibly cold calls to previous employers.
used to clarify the candidate’s response to an
open-ended or hypothetical question.
Examples include, “What do you mean by ‘it
was tough’?” and “What was the dollar
increase in sales you achieved?”

Preparing for the Interview

Step 1: Review the job description and
specifications
Step 2: Prepare a realistic job preview
Step 3: Plan the type of interview
Step 4: Develop questions for all
candidates
Step 5: Develop a form
Step 6: Develop questions for each
candidate

Conducting the Interview

Step 1: Open the interview
Step 2: Present the realistic job preview
(RJP)
Step 3: Ask your questions
Step 4: Introduce top candidates to
coworkers
Step 5: Close the interview

Background Checks
Background checks are needed to help
prevent negligent hires. in addition to
verification of the information on a
candidate’s application form and/or résumé,
several other types of background checks
may or may not be appropriate.