MAXINE MORENO & RENA GRACE DALADAR

TOPIC 04
EMPLOYEE SELECTION:
REFERENCES AND
TESTING
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Understand why references typically don’t predict performance
Learn how to use the trait approach to score letters of recommendation

Understand how to choose the right type of employment test for a particular situation

Be able to describe the different types of tests used to select employees

Be able to create and score a biodata instrument

Know 03
how to write a well-designed rejection letter
01 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING REFERENCES AND LETTERS OF
RECOMMENDATION
In psychology, a common belief is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance.

Verifying previous employment is not difficult, but it can be difficult to verify the quality of previous
performance.

Reference Check The process of confirming the accuracy of résumé and job
application information.

Reference The expression of an opinion, either orally or through a

written checklist, regarding an applicant’s ability, previous
performance, work habits, character, or potential for
future success.

Letter of A letter expressing an opinion regarding an applicant’s

recommendation ability, previous performance, work habits, character, or
potential for success.
01 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING REFERENCES AND LETTERS OF
RECOMMENDATION
REASONS FOR USING REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Confirming Details on a Résumé It is not uncommon for applicants to engage in résumé fraud.
Résumé fraud The intentional placement of untrue information on a
résumé.

Checking for Discipline Problems - determine whether the applicant has a history of such discipline
problems as poor attendance, sexual harassment, and violence.
Negligent hiring A situation in which an employee with a previous criminal
record commits a crime as part of his/her employment.
01 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING REFERENCES AND LETTERS OF
RECOMMENDATION
REASONS FOR USING REFERENCES AND RECOMMENDATIONS

Discovering New Information About the Applicant Former employers and professors can provide
information about an applicant’s work habits, character, personality, and skills. Care must be taken,
however, when using these methods because the opinion provided by any particular reference may be
inaccurate or purposefully untrue.

Predicting Future Performance References and letters of recommendation are ways to try to predict future
performance by looking at past performance.
Negligent reference
Four main problems with references and letters of recommendation: An organization’s failure to meet its
leniency legal duty to supply relevant
information to a prospective
knowledge of the applicant employer about a former
low reliability employee’s potential for legal
extraneous factors trouble.
01 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING REFERENCES AND LETTERS OF
RECOMMENDATION
RAYNES (2005) LISTS THREE ETHICAL GUIDELINES THAT REFERENCE PROVIDERS
SHOULD FOLLOW

First, explicitly state your relationship with the person you are
recommending.
Second, be honest in providing details.

Finally, let the applicant see your reference before sending it, and give
him the chance to decline to use it.
02
PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING APPLICANT TRAINING AND
EDUCATION
A meta-analysis by Ng and Feldman (2009) found that better educated employees had higher performance,
were more likely to engage in organizational citizenship behaviors, less likely to be absent, and less likely to
engage in on-the-job substance abuse than were employees with lower levels of education.

Meta-analyses indicate that a student’s GPA can predict job performance (Roth, BeVier, Switzer, &
Schippmann, 1996), training performance (Dye & Reck, 1989), promotions (Cohen, 1984), salary (Roth &
Clarke, 1998), and graduate school performance (Kuncel, Hezlett, & Ones, 2001).
01
PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING APPLICANT KNOWLEDGE

Job knowledge test A test that measures the amount of job-related

knowledge an applicant possesses.

Job knowledge tests are designed to measure how much a person knows about a job.
Job knowledge tests are good predictors of both training performance and onthe-job performance
04 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING APPLICANT ABILITY
Ability tests tap the extent to which an applicant can learn or perform a job-related skill.
Ability tests are used primarily for occupations in which applicants are not expected to know how to
perform the job at the time of hire.

Cognitive ability Abilities involving the knowledge and use of information such as math and
grammar.
Cognitive ability test Tests designed to measure the level of intelligence or the
amount of knowledge possessed by an applicant.
Ex. Wonderlic Personnel Test. The cognitive ability test that is
most commonly used in industry.

Perceptual ability Measure of facility with such processes as spatial relations and form perception.

Psychomotor Measure of facility with such processes as finger dexterity and motor coordination.
ability

Physical Ability Physical ability tests Tests that measure an applicant’s level of physical ability
required for a job.
05 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING APPLICANT SKILL
Work Samples

The applicant performs actual job-related tasks.

Assessment Centers
A method of selecting employees in which applicants participate in several job-related activities, at
least one of which must be a simulation, and are rated by several trained evaluators.

Development and Components

In-basket technique The applicant performs actual job-related tasks.

Enable assessors to see an applicant “in action.”
Simulation

Work sample
Leaderless Group Discussion applicants meet in small groups and are given a job-related problem to solve or a
job-related issue to discuss.

Business games simulate the business and marketing activities that take place in an organization.
06 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING PRIOR EXPERIENCE

Experience Ratings In giving credit for experience, one must consider the amount of
experience, the level of performance demonstrated during the
previous experience, and how related the experience is to the current
job.

Biodata a selection method that considers an applicant’s life, school,

military, community, and work experience. Meta-analyses have
shown that biodata is a good predictor of job performance, as well
as the best predictor of future employee tenure.
06 Development of a Biodata Instrument

File approach The gathering of biodata from employee The method of obtaining
Questionnaire
files rather than by questionnaire. approach biodata from questionnaires
Biodata Questionnaire rather than from employee
files.
Criterion Group
Division of employees into groups based on high and low scores on a
particular criterion.

Vertical percentage method

For scoring biodata in which the percentage of unsuccessful
employees responding in a particular way is subtracted from the
percentage of successful employees responding in the same way.

Derivation sample
A group of employees who were used in creating the initial weights
for a biodata instrument.

Hold-out sample
A group of employees who are not used in creating the initial weights
for a biodata instrument but instead are used to double-check the
accuracy of the initial weights.
06
07 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING PERSONALITY, INTEREST, AND CHARACTER
Personality Inventories A psychological assessment designed to measure various aspects of
an applicant’s personality. They predict performance better than
was once thought, and in part because they result in less adverse
impact than do ability tests.

Two categories based on their intended purpose:

Measurement of Types of
Normal Personality

Measurement of
Psychopathology
(abnormal personality)
07
Measurement of Types of
Normal Personality

- measure the traits exhibited by normal individuals in everyday life.

Examples of such traits are extraversion, shyness, assertiveness, and friendliness.

Determination of the number and type of personality dimensions measured by an inventory can usually be

(1) based on a theory,

The number of dimensions in a theory-based test is identical to the number postulated by a well-known theorist

(2) statistically based,

The number of dimensions in a statistically based test is determined through a statistical process called factor
analysis.

(3) empirically based,

The number and location of dimensions under which items fall in an empirically based test is determined by
grouping answers given by people known to possess a certain characteristic.
07
Measurement of Types of
Psychopathology
(abnormal behavior)
- Use to determine whether individuals have serious psychological problems such as depression, bipolar disorder, and
schizophrenia.
- Though used extensively by clinical psychologists, these tests are seldom used by I/O psychologists except in the
selection of law enforcement officers.

Tests of psychopathology are generally scored in one of two ways: objectively or projectively

Projective Test
Objective Test
provide the respondent with unstructured tasks such as
are structured so that the respondent is limited to a few
describing ink blots and drawing pictures.
answers that will be scored by standardized keys. By far
the most popular and heavily studied test of this type is
rarely used in employee selection.
the MMPI-2.

ex. Rorschach Inkblot Test, TAT

07 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING PERSONALITY, INTEREST, AND CHARACTER
Interest Inventories A psychological test designed to identify vocational areas in which
an individual might be interested.

Strong Interest Invenroty (SII) – the most commonly used interest inventory.

The theory behind these tests is that an individual with interests similar to those of people in a
particular field will more likely be satisfied in that field than in a field composed of people whose
interests are dissimilar.

Vocational counseling – process of helping an individual choose and prepare for the most suitable career.
07 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING PERSONALITY, INTEREST, AND CHARACTER
Integrity Test tell an employer the probability that an applicant would steal money
(honesty test) or merchandise.

Polygraph Protection Act making general use of electronic integrity tests, such as the
polygraph and the voice stress analyzer, illegal for employee selection purposes except in a
few situations involving law enforcement agencies and national security.

The law did, however, allow the use of paper-and-pencil integrity tests, which are either
(1) overt or
(2) personality-based.

Shrinkage The amount of

goods lost by an organization as a result of theft, breakage, or other loss.
07 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING PERSONALITY, INTEREST, AND CHARACTER

provide test takers with a series of statements and then ask the
Conditional Reasoning respondent to select the reason that best justifies or explains each of
Tests
the statements. The type of reason selected by the individual is
thought to indicate his or her aggressive biases or beliefs.

(1) Employers believe that people who owe money might be more
Credit History
likely to steal or accept bribes, and
(2) employees with good
credit are more responsible and conscientious and thus will be better
employees.
07 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE USING PERSONALITY, INTEREST, AND CHARACTER

Also called handwriting analysis, a method of measuring personality

Graphology by looking at the way in which a person writes.

To analyze a person’s handwriting, a graphologist looks at the size,

slant, width, regularity, and pressure of a writing sample.
From these writing characteristics, information about temperament
and mental, social, work, and moral traits is obtained.
08 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE LIMITATIONS DUE TO MEDICAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Republic Act No. 7277,

limits the consideration of medical and
psychological problems to those that
keep the employee
from performing essential job
functions.
also known as the Magna Carta for Persons
with Disabilities
lfocus on promoting the hiring of disabled
individuals and providing reasonable
accommodations in the workplace.
08 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE LIMITATIONS DUE TO MEDICAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
Tests that indicate whether an applicant
has recently used a drug.
Drug Testing

Certainly is one of the most controversial testing methods used by HR

professionals.

Testing of employees usually takes one of three forms:

1. All employees or randomly selected employees are tested at predetermined times.
2. All employees or randomly selected employees are tested at random times.
3. Employees who have been involved in an accident or disciplinary action are
tested following the incident.
08 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE LIMITATIONS DUE TO MEDICAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS
In jobs involving public safety
Psychological Exams (e.g., law enforcement, nuclear power, transportation),
it is common for employers to give psychological exams to
applicants after a conditional offer of hire has been made

Psychological exams usually consist of

an interview by a clinical psychologist,
an examination of the applicant’s life history, and
the administration of one or more of the psychological tests. I

It is important to keep in mind that psychological exams are not designed to predict employee
performance. Therefore, they should only be used to determine if a potential employee is a danger to
himself or others.
08 PREDICTING PERFORMANCE LIMITATIONS DUE TO MEDICAL
AND PSYCHOLOGICAL PROBLEMS

In jobs requiring physical exertion.

Medical
In these exams, the physician is given a copy of the job
Exams
description and asked to determine if there are any
medical conditions that will keep the employee from
safely performing the job.
09

COMPARISON OF TECHNIQUES
Which method of selecting employees is best?
09

Validity Ability, work samples, biodata, and structured

interviews are highlighted as effective predictors of
future employee performance.

The most valid selection battery is suggested to include

a cognitive ability test along with either a work sample,
an integrity test, or a structured interview.
While some selection techniques are better than
others, all can be potentially useful for selecting
employees. A properly constructed selection battery
usually includes a variety of tests that assess different
dimensions of a job.
09

Legal Issues
Employee selection methods can be legally
challenged if they negatively impact
privacy and lack face validity. Cognitive
ability and GPA have the highest adverse
impact, while integrity tests, references,
and personality inventories have the
lowest. Interviews, work samples, and
résumés are perceived as job-related and
fair, while graphology, integrity tests, and
personality tests are seen as less.
10
REJECTING APPLICANTS
Once a decision has been made regarding which applicants will be
hired, those who will not be hired must be notified. Rejected applicants
should be treated well because they are potential customers and
potential applicants for other positions that might become available in
the organization
 APPLIED CASE STUDY CITY OF NEW LONDON,
CONNECTICUT, POLICE DEPARTMENT
The City of New London, Connecticut, faced controversy in its police officer
selection process, incorporating the Wonderlic Personnel Test. Robert J. Jordan's
application was rejected due to scoring 33 on the Wonderlic, considered "too
bright" for the job. New London argued that highly intelligent officers might grow
bored and cause issues or quit. This policy drew national ridicule and
embarrassment, with the neighboring Groton Police Department favoring high-
scoring candidates. Public sentiment leaned toward hiring the right candidate, even
if turnover was high. Jordan filed a lawsuit but lost; the judge ruled that while the
disqualification might be unwise, it wasn't a violation of equal protection. This case
prompts questions about the fairness and practicality of excluding highly intelligent
individuals from consideration and raises discussions about determining cognitive
ability requirements for specific jobs.
 THE ETHICS OF TESTS OF NORMAL PERSONALITY IN EMPLOYEE SELECTION

CONCERNS
1 Privacy Issues
2 Predictive Accuracy
3 Subjectivity and Mood Impact
4 Lack of Regulation

5 Organizational Fit and Interpersonal Dynamics

03
REFERENCES
Aamodt M. G. (2016). Industrial (8th ed.). Cengage Learning.
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Republic
03 Act No. 7277. (1992). Magna Carta for Disabled Persons.

Retrieved from
http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/research/Philippines/RA%207277%20-
%20Magna%20Carta%20of%20Disabled%20Persons.pdf
THANK
You
Maxine M. Moreno

Rena Grace A. Daladar