Personnel Psychology: Employee Selection

1. Personnel Psychology:Employee Selection Guide for UHS 2062 students at UTM, Malaysia Prepared by : SitiRokiahSiwok , srsiwok@gmail.com

2. Recruitment • Revision: Job analysis is the cornerstone of personnel selection. Unless a complete an accurate picture of a job is done, it would be difficult to select excellent employees. • During the job analysis process, in addition to identifying the important task and duties, it is crucial to identify knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform the job.

3. Recruitment • Methods used to select employees must be directly tied to the results of the job analysis. • Every essential knowledge, skill and ability identified in the job analysis should be tested and every test must relate to the job analysis.

4. Recruitment • Recruitment is attracting the right people for a certain job. • Two types of recruitment : • Internal • External There is a need to balance between internal and external recruitment.

5. Effective Recruitment Methods Should be: • Valid : A valid selection test is based on a job analysis (content validity), predicts work behaviour (criterion validity) and measures the construct it purpots to measure (construct validity). • Cost effective : in all terms, that is to purchase or create, to administer and to score.

6. Effective Recruitment Methods Should: • Get the attention of the public • Screen unqualified applicants • Motivate qualified people to apply • Timely • Reduce the chance of legal challenge

7. Recruitment Methods • Informal or Indirect • Situation-wanted ads • Direct applications • Employee referrals • Formal or Direct • Media advertisements • Point of purchase • Direct mail • Employment agencies • College recruiters • Computer databases • Special events • Employee referral programs

8. Special Populations • The retired • The mentally or physically challenged • Ex-convicts • Current convicts • People on welfare assistance • Employees in other organizations • People in foreign countries • Temporary employees

9. Effective Employee Selection Techniques

10. Optimal Employee Selection Should be: • Valid • Based on a job analysis (content validity) • Predict work-related behavior (criterion validity) • Able to Reduce the Chance of a Legal Challenge • Face valid • Don’t invade privacy • Don’t intentionally discriminate • Minimize adverse impact • Cost Effective • Cost to purchase/create • Cost to administer • Cost to score

11. Effective Employee Selection Techniques • Interviews • Résumé • References • Testing

12. Interviews • Structure • Structured • Unstructured • Semi structured • Style • One to one • Serial • Return • Panel • group • Medium • Face to face, telephone, video conference, in writing etc

13. Unstructured Interviews are Not Optimal • Because they: • Unreliable • Not valid • Legally problematic • Are not job related • Rely on intuition, “amateur psychology,” and talk show methods • Suffer from common rating problems • Primacy • Contrast • Similarity • Range restriction (e.g., leniency, strictness, central tendency)

14. Examples of Common Unstructured Interview Questions • Where do you see yourself five years from now? • What are your greatest strengths? • What are your greatest weaknesses? • What subject did you most enjoy in college? • Why should I hire you? • Why are you interested in this job?

15. Structured Interviews are Optimal • Because they are : • Reliable • Valid • Are based on a job analysis • Ask the same questions of each applicant • Have a standardized scoring procedure • Not as prone to legal challenge

16. Goals of Structured Interview • Understand the Applicant • Clarify and confirm resume information • Obtain new information • Predict Job Performance • Ask questions focused on past behavior • Ask questions focused on knowledge and skills • Ask questions focused on future behavior • Predict Organizational Fit • Use several interviewers • Combine interview impression with test scores • Sell the Organization to the Applicant • Provide information about the position/organization • Answer the applicant’s questions

17. Creating the Structured Interview • Conduct a thorough job analysis • Determine best way to measure each KSAO • Construct Questions • Determine rating anchors for each question • Choose two or more members for the interview panel

18. Employee Selection Techniques: Résumés

19. Résumés • Résumés are summaries of an applicant’s professional and educational background. • Commonly asked by employers but little is known about the value of predicting employee performance. • It is unclear how much predictive value résumés have.

20. Résumés • Résumés may not predict performance partly because they are meant to “advertise” an applicant; making the “strengths of the applicant more obvious and weaknesses hard to find”. • Result: many résumés contain inaccurate information. • Aamodt and Williams (2005) found that 25% of résumés contained inaccurate information. • No best way to write résumés.

21. More of Employee Selection Techniques

22. References and Recommendations • Common belief in psychology is : the best predictor of future performance is past performance. • Verifying previous employment is not difficult but DIFFICULT to ascertain the QUALITY of previous performance.

23. References and Recommendations • Terms : • Reference checks is the process of confirming the accuracy of information given by the applicant. • A reference is the expression of an opinion, either orally or written regarding applicant’s ability, previous performance, work habits, character, work habits etc. • A letter of recommendation is a letter expressing an opinion regarding an applicant’s ability etc.

24. Using Applicants’ Training and Education • Using applicant Training and Education • Min level of education and training • Inconsistent results regarding validity • Meta-analysis indicated a student’s GPA can predict performance ...

25. Using Applicant’s Knowledge • Job performance can also be predicted using applicants’ knowledge; hence job knowledge tests are designed to measure how much a person knows about a job. • Examples : computer programming knowledge etc • Standardised tests are also available .

26. Testing • According to ability. • ..which tap the extent to which an applicant can learn or perform a job-related skill. • Ability tests are used primarily for occupations in Applicants are not expected to know how to perform the job at the time of hire. Eg: police officers, fire fighters, military personnel.

27. Testing: According to Ability Cognitive Ability: • Includes oral and written comprehension, oral and written expression, numerical etc. • Important for professional, clerical and supervisory jobs. • Meta-analyses suggests that cognitive ability is one of the best predictors of performance across all jobs, but job-specific meta-analyses raise doubts about the assumptions. • E.gs of cognitive ability test : Wonderlic Personnel Test, Miller Analogies Test and Quick Test

28. Testing: According to Ability Other ability tests are : Perceptual Ability Psychomotor Ability Physical Ability

29. Using Applicant’s Skills • This method measures the extent to which an applicant has already a job-related skill. • Two most common methods are work sample and assessment centre. • With work-sample, the applicant performs actual job-related tasks; excellent selection tools and has high validity. Applicants also see the direct connection.

30. Assessment Centers • An assessment centre is a selection technique characterized by the use of multiple assessment methods that allow multiple assessors to actually observe applicants perform simulated tasks. • Major advantage: • Assessment methods are all job related and multiple assessors help guard against some types of biases.

31. Using Personality, Interest and Character • Personality Inventories • Interest inventories • Integrity Tests • Graphology

32. Personality Inventories • Increasingly popular as an employee selection method. • Falls into 2 categories based on their intended purpose: • 1) normal personality • 2) abnormal personality (psychopathology)

33. Personality Inventories: Normal Personality • Tests of normal personality measures traits exhibited by normal individuals in everyday life. Eg. of such traits are: extraversion, shyness, assertiveness and friendliness. • Myers-Briggs Type Indicator • Edwards Personal Preference Schedule • 16 PF • Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)

34. Personality Inventories: Normal Personality • There are 100s of personality inventories, there is a general agreement that most personality traits can be placed into one of the five personality dimensions, known as the “BIG FIVE” or the five factor model. • Openness to experience (bright and inquisitive) • Conscientiousness (reliable, dependable) • Extraversion (outgoing, friendly) • Agreeableness (works well with others) • Emotional stability

35. Personality Inventories: Psychopathology • Tests of abnormal personality determine whether individuals have serious psychological problems such as depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia. • Seldom used in IOP unless required as part of medical examinations .

36. Interest Inventories • Designed to tap vocational interests. • Most commonly used is the Strong Interest Inventory(SII) which asked individuals to indicate whether they like or dislike 325 items such as bargaining, repairing electrical wire and taking responsibility. • Answers provide profile of the person.

37. Integrity tests • Informs the employer of the applicant’s honesty; such as the probability that an applicant will steal money or merchandise • One study estimates that 50% of employees access to cash steal from their employers (Wimbush and Dalton, 1997).

38. Graphology • Handwriting analysis . • Used 8% in the UK and 75% in France. • The idea behind it is that the way people write reveals their personality, which in turn indicates work performance.

39. Main references: • Aamodt, M. G ( 2010). Industrial/Organizational Psychology. An Applied Approach.( 6th Ed) USA: Wadsworth • Spector, P. E. ( 2008). Industrial and Organizational Psychology (5thed). USA: Wiley • Employee Recruitment (2010). Cengage Learning