Initial Assessment: Emphasizing Past Behavior

1. Initial Assessment: Emphasizing Past Behavior Prof. John Kammeyer-Mueller MGT 6366

3. Logic of Prediction: Past Performance Predicts Future Performance Not specific enough to make selection decisions Job titles Number of years of experience What counts is the specific types of experiences required and the level of success at each

4. A Proposed Organizing System Predictor Measures Resumes (education and experience) Job simulations Tests and standardized scales Interviews Background investigations Predictor Constructs Knowledge and skill in job requirements General mental ability Conscientious work habits Appropriate work style (i.e. personality) for the specific job

5. Schmidt & Hunter:Results for Job Performance

6. Schmidt & Hunter:Results for Training Performance

7. Schmidt & Hunter:Toward a Theory of Determinants Three major types of predictors Ability Experience Personality (conscientiousness, emotional stability, agreeableness) Mediating characteristics Job knowledge mediates ability and personality links to job performance Little information on mediators of personality is presented

8. Hausknecht, Day, & Thomas:Applicant Reactions to Selection Procedures

9. Hausknecht, Day, & Thomas:Applicant Reactions to Selection Procedures

10. Hausknecht, Day, & Thomas:Applicant Reactions to Selection Procedures

11. From Statistics to Substance�Whom Do You Want to Hire? Job specific characteristics Knows what the job involves Has skill or experience at doing the things that are required General characteristics Intelligent Hard working Gets along with other people The emphasis on each varies from job to job How specific are the typical tasks? Is the job in a promotion chain? Will the job change over time?

12. R�sum�s and cover letters Costs and benefits of r�sum�s and letters Methods for creating r�sum�s Methods for scanning and comparing r�sum�s and letters

13. R�sum�s are among the most popular screening methods This makes sense Applicants perceive them as fair Give detailed background on what a person has done Provide an insight into what an applicant would tend to do on their own No cost to collect them This also seems strange R�sum�s are easy to fake Provide biased information (only good things) Their open-ended nature makes them hard to compare Can be expensive in terms of employee time

14. Methods for scoring application forms and r�sum�s Simple r�sum� sort Take the r�sum�s and sort from best to worst Write down reasons for sorting Score based on mentioned information One point for mention of each relevant item Develop an anchored rating scale Score ranges from 5=excellent answer on each dimension to 1=very poor answer on each dimension

16. New Trends in R�sum� Screening�Scanning Software Very few companies read r�sum�s any more�most send them to r�sum� scanning software Software won�t look for vague things like �good communicator� Scanning software is likely to look for nouns (project management experience) rather than action verbs with adjectives (managed high-level projects) Applicants should create a specific list of keywords and phrases for themselves and make certain they are used While formatting may be impressive in some fields, many companies require all r�sum�s to have identical format

17. Application blanks Traditional application blank methods Work experience Education Weighted application blanks

18. After the R�sum�the Application Applications are the ways a company organizes information that might otherwise be on an resume Gives the company control over formatting Guarantees that certain questions are answered Typically these documents are legally binding (i.e. lying, if discovered later, is considered grounds for termination)

19. Unit 2, Lecture 4: Initial Selection Techniques Overview of Seniority and Experience Definitions Seniority Length of service with organization, department, or job Experience Not only length of service but also kinds of activities an employee has undertaken Why so widely used? Direct experience in a job content area reflects an accumulated stock of KSAOs necessary to perform job Information is easily and cheaply obtained Protects employee from capricious treatment and favoritism Promoting senior or experienced employees is socially acceptable -- viewed as rewarding loyalty

20. Work Experience and Job Performance Experience is nearly universally used to select individuals There are many different ways to conceptualize experience however Levels of specificity: do you measure just the specific task the person is doing, or do you measure the entire scope of the job? Measurement mode: do you measure quantity, quality, or type of experience?

21. Levels of Measuring Experience:A Complete Typology

22. Levels of Measuring Experience:Another Specific Example

23. So What�s the Best Way to Measure Experience?

24. Average Applicant Experience Moderates the Importance of Experience

25. Implications for Measuring Experience Level of specificity The more task specific you can be, the better your prediction of performance will be This may be because people are more willing to �fudge� a job title but won�t outright lie about a specific task Measurement mode Time is slightly better than type of experience Again, could this be because it�s more objective (i.e. reliable?) Type of applicant group Experience does differentiate when applicants have little to no experience on average As the average candidate has more and more experience, the differences in their experience levels become less and less important

26. Education and Job Performance Education is often called the �primary sorting mechanism� for jobs in the United States Many jobs have formally imposed educational standards (e.g., doctors, lawyers, accountants, engineers, etc.) There is lower variation in education than IQ within wage quintiles Those who have very similar education levels tend to make nearly the same amount of money Those who have very similar IQ have much more variability in their income levels

28. Education and Job Performance Arguments for using education It�s an indicator for job skills Measures how smart people are (r=.50+) Measures conscientiousness (r=.35) It�s cheap and can be verified Arguments against using education Why not measure intelligence and skills directly? Years of education completed is too broad a predictor Potential for adverse impact against minorities

29. Could Educational Requirements Lead to Adverse Impact?

30. Could Educational Requirements Lead to Adverse Impact?

31. Could Educational Requirements Lead to Adverse Impact?

32. A Better Way of Checking: University GPA Evidence that GPA is used Many organizations ask college placement offices for grades By some estimates, about 40% of companies doing on-campus interviews have a minimum GPA requirement for interviews

33. Companies Use GPA: Invitations for On-Campus Interviews

34. GPA and Adverse Impact: Often Worse than Degree Status Results using various hypothetical cutoffs Data collected from 527 business seniors and 77 accounting seniors Results show clear adverse impact for all cutoffs

35. Correlations between Education and Performance

36. Correlations between Education and Income

37. Weighted Application Blanks Your textbook takes a lot of time talking about using weighted application blanks The basic method is to examine the correlation between various parts of the application and overall job performance Put more weight on those that are more correlated Basically, an application of multiple regression This is the first step towards what we will call biodata�

38. Biodata The concept behind biodata Basic biodata item types Validity of biodata Applicant reactions

39. Moving beyond the application blank: Biographical data The assumption that underlies the use of biodata is that past behavior is a valid predictor of future behavior. Information about work experiences, education, or even hobbies can be used. Items are selected on the basis of research which demonstrates significant relationships between item responses and job performance. Examples skills socioeconomic level-financial status social interests personal characteristics, attitudes expressed.

40. Empirical keying: Developing a biodata item successfully Poor items do not discriminate between good and poor employees Good items have high discrimination between good and poor employees

41. Remembering how we did this before

42. Some issues with empirical keying Many items are relatively common among both good and bad employees Even good items may be uncommon among applicants in general

43. Advantages and disadvantages of biodata measures Advantages Very difficult for applicants to fake The process is completely standardized Because its numbers driven you can perform it objectively Across meta-analyses the correlation between biodata and job performance is about 0.40 Disadvantages Prediction without understanding Current employees are a restricted group Cannot be transported from situation to situation Applicants may react negatively to intrusive questions Verifiability is extremely low

44. Questions for an application blank

45. Measurement and Meaning of Job Knowledge Correlations with job performance This is pretty cut and dried, so despite my strong desire for consistency in the length of these subsections, there�s not much else to say about this

46. Hiring for the job: Tests for job-specific knowledge Work samples Actual physical mock up of job tasks In-basket exercises for managerial tasks Relationship with job performance r=0.54 Job knowledge Questions regarding factual and procedural elements of the job Relationship with job performance r=0.48 1 Schmidt, F. L., Hunter, J. E., Outerbridge, A. N. (1986). Impact of job experience and ability on job knowledge, work sample performance, and supervisory ratings of job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 432-439.1 Schmidt, F. L., Hunter, J. E., Outerbridge, A. N. (1986). Impact of job experience and ability on job knowledge, work sample performance, and supervisory ratings of job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 71, 432-439.

47. Examples of job knowledge tests Job knowledge HR job Which of the following laws is relevant for the practice of human resources selection? Describe the 4/5ths rule as it applies to the process of employee recruiting. Nursing job Your assessment reveals diffuse wheezing throughout her lungs, clubbed fingers, and peripheral edema. Her arterial blood gases (ABGs), taken in the ED, show chronic respiratory acidosis with hypoxemia and chronic hypercapnia. What is the likely diagnosis? Information systems management What is the difference between a LAN and WAN in terms of connectivity and cost of maintenance?

48. Background checks The premise behind background checks and negligent hiring Methods of background checks Credit reports Criminal records References Defamation of character Legal difficulties in failing to get references

49. Background checks�can they increase employer knowledge? Background information could be very informative Past behavior predicts future behavior Jobs are similar from company to company Protect the public from dangerous individuals References can be very problematic What if discrimination or prejudices are communicated through references? What if a former employer wants to �blackball� anyone who wants to leave? The result: the background check paradox!

50. You�d Better Do Some Checking Examples of fraud tactics ADP Screening and Selection Services, in a 2003 study, found that about 50% of the people on whom it conducted employment and education checks had submitted false information Applicants provide toll-free phone numbers, which are answered by operators of Web sites that "verify" a job seeker's education Candidates pay hackers to plug their names into a class list of a university they claim to have attended Web sites such as http://www.fakedegrees.com and http://easydiploma.com provide false degrees Consequences of fraud in r�sum�s Potential felony for hacking into a university's database If a false degree leads to higher pay, the employer can claim fraud "A good liar understands that you have to have some basis and facts to pull off a scam," said Lester Rosen, president of California-based Employment Screening Resources. "But it's even more dangerous when employers unknowingly hire a fraud, thief or a crook."

51. You�d Better Do Some Checking Negligent hiring Negligence�failure to exercise the same level of care in making decisions that a reasonable person would Employers can be liable for failure to screen out dangerous individuals Where is negligent hiring most likely? Delivery jobs or work inside people�s home Work with �vulnerable populations� Work with dangerous equipment

52. You�d Better Do Some Checking Negligent hiring cases Poe v. Domino�s pizza (1998) Domino�s pizza hired a convicted rapist to deliver pizza The deliverer raped a woman, but outside the purview of his duties Poe lost, but the principle of negligent hiring was upheld McKishnie v. Rainbow Carpet Cleaning Company �should have known� that a carpet cleaner had been fired from his last job for drug violations and carrying a weapon

53. HR in the News: Hiring through Credit Checks Companies are screening backgrounds more thoroughly than ever. History of timely payments- responsible applicant Candidates with huge debts- more likely to steal Why the need for tighter controls on hiring? After Sept. 11th � greater efforts to confirm applicant�s identity After accounting scandals of 2002 � added credit reports to improve background checks, and raise hiring standards What do the reports track?- What is not included?- 2 yrs. on credit cards credit scores Mortgages birth dates Student loans info referring to spouse Bankruptcy filings Federal law- Companies are prohibited from hiring/rejecting solely on credit. Employers must obtain permission to run a credit check. NY Times, March 28, 2004

54. Criminal Records: What Can You Examine and When? Criminal records checks are recommended if: Employees have access to money, drugs, explosives, or master keys Drive a company vehicle Criminal records checks are required if: Employees contact the public in their homes, interact with patients, children, or other vulnerable populations Carry a weapon

55. Checking for a Criminal Record Arrest records Generally are legally off limits because they don�t show someone did anything wrong Conviction records Generally admissible if directly job related Some states (like Florida) don�t mind if you use any conviction at all Other states proscribe that the crime must be related to job duties

56. Criminal Background Checks and Disparate Impact Disparate impact Conviction and arrest records have disparate impact on African-Americans Conviction rates for African-Americans and Whites are similar in urban areas and in rural areas Arrest rates are higher in urban areas African-Americans are more likely to live in urban areas

57. What Are References Saying? Julia Chase, owner of a reference-check company reports: 40% of former supervisors supply good references 21% give average references 20% give bad ones 18% default do just dates of employment and title Chicago Tribune (Oct 2, 2002)

58. Reference checks�can they increase employer knowledge? Why you might not get good reference checks No economic benefit for giving the references Why waste HR�s time compiling this information? Why tell competitors who to hire? No laws compel former employers to disclose anything Potential liability risk for defamation of character

59. What Can You Say in a Reference Check? What can you give in a reference check? Name, rank, and id number Objective information is very legally defensible; one example is saying a person is �eligible for rehire� Many states have laws saying that reference information has qualified privilege if: It is not knowingly false It is not in bad faith It doesn�t show reckless disregard for the truth

60. Reference checks�can they increase employer knowledge? Failures in obligation to disclose If an employer knew an employee committed a crime and failed to disclose this information to subsequent employers, they may be sued Charles Cullen, the �death nurse� (2003) Cullen now admits to killing 30-40 patients Police investigated possible connections between him and deaths of patients in three hospitals, in 1993, 1999 and 2002 He was fired at least five times Each time, no one warned other employers not to hire him