EMPLOYEE TESTING AND SELECTION NOTES
4.0: Introduction
One of the biggest challenges facing firms lies in the process of
testing and selection of employees. A firm that fails to lay emphasis on
this process will find itself experiencing a high employee turnover. The
purpose of this lesson is to show you how to use various tools and
techniques to select the best candidates for the job.
Why careful selection of Employee is important
With a pool of applicants, the next step is to select the best
candidates for the job. This usually means whittling down the applicant
pool by using the screening tools: tests assessment centers and
background and reference checks. Then the prospective supervisor can
interview likely candidates and decide who to hire.
Selecting the right employees is important for three main reasons.
First, your own performance always depends in part on your subordinates.
Employees with the right skills and attributes will do a better job for
you and the company, employees without these skills or who are abrasive
or obstructionist wont perform effectively, and your own performance and
the firm’s will suffer, the time to screen out undesirables is before
they are in the door not after.
Second, it is important because it’s costly to recruit and hire
employees. Third its important because of the legal implications of
incompetent hiring.
What is Negligent Hiring?
This is hiring workers with questionable backgrounds without proper
safeguards. Negligent hiring underscores the need to think through what
the job’s human requirements really are.
Employers protect against negligent hiring claims by;
- Carefully scrutinizing all information supplied by the applicant on
his or her employment application. For example, look for unexplained
gaps in employment - getting the applicant’s written authorization for reference checks
and carefully checking references - saving all records and information you obtain about the applicant
- rejecting applicants who make false statements of material facts or
who have conviction records for offences directly related and
important to the job in question - keeping in mind the need to balance the applicant’s privacy rights
with others “need to know”, especially when you discover damaging
information - Taking immediate disciplinary action if problems develop.
Basic Testing Concepts In Human Resource Management
Effective selection is therefore important and depends, to large degree
on the basic testing concepts of validity and reliability.
validity
A test is a sample of a person’s behavior, but some tests are more
clearly representative of the
behavior being sampled that others. A typing test for example, clearly
corresponds to an on-thejob behavior. At the other extreme, there may be
no apparent relationship between the items on the test and the behavior.
This is the case with projective tests.
*Test validity
The accuracy with which a test, interview and so on measures what it
purports to measure or fulfills the function it was designed to fill. It
answers the question, “does this test measure what it’s supposed to
measure?” with respect to employee selection tests, validity often
refers to evidence that the test is job related- in other words, that
performance on the test is a valid predictor of subsequent performance
on their job. A selection test must be valid since, without proof of
validity, there is no logical or legally permissible reason to continue
using it to screen job applicants. In employment testing, there are two
main ways to demonstrate a test’s validity:
criterion validity and content validity.
- Criterion validity
Demonstrating criterion validity means that those who do well on the
test also do well on the job and that those who do poorly on the test do
poorly on the job, thus the test has validity to extent that the people
with higher test scores perform better on the job. In psychological
measurement, predictor is the measurement (in this case, the test score)
that you are trying to relate to a criterion, like performance
on the job. The term criterion validity reflects that terminology.
- Content validity
A test that contains a fair sample of the tasks and skills actually
needed for the job in question. Employers demonstrate the content
validity of a test by showing that the test constitutes a fair sample of
the content of the job. The basic procedure here is to identify job
tasks and behaviors that are critical to performance and then randomly
detect a sample of those tasks and behaviors to be tested.
Demonstrating content validity sounds easier than it is in practice.
Demonstrating that;
- The tasks the person performs on the test are really a comprehensive
and random sample of the tasks performed on the job. - The conditions under which the person takes the test resemble the
work situation, is not always easy.
For many jobs, employers must demonstrate other evidence of a test’s
validity- such as its criterion validity.
Reliability
Is a test’s second important characteristic and refers to its
consistency. It is “the consistency of scores obtained by the same
person when retested with the identical tests or with an equivalent form
of a test.” A test’s reliability is very important; if a person scored
90 on an intelligence test on Monday and 130 when retested on Tuesday,
you probably wouldn’t have much faith in the test.
There are several ways to estimate consistency or reliability. You could
administer the same test to the same people at two different points in
time, comparing their test scores at time 2 with their scores at time 1;
this would be a retest estimate. Or you could administer a test and then
administer what experts believe to be an equivalent test later; this
would be an equivalent form
estimate.
A test’s internal consistency is another measure of its reliability. For
example, suppose you have 10 items on a test of vocational interest; you
believe this measure in various ways, the person’s interest in working
outdoors. You administer the test and then statistically analyze the
degree to which responses to these 10 items vary together. This would
provide a measure of the internal consistency is one reason you find
apparently repetitive questions on some test questionnaires. A number of
things could cause a test to be unreliable. For example the questions
may do a poor job of sampling the material; or there might be errors due
to changes in the testing conditions
Process of Interviewing Candidates
An interview is a procedure designed to solicit information from a
person’s oral responses to oral inquiries; a selection interview, is a
selection procedure designed to predict the future job performance on
the basis of applicants oral responses to oral inquiries. Interview is
by far the most widely used personnel selection procedure
Types of Interviews
Interviews can be classified in four ways according to;
- Degree of structure
- Purpose
- Content
- The way the interview is administered
Inn turn the seven main types of interviews used at work- structured,
non-structured, situational, sequential, panel, stress and appraisal can
each be classified in one or more of these four ways.
The structure of the interview
Interviews can be classified according to the degree to which they are
structured. In an unstructured or nondirective type of interview you ask
questions as they come to mind the interviewer pursues points of
interest as they come up in response to questions. There is
generally no set format to follow and the interview can take various
directions. While questions can be specified in advance, they usually
are not and there is seldom a formalized guide for scoring the quality
each answer. Interviewees for the same job thus may or may not be asked
the same or similar questions based on the candidate’s last statement
and to pursue points of interest
as they develop.
The interview can also be structured. In the classical structured
interview, the questions and acceptable responses are specified in
advance and the responses are rated for appropriateness of content. It
is an interview following a set sequence of questions. In practice,
however not all structured interviews go so as to specify acceptable
answers. Structured and no structured interviews each have their pros
and cons. With structured interviews all applicants are generally asked
all questions by all interviewers that meet and structured interviews
are generally more valid. Structured interviews can also help
interviewers who may be less comfortable interviewing to ask questions
and conduct useful interviews. On the hand, structured interviews don’t
always leave the flexibility to pursue points of interest as they develop.
The Purpose of the Interview
Employee- related interviews can also be classified according to their
purpose. Thus as noted earlier, a selection interview is a type of
interview designed to predict future job performance on the basis of
applicants oral responses to oral inquiries. A stress interview is a
special type of selection interview in which the applicant is made
uncomfortable by a series of sometimes-rude questions. The aim of the
stress interview is supposedly to help identify sensitive applicants and
those with low or high stress tolerance. In the typical stress
interview, the applicant is made uncomfortable by being put on the
defensive by a series of frank and often-discourteous questions from the
interviewer. The interviewer might first probe for weaknesses in the
applicant’s background, such as job that the applicant left under
questionable circumstances. Having identified these, the interviewer can
yet focus on them hoping to get the candidate to lose his or her
composure. Thus a candidate for customer relations’ manager who
obligingly mentions having had four jobs in the pat two years might be
told that frequent irresponsible and immature behavior. If the applicant
then responds with a reasonable explanation of why the job changes were
necessary, another topic might be pursued.
On the other hand, if the formerly tranquil applicant reacts explosively
with anger and disbelief, this might be taken as a symptom of low
tolerance for stress The stress approach can be a good way to identify
hypersensitive applicants who might be expected to overreact to mild
criticism with anger and abuse. On the other hand, the stress
interview’s invasive and ethically questionable nature demands that the
interviewers be skilled on the requirements for the job. This is
definitely not an approach for amateur interrogations or for those
without skill to keep the interview under control.
Interviews serve two more purposes in the employment context. An
appraisal interview is a discussions following a performance appraisal
in which supervisor and employee discuss the employee’s rating and
possible remedial actions. When an employee leaves a firm for any
reason, exit interview is often conducted. An exit interview usually
conducted by the HR department, aims at eliciting information about the
job or related matters that might give the employer a better insight
into what is right or wrong about the company.
The content of the interview
Interviews can also be classified according to the content of their
questions. A situational type of interview is one in which the questions
focus on the individual’s ability to project what his or her behavior
would be a given situation. For example, a candidate for a
supervisor’s position may be how asked how he or she would respond to a
subordinate coming to work late three days in a row. The interview can
be both structured and situational with predetermined questions
requiring the candidate to project what his or her behavior would be: in
a structured situational interview the applicant could be evaluated, say
on his or her choice between letting the subordinate off with a warming
versus suspending the subordinate for one week.
Job-related interviews are those in which the intereviewer attempts to
asses the applicant’s past behaviors for job-related information, but
most questions are not considered situational. In other words questions
don’t revolve around hypothetical situations or scenarios. Instead
supposedly job-related questions (such as „which courses did you like
best in business school?“) are asked in order to draw conclusions about
say, the candidate’s ability to handle the fanancial aspects of the job
to be filled. The behavioral interview is gaining in popularity. In a
behavioral interview a situation is described and interviews are asked
how they have behaved in the past in such a situation. Thus while
situational interviews ask interviewees to describe how they would react
to a situation today or tomorrow, the behavioral interview asks
interviewees to describe how they did react to situations in the past.
Finally, psychological interviews are interviews conducted by a
psychological in which questionor panel s are intended to assess
personal traits such as dependabibit. The interview may use situational
job-related or behavioral questions and be either structured or
unstructured. Psychological interviews generally have a significantly
unstructured element.
How To Administer the interview
interviews can also be classified based on how they are administered:
one-on-one or by a panel of interviewers; sequentially or all at once;
and computerized or personally. For example, most interviews are
adiministered one-on-one. As the name implies, two people meet alone and
one interviews the other by seeking oral responses to oral inquiries.
Most selection processes are sequential. In a sequentail interview the
applicant is interviewed by several persons in sequence before a
selection decision is made. In an unstructured sequentail interviewer
may look at the applicant from his or her on point of view, ask
different questions and form an independent opinion of the candidate
on the other hand, in s structured sequential or serialized interview
each interviewer rates the candidate on a standard evaluation form and
the ratings are compared before the hiring decision is made. The panel
interview means the candidate is interviewed simultaneously by a group
(or panel) of interviewers (rather than sequentially). The group
structure has several advantages. A
sequential interview often has candidates cover basically the same ground over and over again with each
interviewer. The panel interview, on the other hand, allows each
interviewer to pick up on the candidate’s answers, much as reporters do
in press conferences than are normally produced by a series of
one-on-one interviews. On the other hand, some candidates find panel
interviews more stressful and they may actually inhibit responses. An
even more stressful variant is the mass interview. In a mass interview
several candidates are interviewed simultaneously by a panel. Here the
panel poses a problem to be solved and then sits back and watches which
candidate takes the lead in formulating an answer.
Increasingly, interviews aren’t administered by people at all but are
computerized. A computerized selection interview is one in which a job
candidate’s oral and/or computerized responses are obtained in response
to computerized oral, visual or written questions and/or situations. The
basic idea is generally to present the applicant with a series of
questions regarding his or her background, experience education, skills,
knowledge and work attitudes specific questions that relate to the job
for which the person has applied. In a typical computerized interview
the questions are presented in multi-choice format, one at a time and
the applicant is expected to respond to the questions on the computer
screen by pressing a key corresponding to his or her desired response.
For example a sample interview question for a person applying for a job
as a store clerk might be:
How would your supervisor rate your customer service skills?
- Outstanding
- Above average
- Average
- Below average
- Poor
Questions on a computerized interview like this come in rapid sequence
and require concentration on the applicant’s part. The typical
computerized interview then measures the response time to each question.
A delay in answering certain such as “can you be trusted?“ can flag a
potential problem.
Computer-aided interviews are generally used to reject totally
unacceptable candidates and to select those who will move on to a
face-to-face interview.
Computer-aided interviews can be very advantageous. Systems like those
on-line substantially reduce the amount of time managers devote to
interviewing what often turn out to be unacceptable candidates.
Applicants are reportedly more honest with computers than they would be
with people, presumably because computers are not judgemental. The
computer can also be sneaky: if an applicant takes longer than average
to answer a question like, ‘Have you ever been caught stealing?“ he or
she may be summarily screened out or at least questioned more deeply in
that area by a human interviewer. On the other hand, mechanical nature
of computer-aided
interviews can leave applicants with the impression that the prospective
employer is rather impersonal.
How useful are interviews?
The ironic about interviews is that while they’re used by virtually all
employers, the statistical evidence regarding the validity is actually
very mixed. Much of the earlier research gave selection interviews low
marks in terms of reliability and validity. However recent studies
indicate that key to an interview’s usefulness is the manner in which it
is administered. Specifically, the following conclusions are warranted
based on one recent study of interview validity: With respect to
predicting job performance, situational interviews yield a higher mean
validity than do job-related (or behavioral) interviews, which in turn
yield a higher mean
Validity than do psychological interviews. Structured interviews,
regardless of content are more valid than unstructured interviews are
more valid than are panel interviews, in which multiple interviewers
provide ratingsin one setting.
In summary, structured situational interviews conducted one-to-one
individually seem to be the most useful for predicting job performance.
Unstructured interview in general, psychological interviews and panel
interviews are some what less useful for predicting job performance.
4.3.3 Interviewing and the law: employment Discrimination “ Testers“
an interview is a selection procedure; interviewers must therefore avoid
asking questions concerning, for instance, candidates marital status,
childcare arrangements, ethnic background and worker’s compensation
history. The increasing use of unemployment
discrimination testers has made such care even more important. Testers
are individuals who apply for employment, which they do not intend to
accept for the sole purpose of uncovering unlawful discriminatory hiring
practices.
What Are Common Interviewing Mistakes
- Snap Judgements
One of the most consistent findings in the interviewing literature is
that interviewers tend to jump to conclusions- make snap judgments about
candidates during the few minutes of the interviews, or even before the
interview begins based on test scores or resume data. For example, one
study showed that interviewers’ access to candidates’ test scores biased
the interviewer’s
assessment of the candidate. In another study the interviewer’s
evaluation of a candidate was only related to his or her decision about
hiring candidate for candidates with low passing scores on a selection
test. A great percentage of interviews make up their minds about
candidates before the interview begins on the basis of applicants’
application forms and personal appearance. Findings like this underscore
that it’s important for a candidate to start off on the right foot with
the interviewer. Interviewers usually make up their minds about
candidates during the first few minutes of the interview and prolonging
the interview past this point usually adds little to change their decisions.
- Negative emphasis
Jumping to conclusion is especially troublesome when the information the
interview has about the candidate is negative. For example in one study
the researchers found that interviewers who previously received
unfavorable reference letters about applicants gave the applicants less
credit for past successes and held them more personally responsible for
past failures after the interview. Furthermore the interviewer’s final
decisions to accept or reject applicants based on the references, quite
aside from their interview performance. In other word impressions are
much more likely to change from favorable to unfavorable than from
unfavorable to favorable. A
common interviewing mistake is to make the interview itself mostly a
search for negative information. In a sense, therefore, most interviews
are probably loaded against the applicant. an applicant who initially
rated high could easily end up with allow rating, given applicant who is
initially rated high could easily end up with low rating, given the fact
that unfavorable information tends to carry more weight in an interview.
An interviewee who starts out with a poor rating will find it hard to
overcome that first bad impression during the interview.
- Poor knowledge of the job
Interviewers who don’t know precisely what the sort of candidate is best
suited for it usually make their decision based on incorrect stereotypes
about what a good applicant is. They then erroneously match interviewees
with their incorrect stereotypes
On the other hand ,interviewees who have a clear understanding of what the job entail hold
interviews that are more useful.
4.Pressure to hire
Pressure to hire also undermines an interview’s usefulness .For example,
a group of managers was told to assume that they were behind in their
recruiting quota .A second group was told that were ahead of their
quota. Those “behind’’ evaluate recruits much more highly than did those
“ahead ‘’.
- Candidate –Order [contrast] Error
It is an error of judgment on the part of the interviewer due one or
more very good or very bad candidate just before the interviewer in
question .Mean that the order in which you see applicant affects how you
rate them.
- Influence of nonverbal behavior
Interviewers are also influenced by the applicant’s nonverbal behavior
.For example, several studies have showed that applicants who
demonstrate greater amount of eye contact head moving, smiling and other
similar nonverbal behavior are rate higher .In fact these nonverbal
behaviors often account for more than 80% of the applicant’s rating. An
applicant’s attractiveness and gender also play a role. Researchers
found out that whether attractiveness was a help 0r a hindrance to job
applicant depended on the sex of the applicant and the nature of the
job. Attractiveness was advantageous for male interviewees only when the
job was non-managerial.
- Telegraphing
Some interviewers are so anxious to fill a job that they help the
applicant respond correctly to their questions by telegraphing the
expected answer .An example might be a question like.“This job calls for
Handling a lot of stress .You can do that ,can’t you?’’ the telegraphing
isn’t always so obvious .For example interviewer ‘ first impression of
candidates [from examining application blank and test scores ] tend to
positively linked to use of a more positive interview style and vocal on
the part of the interviewer .This can translate into sending subtle cues
[like a smile ]regarding what answer is being sought .
- Too much /Little Talking
Too much or little guidance on the interviewer’s part is anther common
mistake. Some interviewers let the applicant dominate the interview to
the point where too few substantive questions are pursed .At the other
extreme some interviewers stifle the applicant by not giving the person
sufficient time to answer questions.
How To Design and Conduct the Effective Interview
Designing and an effective interview can avoid problems like those
addressed.
*The Structured Interview
Since structure situation interviews are usually the most valid
interviews for predicting job performance , conducting an effective
interview ideally stars with designing a structured situation interview,
a series of hypothetical job-oriental questions with predetermined
answers that are consistently asked of all applicant for a particular
job .Usually a committee of person familiar with the job develops
situation and job-knowledge questions based on the actual job duties
.They then reach consensus on what are not acceptable answers to these
question .The actual procedure consist of five step as follows:
Step.1: Job Analysis: First, write a description of the job in the form
of a list of a job duties, require knowledge, skill, abilities and
worker qualification.
Step 2: Evaluate the Job Duty Information.
Next, rate each duty no its importance to job success and on amount of
time required to perform it compared to other task .The aim here is to
identify the main duties of the job.
Step .3: Develop Interview Questions. The employees, who list and
evaluate the job duties, then develop interview questions. The interview
questions are based on the listing of job duties with more questions
generated for the more important duties.
A situational interview may actually contain situation; job –knowledge
and “willingness ‘questions [although the situation questions pose a
hypothetical job situation tend to be the most valid]. Situation
question pose a hypothetical job situation ; such as “job knowledge the
job.These often deal with technical aspects of a job .Willingness
questions gauge the applicant ‘s willingness and motivation to do
repetitive physical work to travel , to relocate and so forth .
Step 4: Develop Benchmark Answer. Next develop answer and a five-point
rating scale for each question , with specific answer develop for good
[a 5 rating ] ,marginal [a 3rating ] ,and poor [a 1rating ] .
STEP 5: Appoint Interview Panel and Implement .These types interviews
are generally conduct by panel, rather than sequentially. The panel
should consist of three to six members, preferable the same employees
who participated in writing the interviews and answer.
Panel member may also be supervisors of the job to be filled, the job
incumbent, peers and HR representatives .The same interview member
should be used to interview all candidates for the job. Before the
interview, the job duties, question and benchmark answer are distributed
to the panel members and reviewed Next the panel and to ask all
questions of all applicants in this and succeeding interviews to ensure
consistency. However, all panel members record and rate the applicant’s
answer to each question falls relative to the ideal poor, marginal or
good answers. At the end of the interview, each applicant is directed to
someone who will explain the follow-up procedure and answer any question
applicant has.
Guidelines for Conducting an Interview.
- Plan the Interview
Being by reviewing the candidate’s application and not any areas that
vague or that may indicate strengths or weakness .Review the job
specification and plan to start the interview with a clear picture of
the traits of an ideal candidate . If possible use a structure form.
Interviews based on structured guides, usually result in the best
interviews .At a minimum, you should write out your question prior to
the interview
The interview should take place in a private room where telephone calls are not accepted and interruptions can be minimized. Also plant to delay your decisions. Interviewers often make snap judgment even before they see the candidate on the
basic of his or applicant form, for instance- or during the first few
minutes of the interview. Make your decision them.
*2. Establish Rapport
The main reason for the interview is to find out about the applicant: To
do this start by putting the person at ease. Greet the candidates and
start the interview by asking a non-controversial question –perhaps
about the weather or traffic condition that day. As a rule, all
applicant, even unsolicited drop-ins-should receive friendly courteous
treatment, not only on humanitarian grounds but also because your
reputation is on the line. Be aware of the applicant’s status .For
example, if you are interviewing someone who is unemployed he or she may
be exceptionally nervous and you may want to take additional step to
relax the person.
*3. Ask Questions
Try to follow your structure interview guide or the question you wrote
out ahead of time .A menu of question to choose from. Avoid questions
that can be answered “yes’’ or “no’’ , don’t put word in the applicant’s
mouth or telegraph the desire answer ,for instance , by nodding or
smiling when the right answer is given ,don’t interrogate the applicant
as if the person is a criminal and don’t be patronizing , sarcastic or
inattentive , don’t monopolize the interview by rambling nor lat the
applicant’s opinions and feelings by repeating the person’s last comment
as a question . When you ask for general statements of a candidate’s
accomplishment, also ask for examples. Thus if at the end candidate
lists specific strengths or weakness, follow up with “what are the
specific examples that demonstrate each of your strengths?’’
*4. Close the interview
Toward the close of the interview, leave time to answer any questions
the candidate may have and if appropriate, to advocate your firm to the
candidate. Try to end all interviews on a positive note. The applicant
should be told whether there is an interest and if so, what the next
step will be. Similarly, rejections should be made diplomatically for
instance, with a statement like, ”although your background is
impressive, there are other candidates whose experience is closer top
our requirements.” If the applicant is still being considered but a
decision cant be reached at once, say this. If our policy is to inform
candidates of their status in writing, do so within a few days of the
interview.
*5. Review the interview
After the candidates leaves, review your interview notes, fill in the
structured interview guide and review the interview while it’s fresh in
your mind. Remember that snap judgments and negative emphasis are two
common interviewing mistakes; reviewing the interview shortly after the
candidate has left can help you minimize these two problems.
