Personnel Selection and Assessment

Personnel Selection and Assessment

• Personnel selection involves choosing the most qualified candidate for a job, encompassing transfers, rotations, and promotions.
• The process traditionally has three key stages:
  • Job Examination and KSAOs Hypotheses: Analyze the job's tasks and responsibilities to determine necessary Knowledge, Skills, Abilities, and Other characteristics (KSAOs) for effective performance. This links with job analysis and competency modeling.
  • Selection Tool Development or Choice: Select or create tools (e.g., cognitive tests, personality assessments) to measure identified KSAOs. Tool choice relates to predicting job success based on performance measurements.
  • Information Comparison and Decision Making: Compare collected information with critical job requirements to determine candidate suitability, from unqualified to receiving a job offer. Performance appraisals play a crucial role in evaluating the selection process.

Binning and Barrett's Selection Model

• Personnel selection assumes enduring traits predict future job performance.
• Binning and Barrett's model outlines the connection between psychological constructs and operational measures, starting with performance domain.
• The performance domain encompasses job-related tasks, encompassing organizational goals and various work behaviours.
• Campbell's Eight Major Dimensions of performance include Job-Specific Tasks Proficiency Behaviors, Task Proficiency of a Non-Job-Specific Nature, Communication, Demonstrating Effort, Maintaining Personal Discipline, Facilitating Peer and Team Performance, Supervisory/Leadership Behavior, and Management/Administrative Tasks..

The Performance Domain

• Performance is a subset of behaviors contributing to organizational goals and is multidimensional.
• Eight major performance dimensions include:
  • Job-specific tasks, proficiency behaviors
  • Task proficiency of non-job specific nature
  • Communication
  • Demonstrating effort
  • Maintaining personal discipline
  • Facilitating peer and team performance
  • Supervisory/leadership behavior
  • Management/administrative tasks

Performance Measures

• Translating performance domains into measurable criteria is crucial for evaluating job success.
• Objectives of job success vary among employees and evolve with job responsibilities.
• Objective measures include tangible data in HR systems like personnel data (turnover, transfers, training) and productivity data, quality data (costs, errors).
• Drawbacks of objective measures are limited insight into job requirements, contamination by external factors.
• Subjective measures (performance appraisals) involve assessing staff performance semiannually or annually, aligning with job competencies.

Predictor Constructs

• Predictor constructs in selecting personnel include knowledge, skills, abilities, and other characteristics (KSAOs) linked to successful job performance.
• Personality embodies organized characteristics influencing thoughts, motivations, behaviors, and represented by the Big Five personality model (emotional stability, extraversion, openness, conscientiousness, agreeableness).
• Cognitive abilities encompass understanding complex ideas, adapting to the environment, learning from experience, and reasoning, considered as hierarchical (Cattell-Horn-Carroll).
• Emotional intelligence involves perceiving, using, understanding, and regulating emotions, impacting performance.

Predictor Measures

• Sign Method (versus Sample Method):
  • Sign method assumes a theoretical link between unobservable traits (e.g., personality) and job performance.
  • Sample method directly represents job content in the selection instrument using work samples or other sample instruments (e.g., sales pitch, tasks) mirroring job aspects.
  • Temporal perspective measures behavior in past, present, or future contexts.

Psychometric Properties

• Reliability concerns score consistency, including test-retest, internal consistency, and equivalence.
• Validity assesses if a measure measures what it's intended to measure, including content, construct, and criterion-related validity.
• Incremental validity examines whether a new predictor adds predictive power beyond existing measures.
• Face validity considers if applicants perceive measure content as job related.

Adverse Impact

• Adverse impact evaluates subgroup differences in scores, potentially leading to underrepresentation of minority groups during hiring and promotion.

Concerns in Measurement

• Relevance to applicants: Tests perceived as irrelevant can negatively impact validity.
• Adverse impact: systematic differences in scores between majority and minority groups result in unfair disadvantage to minorities.

Biodata

• Biodata, short for biographical data, involves collecting information about an individual's background (education, employment, history) and preferences.
• Biodata assesses past performance as an indicator of future performance, typically from application forms.
• Biodata items are scored by their empirical or theoretical link to job performance.

References and Letters of Recommendation

• References are letters from individuals familiar with the applicant, providing insights into suitability.
• Different formats include structured or unstructured recommendations.
• Issues include potential biases, low inter-rater reliability (variations in references), and low predictive validity.

Vocational Interests

• Vocational interests, capturing preferences for certain tasks or work environments, can be vital in employee selection.
• Holland's RIASEC model categorizes individuals into six types (Realistic, Investigative, Artistic, Social, Enterprising, Conventional) based on interests.

Person-Organization Fit

• Person-Organization (PO) fit describes the compatibility between individuals and organizations.
• Supplementary fit emphasizes similarity between individual and organizational characteristics.
• Complementary fit focuses on filling gaps or deficiencies in the organization.

Physical and Psychomotor Abilities

• Physical and psychomotor abilities are assessed through various tests, including endurance, coordination, and strength.
• Physical fitness tests evaluate physical health in relation to job requirements.
• Specific physical tests may differ among professions (Military, Firefighter).

Work Samples

• Work sample tests require applicants to perform actual job tasks (physical or psychological) mirroring real job conditions.
• Scoring is based on time, errors, or standardized checklists (objective), or ratings (subjective).

Assessment Centres

• Standardized assessment procedures (simulations, tests, and exercises) intended to evaluate job-related qualities.
• Assessment centres historically began in Germany's army, eventually adopted by other sectors and popular in Flanders and the Netherlands.
• Multiple assessors observe and evaluate, providing feedback.
• The method is useful to evaluate competencies applicable to multiple contexts, despite challenges in maintaining consistency.

Situational Judgment Tests (SJTs)

• Used to assess how applicants, in a simulated employment setting respond to hypothetical work-related scenarios.
• SJTs generally use a video-based or written format and assess competencies such as leadership, communication, and teamwork.
• SJTs, considered a medium-fidelity simulation, are more cost-effective compared to high-fidelity methods like assessment centres.

This quiz delves into the process of personnel selection, emphasizing the stages of job analysis, selection tool development, and decision-making in candidate assessments. Understanding KSAOs and their importance in selecting the right candidate for a position is crucial for effective hiring practices.