Psychometric Models and HRM Selection

• Psychometric model uses psychometric tests, performance-based and work simulation methods, to measure candidates' knowledge, skills, abilities, personality, and attitudes.
• Systematic selection is a critical function of HRM for achieving firm-level strategy and high commitment or performance management.
• Alternative perspectives to the psychometric model include a ‘best fit' approach, an interactive decision process perspective, and a discourse view
• The ‘what' and ‘how' of selection is determining how to identify people with the capacity to perform at a job

Psychometric Quality

• Four standards are used to make this evaluation: reliability, validity, subgroup predictive validity, utility
• Assessment methods must be reliable, accurate, and free from contamination, with standardization across applicants and consistency across assessors.
• Interviews generally have low reliability, though standardization increases their reliability.
• Selection methods must be valid and relevant for predicting work behaviors, designed around systematic job analysis and person specification.
• A valid method should show an association between scores on the proposed selection method and desired job behaviors, expressed as a correlation coefficient.
• Subgroup predictive validity should be consistent across different applicant groups
• Selection method utility refers to the methods should have high utility for the organisation

Selection Methods

• Methods capture individual characteristics, using forms, interviews, and tests to measure personality.
• Cognitive characteristics reflect intellectual processes, academic achievements, and knowledge.
• Non-cognitive characteristics include personality traits, motivation, past experience, and qualifications.
• Performance-based characteristics refer to behavioral examples of job performance.
• Performance and test batteries measure verbal, reasoning, and spatial ability, and emphasize future potential

Trends in selection

• Trend is towards more reliable and valid assessment tools through detailed job analyses, structure/standardization, assessor training, and validation studies.
• Using high validity/low adverse impact assessment tools and multiple methods increases validity and lowers the negative impact
• The importance of assessing non-cognitive qualities, such as organizational citizenship or adaptability
• Increasing deployment of bespoke simulations to indicate qualities relevant to a particular job or organization
• Increase in Technology for assessment, online or digital

Social Factors Impacting Selection

• Selection should be more than the application of assessment techniques and should consider the organizational and social hiring context
• Three perspectives: selection as ‘best fit’ for the organization, selection as an interactive decision process involving multiple stakeholders, and selection as a process where power and interests have dominance
• There is an assumption of similar needs across sectors, organizations, occupations, and countries, which leads to "best-practice" guide lines
• The psychometric model assumes a low selection ratio, the cost of poor selection is high, and that the top performers can always be selected
• Economic pressures include short-term resource considerations and the need to hire quickly, with social pressures including legislative/institutional and stake holder pressure.
• User participation is important, including multiple stakeholders and multiple management levels
• Applicants should be treated with respect, ensuring their privacy is respected, and receive information on expectations and performance to determine procedural justice.
• Fairness of selection methods: cognitive tests, interviews, and work samples ranked highest for respect for privacy and opportunity to perform

Selection as discourse

• A more radical view is that selection is a process which cannot easily be reduced to the quality of assessment tools and rational decision making.
• The reference to discourse relates to the idea that there are many different ways of talking about (i.e. describing and understanding) selec tion.