HP8005: Introduction to HRM

Week 4 - Assessment tools in selection

Assessment

Purposes of  Predict future job performance

Assessment  Inform decision making in succession planning
 Management current performance of employees

Assessment What is cognitive ability?

of Cognitive  Some researchers believe that cognitive ability is a single dimension construct. Notably
Abilities known as ‘g’ factor - a general intelligence factor.
 Others believe it comprised multiple related dimensions. Multiple intelligences.

Implications  The theoretical implication of a multi-dimensional cognitive structure meant that

different mental processes are involved in knowledge acquisition.
 The practical implication would mean different measurement tools are needed to assess
these dimensions in order to predict future performance, including job performance

John  Fluid intelligence

Carroll’s  Speed of reasoning, inductive and deductive reasoning, analysis of novel problems
structure of  Suggest that problem is new, never experienced before and solve it
cognitive  In order to be creative, need fluid intelligence, new ideas
ability
 Crystallised intelligence
 Use of acquired knowledge and experience, using one’s breadth and depth of
knowledge to define and solve problems
 Learning from experience which you have been exposed
 Relies on past experience on problem solving
.
 Crystallised intelligence is not as versatile as fluid intelligence.

 What can it predict?

Past studies have shown that cognitive abilities are correlated with:
 Success in careers and income
 Delinquency
 Divorce
 Criminal behaviour
 Abortion rates
(Controversial but has been done.)

Personality  The five-factor model (FFM) of personality – “OCEAN”

Tests  Extraversion - assertive, social, achievement oriented
 Conscientiousness - dependable, hardworking
 Neuroticism - anxious, mood swings, emotional
 Agreeableness - trusting, friendly, urbane
 Openness - imaginative, curious, inquisitive

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Introduction to HRM Assessment tools in selection
 Importance  Personality is related to organisational commitment
of  Higher the position, higher the personality factors would come to bare
Personality  Positive or negative affectivity in persons influences job satisfaction
at Work  Differences in personality is correlated with stress
 Organisations wants to look at workers’ ability to take stress
 People and technical demand of stress
 Social-Technical dimension
 Team performance is affected by personalities in the team
 Team can decay and no longer work as before
 Organisation will look for personality that is consistent with the workers.

FFM Studies 1. High extraversion and agreeableness in teams allow for better team performance
Concluded
2. Groups where people share the same personality attributes are more cohesive
 Stay together longer ~6 years. Normally a team will start to decay form the 4th
year working together.

3. Groups where personalities differ have superior information sharing and problem solving.
 Only in an environment with different personality → Constructive arguments →
Hear diff viewpoints and evidence that can help to change certain issues.
 ‘Group Think’ → Group thinks as an entity, it will not disagree even in the face of
evidence. [It’s a problem!] Nobody dares to go against the superior.

4. People high on conscientiousness are significantly more likely to prefer working in larger
organisation

5. High on openness prefers international organisations

Situational  Assessing judgement given situation

Judgement  Test may assess what one would do vs what one should do
Test (SJT)  What should I do? -> Implication of rightness and wrongness
 Should -> Subtle implications on ethics and moral
 There is a ‘right’ answer for each situation and a final score to differentiate test
performance. Organisation will look for the HIGHEST score.

Structure of First 5 items are motivational items.

SJT More complex ones are found in the middle or the end (esp. cognitive test) it will be more
complex and more variables are put into the situation.
 Timing of test is very important.
 Introduce a power (time) element → 20 qns in 20 min = 1min 1qns.
 Final 2 or 3 pax will be 20qns in 15 min.
 Scoring System of SJT is a Risk Adverse System
 1 Correct = 1 Point
 1 Incorrect = -1 Point
 Neutral = 0 Point
Example of  You are working on a group project with three other people. One member of the group
SJT has been rarely showing up for meetings. He took on a lot of responsibilities early in the
project but did not produce any results. The project is graded on a group basis not
individual contribution.
 What would you:
1) most likely do?
2) least likely do?
Unstructured [MOST POPULAR SELECTION TOOL IS INTERVIEW]
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Introduction to HRM Assessment tools in selection
 Interviews
and Point of view of Interviewer:
Structured 1. Uphold the integrity of the interview
Interviews  Integrity = Interview is coherent and structured, not a social chit chat session
2. Courtesy
 Get the interviewee to come in at the time you asked him/her to come. If
interview is at 3.30, see the candidate at 3,30. latest 3.35pm
3. Authenticity
 Don’t be too harsh or too cosy on the candidate.
4. Sobriety
 Take it seriously. If you don’t take it seriously, the candidate will not too.
5. Objectivity
 As selectors, we are bound to be bias. Can’t be 100% objective.

Interviews as  Still the most popular method

Assessment  Research clearly shows that interviews are moderate predictors of performance
Tool  Job applicants rate interview more favourably than other assessments like psychometric
tests, work sample, assessment centre techniques etc
 Structured interviews are shown to be superior in every way measurable

Weaknesses  No set formats

of  No standard rating system
Unstructured  Random questions are asked, many of which are unrelated to job performance
Interviews  Has low reliability and validity
 Interviewers are subconsciously bias
 Interviewees tend to minimise weaknesses and exaggerate strengths
 Coaching interview. Must know who is putting up an act on the interview.

Structured  More resilient to biases

Interviews  Set of questions focussed on job related factors
 Uses a standardised format. Same questions asked throughout.
 Usually has a rating scale on the answers

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 Impression Management

Impression  The applicant is trained or coached to manage and influence the impressions interviewers
Managemen have of him.
t by  Extremely common, will occur in most interviews.
Applicants  Conducted by HR consultancies and universities.
 IM impact is inversely related to duration of interview.

 There are 3 types of Impression Management (IM):

1) Assertive IM
2) Deceptive IM
3) Nonverbal IM

Assertive  Applicants proactively create a positive image of themselves by self-promotion (claiming

Impression many achievements)
Managemen  Ingratiation, using interpersonal attraction
t  Opinion conformity, claim to have similar values and world view held by interviewers and
the company
 Contrast Error - 1st Person: A+, 2nd Person: as good as the 1st, but tends to be lower
impression.
 80% talking by interviewee, 20% talking by the interviewer.

Deceptive  Exaggerating magnitude of achievement

Impression  Claim to non-existent accomplishment (studying in top schools etc)
Managemen  Lying about work experience and salary drawn
t  Concealment of damaging information or behaviour
 Direct lying: Saying something that is not true.
 Concealment: Knowing something but not saying it.
 HR should check records of candidate.

Nonverbal  Eye contact

Impression  Fake smiles
Managemen  False accent
t  Nodding
 Eye movements
 Appearance

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 Interviews

Creating the  Content-job related questions, questions about KSAOs

Structure of  Evaluation-rating the applicants’ responses
an Interview

Content  Base questions on KSAOs

 Pose similar but not necessarily identical questions to applicants
 Conduct longer interviews → Good interview: Roughly 40mins-60mins
Shorter than that: already made a decision, biasness made in the first 10min.
 False Positives and False Negatives
 Hiring those we are supposed to reject OR
 Rejecting those that we are supposed to hire.
 Limit elaboration of questions
 Ask 1 question at a time and not 3 questions in 1 question.

Evaluation  Take notes  Memory notorious for being bias

 If a panel is used, use same set of interviewers for all applicants
 Do not discuss applicant performance between interviews
 Use a rating scale to score responses to each question
 Quantitative (by rating scale) and Qualitative ones (by comparing notes)
 To prevent bias, do not look at profiles before interview. Will favour profiles on the high
side and punish those on low side.

Behavioural  Presupposes that past behaviour predicts future behaviour.

Interviews  Direct the interviewee to specific tasks and requires her to explain the ‘what’ and ‘how’ it
was completed.
 The tasks may be instances from past experience or hypothetical scenarios

Listening for  Do not be distracted by the reasons (why) given

Behaviours  Do not provide summary – “ so you think that is a good way to ....”
 Keep in focus the “WHAT” - what did the person do
 Keep in focus the “HOW” - how did the person do the “what”

Build  For courtesy/due respect to the candidates

Rapport  Use non-verbal and paralinguistic behaviours to encourage deep disclosure from the
Throughout applicant
 Maintain eye contact (not staring), nod, smile, refer to notes, use a non-judgemental tone
of voice
 Ask one question at a time even though they may be related
 Clarity (when you’re not sure) and verify (fact checking) your understanding of
information afforded by applicant
 Clarifications: with regards to our doubts
 Verifications: with regards to .. “I want to check and verify”

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 Determine if (i.e., has been coached, using impression management)
applicant is
interview- Most coached responses follow the STAR format:
wise  S - Situation, the applicant furnishes elaborate details of the situation
 T - Tasks, applicant gives a concise and specific task highlighting challenges
 A - Action, applicant highlight desirable traits like teamwork, leadership, initiative, etc in
his action
 R - Results, applicant assesses the outcomes and his contribution to the results

Neutralising  Not follow the STAR sequence, e.g., begin with A, move on to S...
the IM  Mix hypothetical questions with experience-based ones
 Inoculate the interview by prefacing our knowledge of the STAR method
 Manage our non-verbal behaviour not to show cues about our favouring or disagreement
to ‘key’ words, e.g. initiative, team comes first, etc

WHAT  Always refer to the JOB description and JOB specification

Questions  What is essentially a content-seeking question
 “I organised the team ...”
 “I consulted with my manager ...”
 “I contacted all affected customers ...“

HOW  “How” is a methodology - seeking question

Questions  It seeks performative action
 There are steps to the “doing”
 Rationale for the steps are informed by priorities
 Priorities inform purpose
 Purpose considers desired outcomes

Situational  Experience-based, for supervisory and middle management positions

Interviews  Hypothetical – for new graduate intake

What sort of  Use actual or hypothetical situations which closely reflect ones which your company faces
Situations to  You may use a work sample as a base to generate the situational questions
use?  Questions can be useful to assess KSAO relevant to the company

Assessing  Assessing based on relevance, not right or wrong

Experience  Assess based on distinct experiences independent of each other
 Assess based on increasing complexity of situations where experience may be necessary
but insufficient for desired outcomes
 Experience alone is not good enough. Certain positions too much reliance on
applicants’ experience may put in false positive.
 If have experience and keep doing the same thing, is no longer an experience.
(repetitive)
 Experience must be qualitative.

Hypothetical  May be used for experienced applicants or new entrants

Situations  On top of the situations currently faced by the company, these types of hypothetical
questions anticipate future challenges to be dealt with
 Keep a level playing field for new graduates without much working experience

Some useful  Tell me about what you did when a project you managed fell apart?
questions to  How will you manage a project that go against your values?
ask
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  What aspects of a job energise you?
 How will you overcome a lack of support from other departments to successfully
complete a task with good results?
 What are the conditions under which you will compromise your values to profit the
company?
 What will you do if you receive a report about an alleged sexual harassment incident
involving your colleague and your immediate superior?

A selection  Interview panel should consist of ppl of same rank. (ALL Managers, NO Asst, Senior etc)
interview is a  Because of the power structure on panel, the other 2 lower in rank may not have
holistic event a say as they won’t go against the superior.
with a  Uneven power structure undermines decision making.
specific  No interviewer is completely objective no matter how well trained or experience you are
purpose  Does not mean measures taken to minimise false positives and false negatives are futile
 Not everything that can be rated matters, just like not everything that cannot be rated
does not matter
 The final decision based on an interview is an approximation of preferences moderated
for objective considerations

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Introduction to HRM Assessment tools in selection