Lesson 4

Evaluating Selection
Techniques
 References and Letters of
Recommendation
• In psychology, a common belief is that the best predictor
of future performance is past performance.
 Thus, if an organization wants to hire a salesperson,
the best applicant might be a successful salesperson
who held jobs that were similar to the one for which he
is now applying.
Verifying previous employment is not difficult, but it
can be difficult to verify the quality of previous
performance
 References and Letters of
Recommendation
• An employer must obtain information about the quality of previous
performance by relying on an applicant’s references:
References check- the process of confirming the accuracy of
information provided by an applicant.
References- the expression of an opinion, either orally or
through a written checklist, regarding an applicant’s ability,
previous performance, work habits, character, or potential for
future success.
Letter of recommendation- a letter expressing an opinion
regarding an applicant’s ability, previous performance, work
habits, character, or potential for future success.
 Reasons for using references and
recommendations
• Confirming details on a Résumé
Résumé fraud- the intentional placement of untrue
information on a résumé.

In May of 2002, Sandra Baldwin was forced to resign as

chair of the U.S Olympic Committee when it was
discovered she had lied on her résumé about having a
Ph.D.
 Reasons for using references and
recommendations
• Checking for Discipline Problems
 to determine whether the applicant has a history of such
discipline problems as poor attendance, sexual
harassment, and violence
If an organization hires an applicant without checking
his references and background and he later commits a
crime while in the employ of the organization, the
organization may be liable for negligent hiring.
 Negligent Hiring
A child-care center in California hired an employee
without checking his references. A few months later, the
employee molested a child at the center. The employee had
a criminal record of child abuse that would have been
discovered with a simple call to his previous employer. As
one would expect, the court found the employer guilty of
negligent hiring because the employer had not taken
“reasonable care” in ensuring the well-being of its
customers.
In Virginia, an employee of a grocery store copied the
address of a female customer from a check she had
written to the store. The employee later went to the
customer’s home and raped her. In this example, a case
of negligent hiring could not be made because the
company had contacted the employee’s previous
employment references and had found no reason not to
hire him. Because there was nothing to discover and
because the store had taken reasonable care to check its
employees, it was not guilty of negligent hiring.
 Reasons for using references and
recommendations

• Discovering New Information about Applicants

 Former employers and professors can provide
information about applicants’ work habits, character,
personality, and skills.
 care must be taken, however, when using these
methods because the opinion provided by any particular
reference may be inaccurate or purposefully untrue.
 Reasons for using references
and recommendations
• Predicting Future Performance
 References and letters of recommendation are ways to try to
predict future performance by looking at past performance.
 Even though references are commonly used to screen and select
employees, they have not been successful in predicting future
employee success. In fact, a meta-analysis found that the
average uncorrected validity coefficient for references/letters of
recommendation and performance is only .18
Four Main Problems with Letters of
Recommendation
1. Leniency- research is clear that
most letters of recommendation are
positive: Fewer than 1% of
references rate applicants as below
average or poor. Applicants choose
their own references!
• Negligent reference- is a company
does not provide relevant
information to an organization that
requests it.
Reasons for Leniency
1. Validity
2. Confidentiality- Although coworkers are willing to say negative
things about unsatisfactory employees, confidentiality concerns can
hold them back. Research shows that when a person writing a
reference letter knows that the applicant can see the letter, the writer
is more inclined to provide a favorable evaluation.
3. Fear of Legal Ramifications- A person providing references can be
charged with defamation of character (slander if the reference is
oral, libel if written) if the content of the reference is both untrue and
made with malicious intent.
 Four Main Problems with
Letters of Recommendation

2. Knowledge about the Applicant- the person writing the

letter often does not know the applicant well and has not
observed all aspects of an applicant’s behavior or both.
 Employees often act very differently around their
supervisors than they do around coworkers and customers.
Four Main Problems with Letters of
Recommendation
3. Reliability- lack of agreement between two people who
provide references for the same person. Research reveals that
reference reliability is only .22
 there is more agreement between recommendations
written by the same person for two different applicants
than between two people writing recommendations for the
same person.
4. Extraneous Factors
• Letters that contained specific examples were rated higher
than letters that contained generalities;
• Letters written by references who like applicants are longer
than those written by references who do not;
• The longer the recommendation letter, the more positively
the letter was perceived.
 Reasons for using references and
recommendations
Why conduct background check?
An applicant received a glowing letter of recommendation from a
coworker in which the applicant was hired in part due to the strength of
that letter. Within a few months, the new employee was engaged in
discipline problems, and it was only then that the organization discovered
that the person who had written the glowing letter was the applicant’s
daughter. Because the mother’s and daughter’s names were different and
because the exact relationship between the two was not stated in the
letter, the organization never suspected that they were related.
Ethical Issues
1. Explicitly state your relationship with the person you
are recommending.
2. Be honest in providing details.
3. Let the applicant see your reference before sending it;
and give him the chance to decline to use it.
Activity
1. Imagine you are a professor and one of your former students is
asking for a recommendation letter that he will use in applying for
an HR position. How would you recommend him?
2. The following information must be included:
o Details of the one giving the recommendation;
o Details of the recipient;
o Introduction and recommendation reasons;
o Evidence of their qualities and work relationship;
o Closing statement
o Signature
Lesson 5:
Testing and
Assessment in
the Selection
Process
 Predicting Performance Using
Applicant Ability

• Ability tests tap the extent to which an applicant

can learn or perform a job-related skill. Ability
tests are used primarily for occupations in which
applicants are not expected to know how to
perform the job at the time of hire.
 Types of Ability Measures
• Cognitive Ability
 abilities involving the knowledge and use of
information
• Cognitive ability is thought to predict work
performance in two ways: by allowing employees to
quickly learn job-related knowledge and by
processing information resulting in better decision
making.
• Drawbacks: Lack of face validity, difficulty in
setting a passing score
• Perceptual Ability
Measure of facility
with such processes as
spatial relations and
form perception
• Abilities from this
dimension are useful
for such occupations
as machinist, cabinet
maker, driver etc.
Manual Dexterity
 measure of facility with
such processes as finger
dexterity and motor
coordination.
• Psychomotor abilities
are useful for such
jobs as carpenter,
police officer, sewing-
machine operator,
post office clerk, and
truck driver.
• Physical Ability
 Tests that are often used for jobs that require physical
strength and stamina, such as police officer, firefighter,
and lifeguard.
 Physical ability is measured in two ways:
• Job simulations
• Physical agility tests
 Job Simulations and Physical
Agility Tests

• A firefighter applicants might climb a ladder, drag a 48-pound

hose 75 feet across a street, police applicants might fire a gun
and chase down a suspect, and lifeguard applicants might swim
100 yards and drag a drowning victim back to shore.
• Because of the difficulty in using simulations to measure
these types of behaviors, physical ability tests are used.
• Drawbacks: job relatedness, passing scores, and the time at
which they should be required.
 Predicting Performance Using
Applicant Skill
• Rather than measuring an applicant’s current knowledge or
potential to perform a job (ability), some selection
techniques measure the extent to which an applicant
already has a job-related skill.

 the two most common methods for doing this are the
work sample and assessment center.
 Predicting Performance Using
Applicant Skill
• Work Sample
 with a work sample, the applicant performs actual job-related tasks.

• They are directly related to job tasks. They have excellent content
validity.
• Scores from work samples tend to predict actual work performance
and thus have excellent criterion validity.
• Applicants are able to see the connection between the job sample
and the work performed on the job.
Predicting Performance
Using Applicant Skill

• Assessment Centers
 characterized by the use of multiple
assessment methods that allow multiple
assessors to actually observe applicants
perform simulated job tasks.
 Predicting Performance Using
Applicant Skill
• Steps in Creating Assessment Centers
1. Job Analysis
2. Exercises are developed: in-basket technique,
simulations, leaderless group discussion, Business
game
3. Assessors are chosen to rate the applicants going
through the assessment center.
Assessment Centers
• In-basket technique- designed to simulate the types of daily
information that appear on a manager’s or employee’s desk
• Simulation- places an applicant in a situation that is similar to the
one that will be encountered on the job.
• Leaderless group discussion- applicants meet in small groups and
are given a job-related problem to solve or a job-related issue to
discuss.
• Business game- exercise that is designed to simulate the business
and marketing activities.
Predicting Performance Using
Prior Experience
• Applicant experience is typically measured in one of
four ways:

 résumé information
 biodata
 reference checks
 interviews
 Predicting Performance
Using Personality, Interest,
and Character

• Personality Inventories
 personality inventories are
becoming increasingly popular as
an employee selection method
because they predict performance
better than was once thought and
because they result in less adverse
impact than do ability tests.
Predicting Performance Using
Personality, Interest, and Character
• Integrity Tests

 also called an honesty test; a psychological

test designed to predict an applicant’s tendency
to steal
 Predicting Performance
Limitations Due to Medical and
Psychological Problems
• Drug testing
• Psychological exams
• Medical exams
Rejecting Applicants
• Once a decision has been made regarding which
applicants will be hired, those who will not be hired
must be notified.
• Rejected applicants should be treated well because they
are potential customers and potential applicants for
other positions.
How to make a good quality
rejection letter?
• A personally addressed and signed letter
• The company’s appreciation to the applicant for applying for a
position with the company
• A compliment about the applicant’s qualifications
• A comment about the high qualifications possessed by other applicants
• Information about the individual who was actually hired
• A wish of good luck in future endeavors
• A promise to keep the applicant’s résumé on file.
Key takeaways
• References typically are not good predictors of performance due to
such factors as leniency, poor reliability, fear of legal ramifications,
and variety of extraneous factors.
• Reliability, validity, cost, and potential for legal problems should be
considered when choosing the right type of employment test for a
particular situation.
• Cognitive ability tests, job knowledge tests, biodata, work samples,
and assessment centers are some of the better techniques in predicting
future performance.
Key takeaways
• Drug testing and medical exams are commonly used to
screen employees prior to their starting a job.
• Writing a well-designed rejection letter can have
important organizational consequences.
Critical-thinking Assessment
1. Imagine that you were in charge of hiring new
employees for a particular job that you are familiar with.
Which screening methods would you choose, and why?
Provide the job before your explanation.
2. It is clear that in much of the hiring that takes place,
subjective evaluations of applicants are often the basis
for the decisions. Why is this the case? What are some
reasons that more objective—and more valid— hiring
procedures are often ignored by employers?
Thank you and God speed!