Employee testing and selectiong

After recruitment, next step is the testing and selecting the right person
Why Employee Selection Is Important
After reviewing the applicants’ résumés, the manager turns to selecting the best candidate for the job.
This usually means using the screening tools we discuss in this and the following chapter: tests,
assessment centers, interviews, and background and reference checks.3 (Applicants may first be
prescreened to reduce the applicant pool to a manageable number, as discussed in Chapter 5.)

The aim of employee selection is to achieve person–job fit.

person–job fit This means matching the knowledge, skills, abilities, and other competencies (KSACs) that
are required for performing the job (based on job analysis) with the applicant’s KSACs.

Of course, a candidate might be “right” for a job, but wrong for the organization.4 For example, an
experienced airline pilot might excel at American Airlines but perhaps not at Southwest, where the
organizational values require that all employees help out, even with baggage handling.

Therefore, while person–job fit is usually the main consideration, person–organization fit is important
too

person-organization fit refers to a match between an organization's core values and culture and

an individual's beliefs and values

. In any case, selecting the right person is crucial for several reasons.

First, employees with the right skills will perform better for you and the company. Those without these
skills or who are abrasive or obstructionist won’t perform effectively, and your own performance and
the firm’s will suffer. The bad apple on a team will diminish its morale and engagement, along with its
efforts.5 The time to screen out undesirables is before they are in the door.

Second, effective selection is important because it is costly to recruit and hire employees. One survey
found that the average cost of hiring an employee who doesn’t work out is about $50,000.6 Testing can
help: in one call center, the 90-day employee attrition rate fell from 41% to 12% after testing began.7

Third, inept hiring has legal consequences. Equal employment laws require nondiscriminatory selection
procedures.8 And negligent hiring means hiring employees with criminal records or other problems who
then use access to customers’ homes (or similar opportunities) to commit crimes.9 In one case, an
apartment manager entered a woman’s apartment and assaulted her.10 The court found the apartment
complex’s owner negligent for not checking the manager’s background properly.11 Such suits are risin

The Basics of Testing and Selecting Employees

As with most personnel functions, technology (including machine learning) is changing how
employers select employees. A test is basically a sample of a person’s behavior. Any test or
screening tool has two important characteristics, reliability and validity. We’ll start with the
former
 Reliability
Reliability is a selection tool’s first requirement and refers to its consistency: “A reliable test is
one that yields consistent scores when a person takes two alternate forms of the test or when
he or she takes the same test on two or more different occasions.”13 If a person scores 90 on
an intelligence test on a Monday an
You can measure reliability in several ways. One is to administer a test to a group one day, re-
administer the same test several days later to the same group, and then correlate the first set
of scores with the second (called test-retest reliability estimates).1
Many things cause a test to be unreliable. These include physical conditions (quiet one day,
noisy the next), differences in the test taker (healthy one day, sick the next), and differences in
test administration (courteous one day, curt the next). Or the questions may do a poor job of
sampling the material; for example, test one focuses more on Chapters 1 and 3, while test two
focuses more on Chapters 2 and 4.
Because measuring reliability generally involves comparing two measures that assess the same
thing, it is typical to judge a test’s reliability in terms of a reliability coefficient. This basically
shows the degree to which the two measures (say, test score one day and test score the next
day) are correlated
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.
3 kinds of validity
criterion validity A type of validity based on showing that scores on the test (predictors) are
related to job performance (criterion).
For example, it means demonstrating 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.
content validity
A test that is content valid is one that contains a fair sample of the tasks and skills actually
needed for the job in question.
For example, employers may demonstrate the content validity of a test by showing that the test
constitutes a fair sample of the job’s content. The basic procedure here is to identify job tasks
that are critical to performance, and then randomly select a sample of those tasks to test
construct validity
A test that is construct valid is one that demonstrates that a selection procedure measures a
construct and that construct is important for successful job performance.

At best, invalid tests are a waste of time; at worst, they are discriminatory. Tests you buy “off
the shelf” should include information on their validity.19 But ideally, you should revalidate the
tests for the job(s) at hand. In any case, tests rarely predict performance with 100% accuracy
(or anywhere near it). Therefore, don’t make tests your only selection tool; also use other tools
like interviews and background checks.
Validation process (how to validate a test)
5 steps
An industrial psychologist usually conducts the validation study. The human resource
department coordinates the effort. Strictly speaking, the supervisor’s role is just to make sure
that the job’s human requirements and performance standards are clear to the psychologist.
But in practice, anyone using tests (or test results) should know something about validation.
Then you can better understand how to use tests and interpret their results. The validation
process consists of five steps.
STEP 1: ANALYZE THE JOB
The first step is to analyze the job and write job descriptions and job specifications. The aim
here is to specify the human traits and skills you believe are required for job performance.
These requirements become the predictors, the human traits and skills you believe predict
success on the job
In this first step, also define “success on the job,” since it’s this success for which you want
predictors. The standards of success are criteria. You could use production-related criteria
(quantity, quality, and so on), personnel data (absenteeism, length of service, and so on), or
worker performance (reported by supervisors).
STEP 2: CHOOSE THE TESTS
Once you know the predictors (such as manual dexterity) the next step is to decide how to test
for them. Employers usually base this choice on experience, previous research, and “best
guesses.” They usually don’t start with just one test. Instead, they choose several tests and
combine them into a test battery. The test battery aims to measure an array of possible
predictors, such as aggressiveness, extroversion, and numerical ability
. What tests are available and where do you get them? Ideally, use a professional, such as an
industrial psychologist. However, many firms publish tests.22 Some tests are available to
virtually any purchaser, others only to qualified buyers (such as with advanced degrees in
psychology)
Firms such as HR direct of Pompano Beach, Florida, offers employment testing materials
including a clerical skills test, telemarketing ability test, and sales abilities test
STEP 3: ADMINISTER THE TEST
Next, administer the selected test(s). One option is to administer the tests to employees
currently on the job. You then compare their test scores with their current performance; this is
concurrent (at the same time) validation.
Its advantage is that data on performance are readily available. The disadvantage is that current
employees may not be representative of new applicants (who, of course, are really the ones for
whom you are interested in developing a screening test). Current employees have already had
on-the-job training and screening by your existing selection techniques.
Predictive validation is the second and more dependable way to validate a test. Here you
administer the test to applicants before you hire them, then hire these applicants using only
existing selection techniques, not the results of the new tests.
After they’ve been on the job for some time, measure their performance and compare it to
their earlier test scores. You can then determine whether you could have used their
performance on the new test to predict their subsequent job performance.
STEP 4: RELATE YOUR TEST SCORES AND CRITERIA
Here, ascertain if there is a significant relationship between test scores (the predictor) and
performance (the criterion). The usual method is to determine the statistical relationship
between (1) scores on the test and (2) job performance using correlation analysis, which shows
the degree of statistical relationship.
If there is a correlation between test and job performance, you can develop an expectancy
chart. This presents the relationship between test scores and job performance graphically
expectancy chart A graph showing the relationship between test scores and job performance
for a group of people.
STEP 5: CROSS-VALIDATE AND REVALIDATE
Before using the test, you may want to check it by “cross-validating”—in other words, by again
performing steps 3 and 4 on a new sample of employees. At a minimum, revalidate the test
periodically