Ch. 4

• Job Analysis


  The cornerstone of personnel selection
• Every essential knowledge, skill, and ability identified in the job analysis that is needed on the first day of the job should be tested, and every test must somehow relate to the job analysis
• Recruitment


  Attracting people with the right qualifications to apply for the job
• Recruitment methods


  • Internal Recruitment - promote someone from within the organization
  • External Recruitment - hire someone from outside the organization
• To enhance employee morale and motivation, it is often good to give current employees an advantage in obtaining new internal positions
• Newspaper Ads


  • Respond by calling
  • Apply-in-person ads
  • Send-resume ads
  • Send resume to a blind box
• Effective recruitment advertisements


  • Ads displaying the company emblem and using creating illustrations attract the greatest number of applicants
  • Ads that include salary range and a company phone number attract highest quality applicants
  • Ads containing realistic information about the job rather than information that is too good to be true increase applicant attraction to the organization
  • Ads containing detailed descriptions of the job and organization provide applicants with an idea of how well they would fit into an organization and result in positive thoughts about it
  • Ads containing information about the selection process affect the probability that the applicants will apply for a job
• Other recruitment methods


  • Electronic Media - television and radio
  • Situation-Wanted Ads - placed by the applicants rather than by organizations
  • Point-of-Purchase Methods - job vacancy notice is placed where customers are likely to see them
  • Campus Recruiters
  • Outside Recruiters - private employment agencies, public employment agencies, and executive search firms
• Employment Agencies


  Either charge the company or the applicant, especially useful if an HR department is overloaded with work or if an organization does not have an individual with skills and experience needed to select employees properly, but company loses control over its recruitment process and may end up with undesirable applicants
• Executive Search Firms


  The jobs they represent tend to be higher-paying, non-entry level positions, they charge to the organization, fees charged are usually 30% of the applicant's first-year salary
• Public Employment Agencies


  Designed primarily to help the unemployed find work, but they often offer services such as career advisement and resume preparation, often, government programs are also available that will help pay training costs
• Employee Referrals


  Current employees recommend family members or friends for specific job openings, most effective recruitment method, care must be taken when developing referral program to ensure that the referral pool is representative of the ethnic and racial makeup of the qualified workforce, at risk of possible discrimination
• Direct Mail


  An employer typically obtains a mailing list and sends help-wanted letters or brochures to people through the mail, especially useful for positions involving specialized skills
• Employer-Based Websites


  An organization lists available job openings and provides information about itself and the minimum requirements needed to apply to a particular job, applicants can download their resumes, answer questions designed to screen unqualified applicants, and take employment tests, use of job domains have been rampant (www.company.jobs)
• Internet Recruiters


  A private company whose website lists job opening for hundreds of organizations and resumes for thousands of applicants, it's less costly than newspaper advertisement and reaches more people over a larger geographic area, blogging allows recruiters to discuss an organization's career opportunities and corporate culture more informally with potential applicants
• Job Fairs


  Designed to provide information in a personal fashion to as many applicants as possible, many types of organizations have booths at the same location, also held when an event or disaster occurs that affects local employment, many organizations in the same field in one location, organization holds it own job fair
• Incentives


  Offering incentives for employees to accept jobs with an organization
• Nontraditional populations


  • Forming partnerships with local churches
  • Developing recruitment strategies and such gay-friendly benefits as domestic partner benefits to recruit and retain gay and lesbian employees
  • Using inmates to perform work
  • Recruiting ex-convicts
  • Hiring PWDs
  • Hiring married couples
• Recruiting "Passive" Applicants


  Recruiters try to find ways to identify hidden talent and convince them to apply for a job with their company, common method: surfing the net
• Evaluating the Effectiveness of Recruitment Strategies

  • Examine the number of applicants each recruitment source yields
  • Consider the cost per applicant
  • Looking the number of qualified applicants
  • Checking the cost per qualified applicants
  • Looks at the number of successful employees generated by each recruitment source
  • Looking at the number of minorities ad women that applied for the job and were hired
• Rehires or applicants who are referred by other employees receive more accurate information about the job than do employees recruited by other methods
• Differences in recruitment-source effectiveness are the result of different recruitment sources reaching and being used by different types of applicants
• Employee referrals result in great tenure than do other recruitment strategies
• An employee recommending a friend for a job will more than likely recommend one similar to herself
• Realistic Job Previews


  Involve giving an applicant an honest assessment of a job, even though telling the truth about the job scares away many applicants, the ones who will stay will not be surprised about the job, informed applicants tend to stay longer, Expectation-Lowering Procedure - lowers an applicant's expectations about work and expectations in general
• Effective employee selection techniques

  • Valid
  • Reduce the chance of a legal challenge
  • Cost-effective
• Valid selection test


  One that based on a job analysis, predicts work-related behavior, and measures the construct it purports to measure
• Employment Interviews


  Most commonly used method to select employees
• Types of Interviews


  • Structured Interview - the source of questions is job analysis; all applicants are asked with the same questions; and there is a standardized scoring key
  • Unstructured Interview - free to ask anything you want
• Highly structured interviews are more reliable and valid
• Interview Styles


  • One-on-One Interviews - involve one interviewer interviewing one applicant
  • Serial Interviews - involves a series of single interviews
  • Return Interviews - similar to serial interviews with difference being a passing of time between the first and subsequent interview
  • Panel Interviews - multiple interviewers asking questions and evaluating answers of the same applicant at the same time
  • Group Interviews - have multiple applicants answering questions during the same interview
  • Serial-Panel-Group Interview - combination of different styles
• Interview Mediums


  • Face-to-face Interviews - both the interviewer and the applicant are in the same room
  • Telephone Interviews - often used to screen applicants but do not allow the use of visual cues
  • Videoconference Interviews - the applicant and the interviewer can hear and see each other, but the setting is not as personal, nor is the image and vocal quality of the interview as sharp as in face-to-face interviews
  • Written Interviews - involve the applicant answering a series of written questions and then sending the answers back through regular mail or through email
• Advantages of Structured Interviews

  • Interviews high in structure are more valid
  • Viewed more favorably in courts
• Problems with Unstructured Interviews

  • Poor Intuitive Ability
  • Lack of Job Relatedness
  • Primacy Effects - first impressions
  • Contras Effects - the interview performance of one applicant may affect the interview score given to the next applicant
  • Negative-Information Bias - negative information apparently weighs more heavily than positive information
  • Interviewer-Interviewee Similarity - interviewee will receive a higher score if she is similar to the interviewer in terms of personality, attitude, gender, or race
  • Interviewee Appearance
  • Nonverbal Cues
• Creating a Structured Interview

  1. Determining the KSAOs to tap in the interview

  2. Creating Interview Questions

  3. Creating a Scoring Key for Interview Answers
• Types of Interview Questions

  • Clarifiers - allow the interviewer to clarify information in the resume, cover letter, and application, fill in gaps, and obtain necessary information
  • Disqualifiers - questions that must be answered a particular way or the applicant is disqualified
  • Skill-level determiners - tap an interviewee's level of expertise
  • Future-Focused Questions or Situational Questions - ask what they would do in particular situation
  • Past-focused Questions or Patterned Behavior Description Interviews - focused on previous behavior
  • Organizational-fit questions - tap the extent to which the applicant will fit into the culture of an organization or with the leadership style of a particular supervisor
• Scoring Key Approaches


  • Right/Wrong Approach
  • Typical-answer approach
  • Key-Issues Approach
• Conducting Structured Interview


  1. Build Rapport

  2. Set the agenda for the interview by explaining the process

  3. Ask interview questions

  4. Provide info about the job and the organization

  5. Answer the questions the applicant might have

  6. End the interview with compliment
• Job Search Skills: Successfully Surviving the Interview Process

  • Scheduling the Interview - Arriving late will have lower scores
  • Before the Interview - Learn about the company, Dress neatly and professionally (adjust your style as necessary to fit the situation)
  • During the Interview - Firm handshake, eye contact, smiling, and head-nodding, Ask questions, not ask salary, not speak slowly, and not hesitate when answering questions, First impressions lasts
  • After the Interview - Write a brief letter thanking the interviewer for time
• Cover Letters


  Tell an employee that you are enclosing your resume and would like to apply for a job