UAPP 2053 Organizational Psychology - Lecture 3 Employee Selection

UAPP 2053 Organizational Psychology

Lecture 3 Employee Selection

Objectives

- Determining job requirements.

· Job analysis.

- Recruiting job applicants.

· The recruiting process.

· The selection process.

Job Analysis

- What is job analysis?

· Job analysis refers to various methodologies for analyzing the requirements of a job.

· Job analysis is a method for describing jobs and/or the human attributes necessary to perform them (Spector: 2008).

- There are three elements that comprise a formal job analysis:

· The procedure must be systematic – the analyst specifies a procedure in advance and follows it.

· A job is broken into smaller units – describe the components of job rather than the overall job.

· The analysis results in written product, either electronic or on paper.

- The general purpose of job analysis is to document the requirements of a job and the work performed.

- Job and task analysis is performed as a preliminary to successive actions, including to define a job domain, write a job description, create performance appraisals, selection and promotion, training needs assessment, compensation, and organizational analysis/planning.

- In the field of Human Resources (HR) and Industrial Psychology, job analysis is often used to gather information for use in personnel selection, training, classification, and/or compensation.

- As noted earlier, job analysis techniques can be used to collect information that is job oriented or person oriented, depending on the purpose of the job analyst.

- The Job Oriented Approach

· The principle of job-orientation is to understand the job that is done in terms of the outcomes and the activities used to achieve those outcomes.

· Job-oriented methods can be used both work improvement, job definition and also for recruitment.

· Structured questionnaire: questionnaires and checklists to organize.

· Process analysis: breaking down the activities.

· Observation: researcher just watches what is done.

· Self-reports: the incumbent reports what happens using diaries and logs.

· Participation: the researcher does the job.

- The Person Oriented Approach

· Worker-oriented methods are focused on the person and their experience and perception.

Ø Knowledge

Ø Skills

Ø Ability

Ø Other personal characteristics

Ø KSAO

- Purpose of Job Analysis

· The purpose of Job Analysis is to establish and document the ‘job relatedness’ of employment procedures such as training, selection, compensation, and performance appraisals, as well as career development and legal issues concerning employment.

- Career Development

· Many organizations have systems that allow employees to move up through the ranks to higher and higher positions – career ladder.

· This requires necessary skills and maintains good job performance.

- Legal Issues

· Most industrialized countries have laws prohibiting discriminatory employment practices, especially in the hiring of employees.

· Thus, JA provides a list of relevant KSAOs as the basis for hiring rather than irrelevant characteristic.

- Training

· Job Analysis can be used in training/“needs assessment” to identify or develop:

Ø Training content (based on KSAOs).

Ø Assessment tests to measure effectiveness of training.

Ø Equipment to be used in delivering the training.

Ø Methods of training (i.e. small group, computer-based, video, classroom…)

- Compensation

· Job Analysis can be used in compensation to identify or determine:

Ø Skill levels

Ø Compensable job factors.

Ø Work environment (e.g. hazards; attention; physical effort)

Ø Responsibilities (e.g. fiscal; supervisory)

Ø Required level of education (indirectly related to salary level)

- Selection

· Job duties that should be included in advertisements of vacant positions.

· Appropriate salary level for the position to help determine what salary should be offered to a candidate.

· Minimum requirements (education and/or experience) for screening applicants.

· Interview questions.

· Selection tests/instruments (e.g. written tests; oral tests; job stimulations).

· Applicant appraisal/evaluation forms.

· Orientation materials for applicants/new hires.

- Performance Appraisal

· Goals and objectives.

· Performance standards.

· Evaluation criteria.

· Length of probationary periods.

· Duties to be evaluated.

- How job analysis information is collected?

· Most JA information comes from one of four different sources:

Ø Job analyst

Ø Job incumbents

Ø Supervisors

Ø Trained observer

· Perform the job.

· Observe employees on the job.

· Interview subject matter experts.

· Administer questionnaires to subject matter experts.

· Multiple approaches.

- Methods of job analysis

· Job Characteristics Inventory (JCI)

Ø The Job Characteristics Inventory (JCI) was developed to address the need to match job requirements to worker characteristics.

Ø Allows simultaneous assessment of the job requirements and a person’s KSAOs.

Ø The JCI is a highly valid and reliable, self-report instrument that measures an individual on five dimensions:

o Use of tools and equipment.

o Perceptual and physical requirements.

o Mathematics.

o Communication.

o Decision making and responsibility.

· Functional Job Analysis (FJA)

Ø The most recent version of FJA uses seven-scales to describe what workers do in jobs:

Ø (1) Things, (2) Data, (3) People, (4) Worker Instructions, (5) Reasoning, (6) Math, and (7) Language.

Ø Each scale has several levels that are anchored with specific behavioral statements and illustrative tasks.

Ø Like other job analysis instruments, FJA is a methodology for collecting job information.

· Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ)

Ø The position analysis questionnaire is a structured job analysis questionnaire containing 194 items called job elements.

Ø These elements are worker-oriented. Using the terminology of the Department of Labor’s 1972 job analysis formula, they would be classified as worker behaviors.

Ø The items are organized into six divisions:

(1) Information input

(2) Mental processes

(3) Work output (physical activities and tools)

(4) Relationships with others

(5) Job context (the physical and social environment)

(6) Other job characteristics (such as pace and structure)

Recruitment Process

- Sources for recruiting

· Newspapers

· Employment agencies

- Recruiter characteristics

· Based on research, graduates recruiters to spend the interview period providing information about the company.

- Campus recruiting

· Finding new recruitments in campus.

- Realistic Job Previews (RJP)

· A Realistic Job Preview (RJP) is any part of the selection process that gives the applicant a clear idea of what it will be like to work at the job if they are hired. The preview typically happens early in the selection process.

· The purpose of the RJP is to give the candidate as much information about the job as possible so that they can make an informed decision about their suitability for the job.

· In order for the RJP to be successful, it must objectively outline not only the positive aspects of the job, but also the potentially negative or unique aspects of the job as well.

· For example, it should include information regarding shift work, special characteristics of the job, hours, specific requirements, a “typical” day on the job, etc.

· For best effect, there should be a pause in the selection after the RJP – to give the candidate an opportunity to think about those requirements he or she might not like or be able to fulfill.

· The idea is to allow the candidate an opportunity to quit before he or she is hired.

Selection Process

- How do organizations select employees?

· The purpose of employee selection is to hire somebody who is expected to be successful on doing the job.

· There are several approaches of selecting employees.

· There are two important elements in employee selection must be considered:

Ø Criterion

o Although it may seem obvious to hire the person who is expected to be the best performer, it is not easy to define good performance.

o Example: attendance.

Ø Predictor

o It is anything related to criterion.

o Measures of KSAOs can be used to as predictors of a criterion of job performance.

o Example: knowledge of the subject matter should be a good predictor of a teacher.

· Thus, determining if a given predictors relates to the criterion require a validation study.

· To conduct this sort of study, both the criterion and the predictor are quantified – use statistical test to see if they are significantly related.

- Step 1: Conduct a job analysis.

· Job analysis provides information about the task involved and also information about KSAOs.

· Hiring people with characteristic that are not related to the job requirements would be foolish at best and illegal at worst if it results discrimination.

- Step 2: Specify job performance criteria.

· Once you have a good idea about what the job entails – develop criteria for good job performance.

· E.g. teacher is required to teach secondary 1 students.

Ø Criterion – able to teach small children.

Ø Predictor – caring, loving, etc.

Ø (The criterion might be predicted by one or more predictors).

- Step 3: Choose predictors.

· Potential predictors might be chosen to assess KSAOs directly.

· Organizations prefer to hire graduate students, why?

- Step 4: Validate the predictors.

· In this step, measures of the criterion and the predictors are taken on the sample of people to see if the predictor relates to the criterion – e.g. organizational settings.

Ø Concurrent validation study.

o Participants are current employee.

o They are asked to provide predictor data by taking assessment test.

o Then the test score would be correlated with their recent performance evaluations.

o If related, the predictor is valid.

Ø Predictive validity study.

o The predictors are measured before the criterion.

o A sample of job applicants might be given the predictive assessment.

o Then they are hired and later assessed on the criterion or criteria (time span – months or years).

o The predictor scores would be correlated with criterion scores.

- Step 5: Cross-validate.

· To replicate the result of one sample with those of another sample – need 2 samples.

· First sample is used to determine if the criterion and predictor are significantly correlated.

· Second sample is used to see if the significant relationship found in the first sample can be repeated in the second sample.