Employee Testing

and Selection
Sabnam Basu
 Selection
• Selection is the process of picking individuals (out of the pool of job applicants) with
requisite qualifications and competence to fill jobs in the organization.
• Mostly focuses on selecting applicants from outside the organization
• Effective selection is crucial for organizations

• to strive towards effective performance and also help them achieve competitive
advantage
• cost incurred in recruiting and hiring
Cost in terms of production or profit
• Outcomes of the Selection Decision: losses, damaged company reputation,
accidents due to negligence, absenteeism,
and the like

Success False Negative True Positive

(Error) (High Hit)
Costs associated with the training,
True Negative False Positive transfer or terminating the services of the
Failure (Low Hit) (Error) employee

Failure Success
Predicted Predicted Costs of replacing an employee with a
fresh one—costs of hiring, training and
replacement

Source: Thomas H. Stone, Understanding Personnel Management, p. 175. 2

 External Environment
Internal Environment

The Selection Process

Preliminary screening

Rejected Applications
• The process might differ Selection Tests
among organizations and
between two different jobs Interview
within the same company
Reference and Background
• E.g., for senior managers it
Analysis
will be long-drawn and
rigorous, but it is simple and Selection decision
short for hiring shop-floor
workers
Physical Examination

Job Offer

Employment Contract

Evaluation

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Internal and External Environment
• Supply and demand of specific skills in the labor market
• Unemployment rate
• Labor-market conditions
• Legal and political considerations
• Company’ image
• Company’s policy Internal
• HRP
• Cost of hiring

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION 4
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Preliminary Screening

• The applications received from job seekers would be subject to

scrutiny so as to eliminate unqualified applicants
• Scrutiny enables the HR specialists to eliminate unqualified job
seekers based on the information supplied in their
application forms
• Educational Qualifications
• Job experience (relevant or not)
• Job domain (relevant or not)
• Desirable Qualities
• Is the applicant profile matching with job profile

CONFERENCE PRESENTATION 5
Selection Tests

• Tests are used to determine the applicant’s ability, aptitude and personality
• Different types of tests may be administered, depending on the job and the company

Tests of Motor and

Ability Tests Aptitude Tests Personality Tests Physical Abilities Some other tests
• Assist in determining • Determine a person’s • Assess a candidate’s • Finger dexterity,
how well an individual potential to learn in a personality manual dexterity, and
can perform tasks given area • Tells about a reaction time
related to the job • E.g., General prospective • Speed and accuracy of
Graphology test
• E.g., data entry test Management Aptitude employee’s motivation simple judgment as
given to a prospective Test (GMAT), DAT, GATB to function in a well as the speed of
employee for a particular working finger, hand, and arm
secretarial job Interest Test environment
Achievement Test • E.g., Projective and
movements
• Military, police,
Polygraph test
• Compare one’s interests
with those of people in Self-reported: firefighters, etc.
various occupations. Thematic
• The Strong-Campbell Apperception Test Medical Test
• Achievement tests
measure what Interest Inventory (TAT) assesses an Written Honesty
individual’s
someone has provides a report
achievement and • Reveal physical fitness test
learned. comparing one’s interests of a candidate
to those of people already motivational levels;
• They measure your “job Big Five assess • Drug test
knowledge” in areas like in occupations like
accounting or personality traits • E.g., Sports, Military,
economics, marketing,
engineering. Police services, etc.
or human resources.
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 Personality Tests
• Advantage
Self-Report Inventory
• Tests have been used successfully to predict dysfunctional job behaviors and
identify successful candidates for overseas assignments
• Disadvantage The Big Five
• Personality tests—particularly the projective type—are the most difficult tests to
evaluate and use • Extraversion
• Might not be the best predictor of job behaviors. The tendency to be sociable, assertive, active,
and to experience positive effects, such as
Projective Techniques energy and zeal.
• Emotional stability/neuroticism
The tendency to exhibit poor emotional
Rorschach Inkblot adjustment and experience negative effects,
Thematic Apperception Test
such as anxiety, insecurity, and hostility.
• Openness to experience
The disposition to be imaginative,
nonconforming, unconventional, and
autonomous.
• Agreeableness
The tendency to be trusting, compliant, caring,
and gentle.
• Conscientiousness
Achievement oriented, organized and
dependable
Some other selection techniques

Simulation

• Provided with situations representative of the job for which they’re applying, and
evaluate their responses. E.g., Pilots, military, etc. (involves use of simulation
machines and techniques)
• In business using work samples is a great technique
• Work samples: Actual job tasks used as samples for testing applicants’
performance
• Several Advantages:
• It measures actual job tasks, so it’s harder to fake answers.
• Is not as likely to be unfair to minorities (as might a personnel test that possibly
emphasizes middle-class concepts and values)
• Work sampling doesn’t delve into the applicant’s personality, so there’s almost no
chance of applicants viewing it as an invasion of privacy.
• Designed properly, work samples also exhibit better validity than do other tests
designed to predict performance.
Some other selection techniques

Different Kinds of Work Sampling/Simulation

• Management assessment center • Situational Judgment Tests Realistic Job

Preview
• A simulation in which management • Situational judgment tests are personnel
candidates are asked to perform realistic tests “designed to assess an applicant’s
• Applicants who
tasks in hypothetical situations and are judgment regarding a situation
receive realistic job
scored on their performance. encountered in the workplace.”
previews are more
• Typical simulated exercises include: likely to turn
• Video-Based situational testing down job offers,
• The in-basket but their employers
• A situational test comprised of several are more likely to
• Leaderless group discussion have less
video scenarios, each followed by a
multiple choice question that requires the turnover and be
• Management games
candidate to choose from among several more resilient
• Individual presentations courses of action. • Walmart began
explicitly explaining
• Objective tests • While the evidence is mixed, the results and asking about
suggest that video-based situational tests work schedules and
• The interview can be useful for selecting employees. work preferences,
turnover improved
Choosing The Tests

• Predictors: the human traits and skills you believe predict success on the job. For an
assembler’s job, predictors might include manual dexterity and patience.
• Criterion: The standards of success. 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).
• 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.
• Equal employment laws should be considered and test should be conducted in a manner
that is ethical and protects the test taker’s privacy
• Utility analysis CONFERENCE PRESENTATION 10
Important Characteristics of Tools/Tests

• Reliability: consistency of the test to yield similar result over time and different
occasions

• Test-retest reliability: 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

• Equivalent or alternate form reliability: administer a test and then administer what
experts believe to be an equivalent test/alternative form of the same test later on.

• Internal consistency: compare answers to questions on the same test

• Split half reliability: Splitting the test into two equal halves

• Reliability coefficient: shows the degree to which the two measures are correlated
CONFERENCE PRESENTATION 11
Important Characteristics of Tools/Tests
• Validity: whether the test measures what it intends to measure
• With employee selection tests, validity often refers to evidence that the test is job
related—that performance on the test accurately predicts job performance

• 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
• 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
• Criterion validity: A type of validity based on showing that scores on the test (predictors) are
related to job performance (criterion)
• Concurrent Validity: compare their test scores with their current performance
• Predictive validity: compare their test scores with their future performance

• External validity: When conducted in actual settings

• Face validity: At face value
CONFERENCE PRESENTATION 12
Evaluation of Selected Assessment Methods
HR Analytics in Employee Selection

• Revolutionizing employee selection

• Statistical techniques, algorithms, data mining, and problem -solving let employers search
through their employee data to identify patterns and correlations that show what types
of people succeed or fail
• Case:

• A department store chain had very high turnover among its cosmetics sales associates.
• Chose 450 current cosmetics associates who filled out anonymous surveys aimed at identifying
employee traits.
• By using HR analytics to analyze these and other data, the company identified cosmetics
associates’ traits that correlated with performance and tenure.
• They had assumed that the best associates were friendly and enthusiastic about cosmetics.
• However, the best were actually problem solvers. They take information about what the
customer wants and needs, and solve the problem.
• HR analysis thereby helped them formulate better selection criteria.
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 Expectancy Chart

Expectancy Chart: Shows the

relation between test scores
and job performance
graphically

Those who score

between 37 and 44 have a 55%
chance of being rated high
performer and those scoring
between 57 and 64 have a 97%
chance.

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 Extent of investigations and checks
In a survey of 700 HR managers,
–Reference checks (87%)
Reference and
Background Check –Background employment checks (69%) –Criminal records (61%)
–Driving records (56%)–Credit checks (35%)
Trends shaping HR
Reasons for investigations and checks
• Digital tools are changing the background-
checking process. Employers are Googling –To verify factual information provided by applicants.
applicants or checking Facebook and
–To uncover damaging information.
LinkedIn, and what they’re finding isn’t
always pretty. Should be done with caution and be in line with the equal
• E.g., One candidate described his interests employment laws of the country. Many times taking
on Facebook as smoking pot and shooting
content from the employee is mandatory
people. The student may have been kidding,
but didn’t get the job (2006, The New York
Times)
• Should be careful while using social media Reference providers’ concerns
as rejecting someone based on social media • Fear of legal reprisal for defamation
information can be contested. • Not wanting to damage the applicant’s chances
• Certain information like race, ethnic origin • Helping to get rid an incompetent employees
may led to discrimination
• Nowadays blockchain technology is
being used to do background check as there • In India Aadhaar verification is being used to verify biometrics,
are thousands of database that are residence and bank details.
available/ being created. • Government jobs require police verification 16
Interviews
• Existence of several types of interviews:
- Selection interview - Appraisal Interview
- Exit Interview

Structured Unstructured
Interview Interview

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Types of Interview
based on Content
Situational Interviews Behavioural Interviews Job-related Interviews Stress Interviews
• Job related questions • Job-related questions that • Job-relevant past • The interviewer seeks to make
about how the candidate focus on how the candidate experiences. the applicant uncomfortable
would behave in given reacted to actual situations • The questions here don’t with occasionally rude
situation. in the past. revolve around questions.
• E.g., How would you act • E.g., Can you think hypothetical or actual • The aim is supposedly to spot
in response to a • of a time when you handles situations or scenarios sensitive applicants and those
subordinate coming to a crisis? • E.g., Which courses did with low (or high) stress
work late 3 days in a • EY India and KPMG India you like best in business tolerance.
row? often conduct selection school?” • The stress interview’s invasive
• How would one behave interview by giving a case and ethically dubious nature
in a hypothetical study that includes a demands that the interviewer
situation in the future business scenario be both skilled in its use and
sure the job really requires
handling stress.
Technical Interviews • In India, banks many times
uses stress interviews for sales
• Focuses on the subject understanding of a candidate
function
• Many Indian companies particularly the IT and technology
• However, companies like
firms conduct this kind of interviews
Philips are nowadays focusing
• In a survey, it was found that MNBCs use technical
more on mutual discovery and
interviews separately
stress free interviews 18
 Computer- Web-based
Types of Interview Phone Face to face
based job video
interviews interviews
based on Mode interviews interviews

One-on-one interview: two people meet alone, and one interviews the other by
seeking oral responses to oral inquiries.

Sequential (or serial) Interviews: several persons interview the applicant, in sequence, one-on-one, and then
make their hiring decision
• Unstructured sequential interview
–An interview in which each interviewer forms an independent opinion after asking different questions.
• Structured sequential interview
–An interview in which the applicant is interviewed sequentially by several persons; each rates the applicant
on a standard form.

A panel interview (board interview): interview conducted by a team of interviewers (usually two to
three), who together question each candidate and then combine their ratings of each candidate’s answers
into a final panel score.

An even more stressful variant is the mass interview. Here a panel interviews several candidates
simultaneously. The panel might pose a problem, and then watches to see which candidate
takes the lead in formulating an answer. 19
 • First Impression (Snap Judgements):
Avoiding Errors • Making up one’s mind even before interview starts, based on the application and appearance.
• Negative bias: Interviewers are more influenced by unfavorable than favorable information
• Their impressions are much more likely to change from favorable to unfavorable than from
unfavorable to favorable.
52 HR specialists • Misunderstanding the job
watched videotaped job .
Applicants’ verbal content was • More job knowledge translated into better interviews.
identical.
Nonverbal behavior differed markedly. • E.g., just knowing that it is for a position of secretary as compared to knowing more
One group was told to exhibit minimal information like bilingual skills are required for this post
eye contact, a low energy level, and low
voice modulation. • Candidate-Order (Contrast) Error and Pressure to Hire
And opposite to the second group.
23 of 26 of high-eye-contact, high- • An error of judgment on the part of the interviewer due to interviewing one or more very good or
energy-level candidate were invited for very bad candidates just before the interviewee in question.
second interview.
None from the low-eye-contact, low- • Pressure to hire might accentuate this problem
energy-level group.
• Nonverbal behavior and
• Interviewers’ inferences of the interviewee’s personality from the way he or she acts in the
interview have a large impact on the interviewer’s rating of the interviewee.
• Impression management
• Clever interviewees attempt to manage the impression they present to persuade interviewers to
view them more favorably by praising the interviewers or agreeing with their opinions, thus
Diversity signaling they shared similar beliefs.
• Self-promotion means promoting one’s own skills and abilities to create the impression of
competence
• Effect of Personal Characteristics: Attractiveness, Gender, Race
• Halo effect: positive impressions of a person in one area to positively influence one's opinion
or feelings in other areas
• People generally attribute favorable traits and more success to attractive people. 20
• Same race or ethnicity
Thank You

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