This Document Contains Chapters 9 to 10 Chapter 9: Assessing External Candidates LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Identify different external assessment goals. • Describe what is meant by an assessment plan. • Describe different assessment methods and how each is best used. • Discuss how to evaluate external assessment methods. • Identify ways to reduce the adverse impact of an assessment method. TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. A firm’s external assessment goals include person-job, person-group, and person-organization fit as well as validity, return on investment, stakeholder reactions, consistency with the firm’s talent philosophy and HR strategy, and establishing and reinforcing the company’s employer image. 2. A wide variety of assessment methods exist, including résumés, medical tests, cognitive ability tests, job knowledge tests, simulations, and interviews. Assessment methods differ in terms of their cost, validity, how applicants react to them, usability, speed, and adverse impact. 3. The adverse impact associated with an assessment method can sometimes be reduced by targeting applicants to increase the numbers of qualified minority applicants who apply and by expanding the definition of what constitutes a good job performance to include other performance characteristics, such as people’s commitment and reliability, in addition to their task performance. Also, using well-developed simulations rather than cognitive ability tests and using assessment methods with less adverse impact early in the selection process and those with greater adverse impact later in the process can also help as can banding applicants as they’re assessed. 4. The assessment plan describes which assessment methods will be used to assess each of the characteristics upon which applicants will be evaluated, in what sequence the assessments will take place, and what weight each assessment will receive in determining a candidate’s overall score. The importance of each characteristic to job performance is also identified, as is whether each characteristic will be evaluated or trained for after a candidate is hired. 5. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. When should employers reassess the assessment methods they use in hiring? Answer: It is best to continually assess the effectiveness of assessment methods as their validities and adverse impact can change over time and as a result of different recruiting methods being used. If appropriate records are kept regarding disparate impact, candidates’ assessment scores, and hiring outcomes, then the staffing analyses will be easy to conduct. Technology can greatly facilitate the collection and storage of appropriate records in a database. Current assessment method evaluation outcomes can even be made a part of a firm’s staffing dashboard, discussed in more detail in Chapter 13. 2. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of both structured and unstructured interviews. Which would you prefer to use? Why? Answer: The advantages of structured interviews are their standardization and the existence of answer keys, which allows candidates’ answers to be scored and compared. They are also highly job related, which increases their validity compared to unstructured interviews and creates favorable candidates’ reactions. Unstructured interviews might be preferred by hiring managers who believe they have developed effective questions and assessment methods, but they are less valid and their lack of standardization makes candidate comparisons difficult. 3. Why go to all the trouble of sometimes costly and time-consuming assessments when there are no guarantees they will result in a successful hire? Answer: Because assessments greatly increase the probability that true positives and true negatives will occur. Without valid assessments, candidates are being hired almost randomly which will result in average hires rather than hiring people who best fit the job and organization. The return on the investment in a valid assessment method can be quite large in terms of lower turnover, higher job performance, and more talent in the internal leadership pipeline. 4. What do you feel are the least effective external assessment methods? Why? Answer: Answers tend to focus on assessment methods that are not job related, such as graphology. Credit checks are also commonly named. Personality tests are sometimes discussed despite their modest validity because of their perceived unrelatedness to job performance. This can be a good springboard for a discussion of how personality tests are best used when related to specific job requirements. 5. Do you think that it is appropriate for employers to research applicants’ backgrounds? What about credit histories? Substantiate your answer. Answer: Students generally feel that if it is necessary or relevant for the job being filled, then this information is acceptable if it is kept private. Jobs requiring employees to visit customers at their homes, such as cable TV installer, are often identified as relevant for background checks, as are jobs in the security industry (police, security guard, etc.). Credit histories are often perceived to be relevant for positions requiring money handling, money management, or travel requiring car or hotel rental that a person with bad credit might not be able to do. It is important to point out that disparate impact can be a problem with credit checks, as minorities have been found to have lower credit scores on average than whites. EXERCISES 1. Strategy Exercise: There are many consulting firms that specialize in candidate assessment and selection. Johnson & Johnson is the world’s most comprehensive and broadly based manufacturer of health care products. J&J pursues a business strategy of serving the consumer, pharmaceutical, and medical devices and diagnostics markets with a focus on research-based, technology-driven products. The company’s credo prioritizes its responsibilities to its customers, employees, the community, and its stockholders in that order. Go to www.jnj.com and learn more about Johnson & Johnson’s credo. Then answer the following questions. a. In what ways does J&J’s focus on its credo and hiring people who fit its credo help the company perform well? b. Use the Internet to identify at least five assessment tools that could help J&J identify applicants who fit its credo. Identify which ones you would recommend to J&J and describe why. Answer: a. Because it is in the pharmaceutical, medical, and health care products industry, Johnson & Johnson needs all of its employees to behave with the highest degree of ethics and integrity at all times. Public trust in the company is critical. Having a strong credo outlining the company’s values and commitments helps it to hire only those people it determines fit that credo themselves. J&J’s people are the company – they constantly make decisions and engage in behaviors that determine what J&J does, how it performs, and how it is perceived by stakeholders. By generating talent whose personal values reflect J&J’s values, it is more likely that its people will make decisions and do their jobs in ways that maintain J&J’s image and the public’s trust in the company. The positive effects of its people internalizing the company’s credo can be seen in the consistently ethical and responsible way J&J handled the Tylenol poisonings in 1982, recalling 31 million bottles of Extra Strength Tylenol worth over $100 million. b. Values that might be important in this context include cooperativeness, competitiveness, honesty, integrity, trustworthiness, and treating others with dignity and respect, and responsibility. The assessment tools identified vary, but should be linked to J&J’s credo. 2. Develop Your Skills Exercise: This chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature gave you some tips for writing an online résumé. Using this information, write your own résumé that could be posted online. Exchange résumés with two classmates and give each other feedback on how to improve each other’s résumés. [This exercise can be easily modified to require students to develop a LinkedIn profile and critique the profiles of two other students.] Answer: Résumé content should parallel the content of the Develop Your Skills feature. Students can e-mail their résumés to each other to save time, and track changes can be used to record suggestions. Students generally appreciate the opportunity to improve their résumés. 3. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Watch the video on this book’s companion website on how NOT to conduct an interview. Then identify at least 5 things the interviewer does wrong or should do differently, and explain why your suggestion is appropriate. Answer: The interviewer is unprepared, eats during the interview, asks inappropriate questions, behaves unprofessionally, does not control his body language or reactions to the candidate’s answers, and does not communicate information that would help to persuade the candidate that the job and organization are good fits for her. His questions are often not job related and he clearly has a preference for a male hire. 4. Develop Your Skills Exercise: Develop a scoring key for each structured interview question below and create a formula to combine the scores into an overall structured interview score for a retail sales position at a high-end retailer focused on customer service. a. A disgruntled customer is returning a damaged suit jacket he bought the previous week that he needed for an event that night. He is extremely upset. What do you do? b. A person walks into your store and mentions that she has just moved into the area and that this is the first time she has visited your store. What would you do to make her a customer now and a loyal customer in the future? c. You’re working alone because two people called in sick. Suddenly, five customers walk into your department at once. What do you do? Then view the structured interviews available on the book’s companion web site for Parvathi, Chris, and Julia. Use your structured interview scoring key to evaluate each candidate. Then combine each candidate’s interview scores and choose one to whom to extend a job offer. Answer: Possible Scoring Keys: The KSAOs and competencies identified as being important determinants of success in retail environments will be scored in the videotaped structured interviews. These include: Listening skills Communication skills Social perceptiveness Customer service orientation 1. a. Customer Handling (0-10 points): Evaluate empathy, problem-solving, and customer service skills. 2. b. Customer Engagement (0-10 points): Assess approach to building relationships and long-term loyalty. 3. c. Multitasking (0-10 points): Rate ability to manage multiple tasks and prioritize under pressure. Overall Score = (a + b + c) / 3 Apply this formula to evaluate each candidate’s responses and select the one with the highest overall score for the job offer. Question 1: A disgruntled customer is returning a damaged suit jacket he bought the previous week that he needed for an event that night. He is extremely upset. What do you do? Answer: Listening skills: 1 = doesn’t understand the question and doesn’t listen to customer in answer. 10 = understands and interprets the question properly and listens to customer in answer. Communication skills: 1 = stammers or is unclear when responding. 10 = clearly articulates and states response to situation. Social perceptiveness: 1 = awkward or uncomfortable in response to interviewer; unaware of customer’s needs in situation. 10 = responds and interacts with interviewer appropriately; is aware of customer’s needs in situation. Customer service orientation: 1 = does not understand or address the customer’s concern. 10 = clearly empathizes with customer and takes the steps required to address the customer’s concern. Question 2: A person walks into your store and mentions that she has just moved into the area and that this is the first time she has visited your store. What would you do to make her a customer now and a loyal customer in the future? Answer: Listening skills: 1 = doesn’t understand the question and doesn’t listen to customer in answer. 10 = understands and interprets the question properly and listens to customer in answer. Communication skills: 1 = stammers or is unclear when responding; fails to communicate with customer. 10 = clearly articulates and states response to situation; reaches out to communicate with customer. Social perceptiveness: 1 = awkward or uncomfortable in response to interviewer; unaware of customer’s needs in situation. 10 = responds and interacts with interviewer appropriately; is aware of customer’s needs in situation. Customer service orientation: 1 = does not understand or address the customer’s needs. 10 = clearly empathizes with customer needs and takes the steps to meet them. Question 3: You’re working alone because two people called in sick. Suddenly, five customers walk into your department at once. What do you do? Answer: Listening skills: 1 = doesn’t understand the question and doesn’t listen to customers answer. 10 = understands and interprets the question properly and listens to customers answer. Communication skills: 1 = stammers or is unclear when responding; fails to communicate with customers or other employees. 10 = clearly articulates and states response to situation; reaches out to communicate with customers or other employees. Social perceptiveness: 1 = awkward or uncomfortable in response to interviewer; unaware of customer’s needs and responses in situation. 10 = responds and interacts with interviewer appropriately; is aware of customer’s needs and responses in situation. Customer service orientation: 1 = does not understand or address the customer’s needs. 10 = clearly empathizes with customer’s needs and takes the steps to address them. 6. Inappropriate Interview Questions Exercise: An interview question is not in itself illegal, but how the interviewer uses the answer can be. The goal of an interview is typically to obtain important information about the candidate while reinforcing the organization’s employer brand and maintaining a positive employer image. It can be helpful to practice recognizing inappropriate interview questions and identifying ways to more appropriately get the information that you are looking for from the candidate. Working in a group of 2-3 students, read this list of interview questions and explain why each is inappropriate. Try to identify the type of information being requested that may be important for the position, and identify a way to obtain the same desired information in a more appropriate way. Interview Question Why Inappropriate Information Requested and Why it is Important Better Question 1. What religion do you practice? It is important not to directly ask about a candidate’s religious beliefs To ensure candidate can work during needed shifts or times Are you able to work our required schedule? 2. What clubs or social groups do you belong to? Can reveal religious, national origin, medical, and other information that are not job related To identify professional involvement and commitment Are you a member of any trade or professional group in your field or in our industry? 3.How many kids do you have? Can discriminate against women To identify if candidate will be able to meet job responsibilities including travel and overtime on short notice Will travel or working overtime on short notice be a problem for you? 4. Have you ever been arrested? Cannot ask about general criminal background; it is not OK to ask about arrests, only convictions To help predict if the candidate would commit a crime while on the job. Have you ever been convicted of x? (theft, fraud, etc. as long as the stated crime is job related) 5. How old are you? Risks age discrimination To identify if the candidate is of legal working age Are you over the age of 18? 6. How much longer do you plan to work before retiring? Creates the possibility for age discrimination To help predict if the candidate will stay with the organization or be likely to leave earlier than the organization would like What are your long-term career goals? Opening Vignette Exercise: To execute its innovation strategy, Facebook seeks technical talent with strong skills, previous accomplishments, and both curiosity and motivation. A good fit with the company’s culture, good understanding of online social media, and the ability to work well with others are also important. This chapter’s opening vignette provided some information about how the company currently assesses job candidates on these dimensions. Reread the opening vignette and its conclusion, and answer the following questions in a group of three to five students. Be prepared to share your answers with the class. a. Do you think it’s appropriate for Facebook to require candidates to write code on a whiteboard during its assessment process? Why or why not? b. What are the advantages and disadvantages to Facebook of asking software engineering applicants to do so much coding during the initial assessment process? c. Identify two other assessment methods you think Facebook could use to assess applicants’ fit with the company’s culture of innovation and smart risk taking. Answer: a. Opinions differ, but because it is job related many students feel that this is appropriate. Having to do it in person simulates what might happen when at work, and allows the individual to demonstrate his or her skills and thought processes. Yes, it’s appropriate for Facebook to require candidates to write code on a whiteboard as it tests their problem-solving skills, coding proficiency, and ability to articulate their thought process. However, it may not fully capture a candidate's real-world coding environment skills. b. The disadvantages include the amount of time this can take and the possible disclosure to non-hired candidates of what the company is currently working on. Advantages include getting a very good look at the candidate’s skills and thought processes as well as whether the user is put first as the company would like. Advantages: It assesses technical skills directly and provides insight into problem-solving abilities. Disadvantages: It may stress candidates and doesn’t reflect real coding environments or collaborative work. c. Responses vary, but might include small group discussions, written tests presenting a scenario and asking the candidate to choose the best response or strategy (to get at smart risk taking), and structured interview questions to assess innovation and smart risk taking. Facebook could use technical assessments with real-world problems and behavioral interviews focused on innovation and risk-taking to evaluate alignment with their culture. ADDITIONAL EXERCISE Structured Interview Exercise Show the class the eight and a half-minute video “How Not to Conduct an Interview” available on the Instructor’s Web site for this book. The video is an entertaining look at a poorly conducted interview and sets the stage for the practice interview. Then ask students to think of a job for which they would like to practice interviewing. It should be a realistic job that they aspire to someday hold. They need to then pair up with another student and exchange information about each other’s chosen job. Give the pairs about 5 minutes to privately think up 3-4 behavioral or situational interview questions related to their partner’s chosen job. The next 15-20 minutes should be spent with each person being interviewed by the other, and each receiving feedback about how they did. Their feedback to each other should include information about each other’s body language, as well as the quality of the questions and student’s answers. Class discussion afterward can include what was easy and what was difficult about both being the interviewer and the interviewee, and what they learned about themselves from participating in the exercise. ADDITIONAL EXERCISE Assessment Examples The following can be handed out as examples of different types of assessments. Students do not need to complete them, but the scoring key for the Big 5 is provided in case instructors would like to conduct an exercise around students’ reactions to completing it in a job context. Assessing the Big 5 Personality Traits The 40-Item Mini-Marker Set Please use the following list of common human traits to describe yourself as accurately as possible. Describe yourself as you see yourself at the present time, not as you wish to be in the future. Describe yourself as you are generally or typically, as compared with other persons you know of the same sex and of roughly the same age. Please use the following rating scale to make your ratings: _____ 1. Bashful _____ 2. Bold _____ 3. Careless _____ 4. Cold _____ 5. Complex _____ 6. Cooperative _____ 7. Creative _____ 8. Deep _____ 9. Disorganized _____ 10. Efficient _____ 11. Energetic _____ 12. Envious _____ 13. Extroverted _____ 14. Fretful _____ 15. Harsh _____ 16. Imaginative _____ 17. Inefficient _____ 18. Intellectual _____ 19. Jealous _____ 20. Kind _____ 21. Moody _____ 22. Organized _____ 23. Philosophical _____ 24. Practical _____ 25. Quiet _____ 26. Relaxed _____ 27. Rude _____ 28. Shy _____ 29. Sloppy _____ 30. Sympathetic _____ 31. Systematic _____ 32. Talkative _____ 33. Temperamental _____ 34. Touchy _____ 35. Uncreative _____ 36. Unenvious _____ 37. Unintellectual _____ 38. Unsympathetic _____ 39. Warm _____ 40. Withdrawn SCORING INSTRUCTIONS: 1. Recode items 1, 3, 4, 9, 12, 14, 15, 17, 19, 21, 25, 27, 28, 29, 33, 34, 35, 37, 38, 40 1 = 5 2 = 4 (3 stays 3) 4 = 2 5 = 1 2. Using the new values, calculate 5 different scores: Extroversion = 1, 2, 11, 13, 25, 28, 32, 40 Agreeableness = 4, 6, 15, 20, 27, 30, 38, 39 Conscientiousness=3, 9, 10, 17, 22, 24, 29, 31 Emotional Stability =12, 14, 19, 21, 26, 33, 34, 36 Openness = 5, 7, 8, 16, 18, 23, 35, 37 Normative Information for the 40-item Mini-Marker Set: To help students interpret their scores in the context of others like them, the authors administered the assessment to 624 undergraduate students from management, communication, and psychology classes participating for class credit. The students’ average age was approximately 23. Here are the means and standard deviations from this sample: Agreeableness (reliability = .79) Mean: 31.13 SD: 5.80 Conscientiousness (reliability = .75) Mean: 28.27 SD: 5.58 Extroversion/Introversion (reliability = .74) Mean: 26.79 SD: 5.39 Intellectual Openness (reliability = .64) Mean: 29.48 SD: 4.67 Emotional Stability (reliability = .70) Mean: 24.22 SD: 5.04 Sample Clinical Personality Test 1. I believe God talks to me often. 2. My limbs often feel like they are floating. 3. I feel depressed every day. 4. I have uncontrollable outbursts of anger. 5. I had problems with wetting the bed when I was a child. 6. I don’t know how to speak to other people. Reading these questions makes it easier to understand why early efforts at linking personality with job performance were unsuccessful! Sample Cognitive Ability Test These items are similar to those on general cognitive ability tests such as the Wonderlic. The short form of the Wonderlic has 50 questions and people have 12 minutes to answer them. The problems become increasingly difficult, and people rarely finish all of the questions. 1. Look at the row of numbers below. What number should come next? 12 9 6 3 ??? 2. If pencils cost 10 cents each, how many can be bought for a dollar? 3. Paper sells for 23 cents per pad. What will 4 pads cost? 4. REAP is the opposite of (1) obtain (2) cheer (3) continue (4) exist, or (5) sow. 5. Assume the first 2 statements are true. Is the final one (1) true (2) false (3) uncertain? 6. The girl plays soccer. All soccer players like to wear cleats. The girl likes to wear cleats. 7. A car travels 30 feet in ½ second. At the same speed, how many feet will it travel in 7 seconds? 8. Miner…Minor – do these words (1) have similar meaning, (2) have contradictory meaning, (3) mean neither the same nor opposite. 9. What is the square root of 81 times the square root of 121? CASE STUDY OSS Assessment Center The goal of the OSS Program during WWII is improved intelligence agent selection. Assessment centers were first conceptualized by the German High Command in World War I to select officers with exceptional command or military abilities. The British Secret Service borrowed a page from Hitler’s book, maintaining an estate in the English countryside for training and evaluating agents who would be sent to work behind enemy lines. Camp X, their espionage school, provided a realistic setting for training. The estate was staffed with native German-speakers, and potential agents were given assignments requiring interaction with the staff. Potential agents’ ability to maintain their cover while fulfilling their assignments was evaluated during their stay. On June 13, 1941, President Roosevelt created the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to coordinate the U.S. intelligence effort against Nazi Germany. Roosevelt named William “Wild Bill” Donovan, a Wall Street lawyer and World War I hero, to head the office with a handful of agents. Because they had no experience in espionage, the Americans relied on the British procedures and even trained at Camp X. Shortly afterward, the OSS founded its own version of Camp X in the Virginia countryside, and named it Station S. World War II Spy Assessment for the Office of Strategic Services (OSS) It is 1940, and you are a selection specialist assigned to the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Your assignment is to work as a team with three to four other classmates to develop a selection system to “identify operatives who could successfully undertake hazardous intelligence-gathering missions behind enemy lines.” In other words, you are to select spies who will work in Japan, Italy, or Germany. Challenges 1. You have been given limited job information, no job description, KSAOs, competencies, or performance criteria related to the position. 2. Since the advertisements for the job must be vague to maintain secrecy, they will attract undesirable candidates, including people who are chronically bored, pathologically adventuresome, neurotically attracted to danger, and so forth. Therefore, you will need to include a process to weed out such individuals 3. You have no time to validate your assessment methods—they need to be implemented immediately. Task In the time allowed, identify the important characteristics (aptitudes, competencies, and so forth) a person needs to be a spy and develop three tests and simulations that will help you identify successful spies. The selection procedure will occur over a three-day period in a private facility (Station S in Virginia). Assignment 1. Create a list of important characteristics discussed previously. Remember, in 1940, there were no computers, video phones, or satellites. Spies needed to do things like access locked buildings, identify possible informants, and persuade them to provide useful information about enemy actions. 2. Determine the three most important qualities that an applicant must possess. 3. Develop procedures to test for each of those characteristics during the three-day procedure at Station S. 4. Describe how you will evaluate the effectiveness of your selection system. 5. Instructor Feedback to Students after Completion of OSS Exercise OSS Assessment Center Feedback Extremely varied target jobs—and candidates Needed a practical program, quick! Best attempts made at analysis of job requirements Simulations developed as rough work samples No time for pretesting Changes made as experience gained Three day program, candidates required to live a cover story throughout A number of personality/behavioral variables were assessed Professional staff used (many leading psychologists) The personnel at Station S were assigned the difficult task of selecting agents for a variety of espionage assignments. The brightest psychologists of the period developed a number of creative approaches to the selection problem. Spy candidates were brought to the Station S assessment center and assigned a variety of individual and team tasks. Each candidate was supposed to maintain a cover, or false identity, throughout the session (unless given a specific command so they could respond “normally” to some psychological tests). And, each candidate was asked to try to “break” the cover stories of their classmates. Recruitment/Screening • Military background • Ethnic background • Foreign language ability Physical Fitness Tests • Medical exam • Sports • Physical strength and agility tests Aptitude Tests • Otis Intelligence • Bennett Mechanical Comprehension • Vocabulary test • Personality/projective tests Simulations • Map memory test • Interrogation test • Belongings test • Leaderless group discussion • Brook exercise: The candidates, in groups of six, would be taken to a shallow, quiet stream whose banks were eight feet apart. On one bank was a heavy rock; on the other a log. Various materials, such as logs, rope, a pulley, and barrel were available. The candidates were told to move a delicate piece of equipment (the rock) across this stream, leaving all materials on the opposite side when done. Candidates were assessed on individual traits such as leadership, energy, initiative, and physical ability. • Wall exercise: Completed immediately afterward. The same group was required to cross two barrier walls (Japanese prison camp), carrying their bazooka (the same log). • Obstacle exercise • Mined road simulation Stress Tests • Construction exercise (“behind the barn”): Each candidate was assigned two assistants and told he would be assessed on his leadership skills. But, the two assistants, “Kippy,” and “Buster,” were shills and completely uncooperative. Kippy was passive, sluggish, and easily distracted – he did virtually nothing unless directly told. Buster was impractical and aggressive, criticizing the candidate at every opportunity. • Stress interview: Especially demanding. The stress interview was developed to test the candidate’s capacity to “tolerate severe emotional and intellectual strain.” The rationale for subjecting candidates to stress was that working behind enemy lines was dangerous and that agents risked capture and interrogation by the Gestapo. To test for stress tolerance, candidates were instructed to develop a plausible and innocent cover story for why they were found going through secret papers in a government office building. They had to maintain a coherent story despite severe interrogation under difficult physical conditions. • Post stress interview: The candidates had to be on guard even during “respites” from interrogation, and when their questioners relaxed and switched to a post-stress interview mode. • Liquor test Rating process: Staff made ratings on each candidate after each exercise Periodic reviews and discussions during assessment process Interviewer developed and presented preliminary report Discussion to modify report Rating of suitability, placement recommendations Spread quickly...over 7,000 candidates assessed Results published in 1948 by OSS Assessment Staff Evidence of validity presented Numerous suggestions for improvement Anecdotal evidence from the early German, British, American assessment procedures suggest that those who passed through the assessment procedures also performed successfully and excelled in a broad range of other activities. Recall “Wild Bill” Donavan, a war hero turned spy master, or Julia Child, a famous graduate of the British Camp X, who mastered cooking, book publishing, and television presentations. But recall also, that these people were already successful before the assessment procedures began. ADDITIONAL HANDOUT Cut and paste the “Interviewing Tips” to a separate document to create a two-sided handout. Interviewing Tips The interview is the most common way employers evaluate job applicants. The interview is used to evaluate your fit with the job and with the company, and to give you an opportunity to learn more about them. Here are some tips to help you interview more effectively. 1. Be prepared! Learn as much about the company, its products, its strategy, and its industry as you can. Be ready to communicate your knowledge through your answers to the interviewer’s questions as well as the questions you ask. 2. Practice! Enlist the help of family and friends. Have them help you practice interview questions and provide feedback on your answers and how you come across. You can improve your performance if you identify strong answers to standard questions, learn how to stop fidgeting, make more eye contact, and develop more confidence. 3. Have an elevator pitch! Be able to summarize yourself, your experience, your qualifications, and what you can bring to the company in less than two minutes, and find a way to work this into the interview (it can make a great summary of yourself at the end). Be clear about your strengths. This is not only helpful in an interview, but can help you to quickly present yourself well to someone you happen to meet at a party or other social gathering. You never know when opportunity will knock, so be prepared! 4. Dress for the job! Dress at the same level or slightly above the level you would be dressing on the job. It is better to be overdressed than underdressed, and be sure that your clothes are clean and ironed. Also, be sure that you smell nice, that you don’t smell at all, or that you at least don’t smell bad. Brush your teeth or chew sugarless gum before the interview (no gum at the interview, though!). 5. Be prompt! Arrive early so you don’t appear harried or late, and so that you have some time to prepare yourself for the interview. Interviewers will notice if you breeze in at the last second and appear to be frazzled or disorganized. 6. Monitor yourself! Pay attention to how you dress, how well you listen, and how thoroughly you answer questions. Give a firm handshake. Don’t be afraid to pause for a moment before answering a question to collect your thoughts and give a thorough and professional answer. Remember to make eye contact, smile, and be as relaxed as you can. Be positive and confident! 7. Give examples! The best predictor of future behavior is past behavior, so be sure to give brief examples of how you’ve handled similar past situations in your answers to interview questions. Help the interviewer imagine you doing a great job in the position being filled. 8. Add value! Organizations hire you based on what you can accomplish. Use your answers as an opportunity to demonstrate what you know and how you can add value to the firm. 9. Ask questions! Ask informed questions about the company’s plans for the future and how your position fits into them. This is a good opportunity to demonstrate your background knowledge about the company and its business strategy (see #1). 10. Listen! A common error that interviewees make is that they don’t listen enough. Listen to the questions carefully, and if you ask questions, listen carefully to the answers. Research has shown that good listeners are perceived to be likable and good conversationalists. 11. Be sensitive! Be aware of the style of the interviewer. Also, be culturally adaptive. In today’s world you may be interviewing with people from a wide variety of backgrounds or businesses located all over the globe. You should be aware of basic issues of courtesy and how behaviors are perceived differently depending on one’s cultural background (e.g., strong eye contact can be considered aggressive in some cultures). 12. Be positive! Avoid making disparaging comments about past employers or managers. Nothing derails a good interview faster than exhibiting a lot of negativity about oneself, previous jobs, current managers, etc. If you have to talk about something negative, try to frame it in a positive light (e.g., “what I learned from that experience was how to work effectively as a team member even when there were disagreements”). 13. Relate! Try to connect your responses to the interviewer and the organization. Establish rapport. 14. Be prepared for phone interviews! Treat phone interviews as seriously as face-to-face interviews. If the call is unexpected and comes at an inconvenient time, politely reschedule it. Don’t complete a phone interview if you are not prepared or are flustered. 15. Choose your meal carefully! If you are at a meal interview, don’t select messy meals (e.g., no spaghetti, lobster in the shell, etc.). Of course, use proper dining manners. 16. Be clear about what you want to accomplish! Know what you want to do in the organization and where you hope to go over time. 17. Attend to your body language! Don’t slouch, cross arms and appear defensive, fidget, etc. 18. Be prepared for behavioral interviews! Behavioral interviewing is based on the belief that the best indicator of future behavior is past behavior. Questions usually begin with something like “Can you a describe a situation in which you...” or “Was there ever a time when you…” 19. Send a thank you note! It may not seem like much, but it is a simple gesture of respect and appreciation that can help set you apart from other candidates. Keep it short, remind the interviewer of your enthusiasm and fit for the position, and be sure to proofread it! ADDITIONAL HANDOUT Cut and paste the “Résumé Tips” to a separate document to create a two-sided handout. Résumé Tips 1. Focus on your achievements! State your experience as achievements rather than simply stating the title and requirements of past jobs. Be honest and as specific as possible, using numbers when you can. Weak: Maintained records for accounts receivable and accounts payable Responsible for waste reduction Responsible for writing sales manuals by a deadline Strong: Worked directly with the CFO to manage over 500 accounts receivable and accounts payable Reduced production waste by 20% over two months Wrote three sales manuals for 250 users eight days before the deadline 2. Include your job and/or career objective! Tell the organization what you want to do and what you intend to accomplish. They can’t place you in a position if you don’t know where you want to go. 3. Sell yourself! Use your résumé to highlight areas not covered in the company’s online application, including any language or technical skills, volunteer work, and professional organization involvement relevant to the job. Use the job description to identify what the company’s needs are and be sure you describe how you can fill those needs. Target your résumé to each job to which you apply. 4. Tailor it! Match your résumé to the organization and specific job description. Don’t use a generic “one-size-fits-all” résumé. 5. Think in terms of keywords! Many organizations get so many résumés that they need to use key word searches to identify which applicants to consider further. Be sure your résumé contains as many keywords as possible that a company might use in finding someone to fit the job you’re looking for. Add a section near the bottom or top of your résumé entitled “skills” or, even, “keywords” where you list as many keywords as possible. Be creative, but be accurate. Include the standard job titles for your current and previous jobs, particularly if a previous employer used non-standard titles. List any job-specific, profession-specific, and industry-specific tools including software or hardware that you use or are qualified to use. Include any industry and professional organizations of which you are a member. Also include any common professional or technical acronyms as well as the words that explain them. Use the job description or job advertisement to identify additional keywords and abbreviations likely to be used to screen résumés. 6. Attend to the details! Make sure your formatting and design are attractive and consistently applied. Avoiding poor grammar and mispelings ( see?). 7. Use action words! Avoid passive tense and use high-impact words. Words like accomplished, motivated, modernized, developed, enabled, and innovated better demonstrate your capabilities. 8. Be secure! Attend to the security of your online résumé. Remove your standard contact information, including your address, phone number, business e-mail address, and personal address if it is associated with a detailed profile on you (as in AOL). Replace this information with a Web-based e-mail address that is harder to trace to you personally, like hotmail.com, Gmail, and MSN. 9. Choose your email address carefully! Don’t use a goofy e-mail address (e.g. [email protected]) or your message will probably not be taken seriously. Use the e-mail address as an opportunity to market and differentiate yourself—like [email protected] or [email protected] 10. Get to the point! One to two pages is long enough. If you have an extensive work history, covering the most recent 15 years of your career is generally enough. 11. Don’t include irrelevant information! Avoid including hobbies, age, religion, ethnic background, etc. unless the information is critical for assessing your fit with the job or organization. 12. Get outside advice! Have other people look at your résumé and provide feedback to you. 13. Be positive! Frame all experiences, skills, positions, etc. in a positive tone. Avoid including negative experiences or irrelevant points. 14. Be honest! Include realistic statements of talents, skills, accomplishments, experiences, background, etc. Don’t try to be something that you are not. 15. Include a cover letter! If you can, include a cover letter. Your cover letter may be the first thing employers see and it is an opportunity to introduce yourself. Make your first impression a good one! Focus on how you will meet the employer’s needs and use a strong opening statement that demonstrates you are a good fit with the job and firm. Also, include your top selling points, keep it short and simple, don’t rehash your résumé, customize it (but don’t forget to re-customize it for different organizations), be gracious, include contact information, and sign it. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT Finish the assignment for Chapter 8. Be sure to justify your recommendations and use concrete examples along with scoring keys to highlight the specific methods for selecting employees. Create a formal assessment plan linking your assessment methods to the characteristics being assessed. See Arnoldy, B., “The Spread of the Credit Check as a Civil Rights Issue,” The Christian Science Monitor, January 18, 2007, available online at: http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0118/p01s03-ussc.html. Johnson & Johnson, “2005 Investor Fact Sheet,” Johnson & Johnson, Johnson & Johnson, “Our Company,” Johnson & Johnson, http://www.jnj.com/connect/about-jnj/. Accessed January 11, 2011. Saucier, G., “Mini-Markers: A Brief Version of Goldberg’s Unipolar Big-Five Markers,” Journal of Personality and Assessment, December 1994, pp. 506-516; The Saucier scale is in the public domain – see http://darkwing.uoregon.edu/~gsaucier/gsau4.htm. Chapter 10: Assessing Internal Candidates LEARNING OBJECTIVES After studying this chapter, you should be able to: • Identify the goals of internal assessment. • Discuss how internal assessment can enhance a firm’s strategic capabilities. • Describe different internal assessment methods. • Discuss the importance of integrating succession management and career development. • Describe two models of internal assessment. TAKEAWAY POINTS 1. A company’s internal assessment goals largely mirror its external assessment goals. These objectives include evaluating the fit of employees with other jobs, enhancing the firm’s strategic capabilities, gathering information with which to make downsizing decisions, maximizing fit, making accurate and ethical assessments, generating a high return on the firm’s investment in its assessment system, generating positive stakeholder reactions, supporting the firm’s talent philosophy and human resource strategy, reinforcing the organization’s employer image, identifying development needs, and maintaining legal compliance. 2. By assessing its current capabilities and future talent needs as well as the potential of its employees to learn necessary new skills, a firm can enhance its strategic position. In addition to ensuring that the company has the right amount of the right skills in place when it needs them, the information can be used to develop career paths for employees and provide them with the training they need to reach their goals, as well as the firm’s goals. 3. The methods used to conduct an internal assessment include skills inventories, mentoring, job knowledge tests, performance reviews, tests conducted at assessment centers, and clinical assessments. 4. The nine box matrix and the career crossroads model are two types of internal assessment models that have been developed. 5. Integrating its succession management system with the career development plans of its employees helps a company align its career goals with the firm’s leadership succession needs. The career planning process assesses the goals, preferences, and capabilities of employees, and compares them with the current and future needs of the organization based on the company’s human resource strategy and succession plan. Matches or mismatches are then discussed with each individual employee to remedy the gaps and offer the employee potential career development opportunities. A company can also change its recruiting strategies, business strategies, and the way it does its work to remedy a talent gap. 6. Like external assessment systems, internal assessments should be continually reevaluated and changed over time as a firm’s business strategies and workforce change. DISCUSSION QUESTIONS 1. How is internal assessment useful for more than just evaluating employees for other positions in the company? Answer: Internal assessment can also identify employees’ development needs and help place them in training programs that can improve their performance of their current jobs. Internal assessment is also useful for evaluating a firm’s ability to expand by creating an inventory of current skills and leadership depth. It can also help firms identify who to dismiss in the event of a layoff or downsizing. 2. Do you feel that multisource feedback is appropriate? Why or why not? Answer: Opinions are generally presented on both sides of the argument. Having supervisors or peers evaluate someone is often seen as more acceptable than customers or subordinates. Yes, multisource feedback is appropriate as it provides a comprehensive view of an employee’s performance from various perspectives, including peers, subordinates, and supervisors. This approach can offer more balanced and accurate insights, improve self-awareness, and help in identifying areas for development that might not be evident from a single source. 3. Using the nine box matrix, an employee doing a good job might actually be rated lower than a mediocre employee who has been working in a developmental stretch assignment. Do you feel that this is fair? Why or why not? Answer: This question is usually a good springboard into a discussion of how the context of employees’ performance is important to consider. If the employee’s mediocre performance is viewed as due to the stretch assignment (and is inconsistent with the individual’s previously high performance ratings) then students often feel that the ratings are fair. However, just because someone is in a stretch assignment is not usually seen as reason for a high rating regardless of his or her job performance. No, it is not entirely fair to rate a good-performing employee lower just because they are not in a stretch assignment. Performance should reflect current job effectiveness and contributions, while developmental assignments should be considered separately for potential growth and future impact. Balancing both performance and development potential ensures a more equitable assessment. 4. Given how important succession management programs are, how can companies persuade their managers to support and commit to their succession management activities? Answer: Running projections that show projected turnover rates of key talent, and talent with knowledge that is hard to replace or hard to train in others without mentoring or coaching, can get managers to understand the importance of succession management. The coming wave of retirements among baby boomers is getting many managers’ attention as critical skills are not expected to be in the company once aging key employees retire. If a firm does not think that it will be able to acquire the skills it will need from outside the firm, which is the case for many types of skills given the projections of lower talent levels in certain fields, succession management will be key to keeping important functions running. 5. Why is it important to integrate succession management with career planning? Answer: If employees identified as high potential do not want to be promoted past a certain level, or do not want to travel or experience other requirements of jobs the firm has in mind for them, the high potential employees are likely to leave. What the company wants for employees’ careers has to match what the employees themselves want or employee development investments are likely to be misdirected, and pressured talent is likely to leave the company. EXERCISES 1. Strategy Exercise: Working in groups of three to five students, read the following vignette and develop some suggestions for the company based on the material you read in this chapter. Be prepared to share your ideas with the class. Twisted is a small company with big dreams. The shopping mall-oriented hot pretzel company has successfully grown its revenues by a rate of 10 percent annually over the last 10 years. Twisted wants to sustain its growth rate in the years ahead. The company has traditionally hired new store managers from outside of the company. However, in the last few years, it has had a difficult time recruiting enough of these people. The CEO feels that there are probably a large number of employees who might make good managers. However, the company has no good internal assessment systems in place to identify them. The CEO asks your group to help the firm identify internal managerial talent so it can continue to pursue its growth strategy. What methods would you suggest for doing so? Answer: Tracking employee performance metrics to identify high potential employees, multisource evaluations, supervisor evaluations, and assessment centers are often mentioned as possibilities. Skills inventories could also be helpful. Integrating career planning into employees’ performance evaluations could also identify employees interested in moving into management. 2. Develop Your Skills Exercise: This chapter’s Develop Your Skills feature describes how to create a career development plan. It is never too soon to identify your short- and long-term career goals and analyze what skills, experiences, and other things you need to do to obtain your goals. Your assignment is to create your own career development plan that focuses on one- and five-year time horizons. Your action plan should include realistic activities that you can undertake to enhance your ability to meet the career goals you identify. Answer: Action plans differ, but should reflect the content of the Develop Your Skills feature. One-Year Goal: Secure a promotion to a team leader position. Action Plan: Enroll in leadership training, seek mentorship from current leaders, and take on additional project responsibilities to demonstrate leadership skills. Five-Year Goal: Achieve a managerial role in my field. Action Plan: Gain advanced certifications relevant to my industry, develop cross-functional skills through diverse project involvement, and build a strong professional network by attending industry conferences and engaging in professional associations. 3. Opening Vignette Exercise: In this chapter’s opening vignette, you learned how Fluor combines succession management career development to ensure a solid talent pipeline of project managers and senior executives. Working in a group of three to five students, reread the vignette. Be prepared to share with your class your answers to the following questions: a. Why do you think that Fluor’s internal assessment and development system is so successful? b. What additional ideas do you have that could help Fluor fill as many internal positions as possible with its current employees? Answer: a. The integration of performance appraisals with its career development and succession management system is important. Individual development are also helpful. The integrated training and development program also contributes to its effectiveness by developing needed skills and helping to improve talent depth. Making every project manager responsible for helping employees obtain additional skills and experience is also a strength. Fluor’s internal assessment and development system is successful due to its comprehensive approach, which combines regular performance evaluations, targeted career development plans, and strategic succession management. This integrated system ensures that employees are continuously developed and prepared for future roles, aligning their growth with organizational needs. b. An internal job posting system is often identified as well as including managerial potential as an assessment criteria when hiring for lower-level positions. To further enhance internal filling of positions, Fluor could implement mentorship programs that pair high-potential employees with senior leaders and cross-training opportunities that allow employees to gain experience in different functions, increasing their versatility and readiness for various roles. CASE STUDY Succession Management at General Electric General Electric (GE) is widely recognized and respected for its leadership talent and its succession management system. One of the best examples of succession management is how GE’s former CEO, Jack Welch, shaped and elevated the company’s philosophy, practice, and reputation for developing leaders. In a 1991 speech, Welch stated, “From now on, choosing my successor is the most important decision I’ll make.” GE’s commitment to developing leaders from within has yielded positive results for both the company’s employees and for GE. In fact, the program has been so successful that it’s been widely emulated by other global organizations. Measuring and developing talent lies at the forefront of GE’s business strategy discussions. GE’s operating system, referred to as its “learning culture in action,” entails year-round learning sessions in which leaders from GE and outside companies share best practices with one another and generate ideas for new practices. Harry Elsinga, manager of executive development at GE, notes, “We really have a tight organization around how we combine our leadership meetings and how we approach our business. We have a constant cycle going on throughout the year where we talk about business and people at the same time. How do we develop talent in those businesses, how do we make sure that we have the right people to open a particular plant or to do an acquisition, etc.? Those discussions always go hand in hand. And it’s not a one-time kind of conversation; this is a constant, ongoing process.” GE’s succession management system is fairly simple. GE managers and executives are moved from job to job every two to three years, and each job change or promotion is a well-thought-out process that provides managers with much-needed experience and exposure to certain elements of the business. This has allowed GE to build a management team that is very knowledgeable and experienced. Questions 1. Do you think that GE’s approach to succession management would work for all organizations? Why or why not? Answer: Firms that are not as diversified, and that do not have as many jobs or locations, don’t need to move people around so frequently. The idea of making talent development part of a company’s culture and treating it as a constant, ongoing process should generally work for most firms, particularly those with an internal talent focus. 2. What are some possible disadvantages of moving people to new jobs every two to three years? Answer: Not all employees will want that kind of lifestyle, so the company will lose out on some good talent. Also, it can be difficult for employees to have a new leader or manager so frequently. Being in a job only 2-3 years might also focus the people being developed on short-term rather than long-term goals, which might not be in GE’s best interest. 3. Why does GE’s succession management approach work so well? Answer: Because it is a part of the company’s culture and is a constant, ongoing process talent development happens all the time. Taking the time and resources to develop, as well as to identify the company’s future leadership talent, and by tailoring managers’ career progression to their own needs also contributes to its success. Making talent a strategic priority sets the stage for the success of its succession management system. SEMESTER-LONG ACTIVE LEARNING PROJECT Develop an internal assessment strategy for evaluating employees for your chosen position. If the job you chose is not staffed internally, create an employee assessment plan to evaluate employees already in the position in the event downsizing becomes necessary. Heiden, S., “Managing Succession Plans and Career Paths,” Chief Learning Officer, May 2007, http://clomedia.com/articles/view/managing_succession_plans_and_career_paths/print:1 Accessed May 16, 2007; Knudson, L., “Generating Leaders GE Style,” HR Management, 2007, http://www.hrmreport.com/pastissue/article.asp?art=269158&issue=186. Accessed May 16, 2007; Leonard, B., “Turnover at the Top” HR Magazine, May 2001, http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3495/is_5_46/ai_74829356/pg_1. Accessed May 16, 2007. Knudson, “Generating Leaders GE Style.” Solution Manual for Strategic Staffing Jean M. Phillips, Stan M. Gully 9780133571769
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