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This Document Contains Chapters 4 to 6 Chapter 4: Job Analysis and Work Design If nothing else, my students should learn that… • Job analysis is the cornerstone of numerous HRM functions, including recruitment, selection, training and development, and compensation; job analysis is also the first step in creating jobs that are motivational for people. • Teams are a mainstay of job design in most contemporary organizations, and hence it is important to understand a team’s mandate, and how to design jobs so that jobholders are mutually accountable to one another, and skills are complementary. Learning objectives 1. Discuss the relationship between job requirements and HRM functions. 2. Explain how the information for a job analysis typically is collected and incorporated into various sections of a job’s description. 3. Provide examples illustrating the various factors that must be taken into account in designing a job, including what motivates employees. 4. Describe the different group techniques and types of work schedules used to broaden a firm’s job functions and maximize employee contributions. Why is this chapter important? • It discusses how jobs can be designed so as to best contribute to the objectives of the organization and at the same time satisfy the needs of the employees who are to perform them. • The duties and responsibilities present in jobs greatly influence employee productivity, job satisfaction, and employment retention. • Job requirements provide the foundation for making objective and legally defensible decisions in managing human resources. • Job design and employee contribution techniques can increase job satisfaction while improving organizational performance. • Teamwork and the characteristics of successful teams are highlighted in this chapter. Teams are used in most organizational contexts today, so understanding them from an HRM perspective is of paramount importance. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started • In advance of class, ask students to bring a job description (either their own from their current job, or one on the Internet). Alternatively, bring a variety of job descriptions to class (found on the Internet). Ask students, in groups, to think about how the job descriptions were developed. Who developed them? How were they developed? • Link back to the previous chapter on diversity. Write “diversity” on the board. Then, ask students what the intended benefits of diversity are, and jot those down on the board to the right of the word “diversity.” Possible answers might include higher productivity, more creative products, a more satisfied workforce, and so on. Then, stand back from the board and ask whether there is necessarily a direct link between diversity and those positive outcomes. Provide an analogy of an office with a diverse workforce, but where each employee sits in a small cubicle and does not speak to other employees. Will the benefits of diversity be gained? Absolutely not! We need to design work in such a way as to generate the benefits of diversity. • Create a “What’s Your Job Analysis IQ” test using multiple-choice or True or False questions from the test bank. Provide students with the responses throughout the lecture as you reach the solution to each question. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: As outlined in The Business Case: Purolator Reduces Skyrocketing Costs on page 131, job analysis has financial implications and could cause workplace problems if handled poorly. Relationship of Job Requirements and HRM Functions Job analysis is the cornerstone of HRM because the information it collects serves many HR functions. Therefore, students should fully understand the process of job analysis and how it influences the other HR functions. See pages 130‒132 for how job analysis relates to strategic HR planning, recruitment, selection, training and development, performance appraisals, compensation management, and legal compliance. • Small Group Discussion: Assign small groups an HRM function (e.g., recruitment, selection, performance appraisal, etc.), and ask them to think about how job analysis is the cornerstone of this activity. Ask students to present in class. Warning: If your students are inexperienced, this may be too tricky for them, given that you have yet to cover these topics in any detail. In this case, you may want to give them a pre-class assignment to perform in pairs or groups. Have groups present to one another. Job Analysis • Job analysis is the process of obtaining information about jobs by determining the duties, tasks, or activities of jobs. • In-Class Activity: Draw Figure 4.1: The Process of Job Analysis, found on page 133, but do not include any words, and make print-outs for the students. Tell the students what should be written in each section and ensure that students understand the relationship between the collection of job analysis information, and the development of job descriptions and job specifications from these data. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Reality Check: Job Analysis at EDS Canada Inc. on page 134 to identify some of the strategic choices made by EDS concerning job analyses. Gathering Job Information Explain that job analysts collect job information in a number of different ways. Job analysis is usually performed by someone from the HR department. This individual works closely with managers and employees in the collection of job data. The most common methods are interviewing, questionnaires, observations, and diaries. • Think-Pair-Share: After reviewing the different methods of conducting the job analysis, ask the class to identify the advantages and disadvantages of each method and list these on the board. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: If possible, invite a job analyst from an organization to speak as a guest lecturer. Controlling the Accuracy of Job Information Care must be taken to ensure that all of the important facts are included and that employees do not exaggerate the functions of their jobs to have their jobs rated more highly in order to inflate their status and paycheques. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Ethics in HRM: Job Inflation on page 134 to consider how ethics play a part in contributing to the input for job analysis. The NOC and Job Analysis Explain that the National Occupational Code (NOC) contains standardized and comprehensive descriptions of about 25,000 occupational titles. • Pre-Class Exercise: Ask students to explore the National Occupational Code by visiting the NOC website at http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2006/Welcome.aspx and finding their “dream” job; bring it to class, or put it up for discussion on the class online discussion board. Approaches to Job Analysis (a) The Position Analysis Questionnaire System The Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ) covers 194 different tasks that determine the degree to which different tasks are involved in performing a particular job. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Direct students to Figure 4.2: A Sample Page from the PAQ on page 136, which shows an actual sample page from the Position Analysis Questionnaire. (b) The Critical Incident Method The critical incident method involves the identification of job tasks that are essential for job success. Review the example of the reference librarian provided in the narrative of the textbook. • Connectivity Activity: The Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology has a fun and engaging experiential exercise posted on one of its blogs for conducting a job analysis using the critical incident technique for the role of professor. See http://siopwiki.wetpaint.com/page/Critical+Incidents. (c) Task Inventory Analysis Task inventory analysis is an organization-specific list (tailor-made) of tasks and their descriptions used as a basis to identify components of jobs. (d) Competency-Based Analysis The traditional approach to job analysis assumes a static job environment in which jobs remain relatively stable, apart from incumbents who might hold these jobs. With competency-based analysis, a job can be meaningfully defined in terms of tasks, duties, processes, and skills necessary for job success. (e) HRIS and Job Analysis Software programs exist to perform job analysis. Generally, these programs contain generalized task statements that can apply to many different jobs. Job Descriptions A job description is a written description of a job and the types of duties it includes. • Small Group Discussion: Ask students to consider the jobs they have had in the past or present and whether they were ever given a job description. What problems are created when an employee either does not have a job description, or has one that is not accurate? Have students generate as many issues as possible related to efficient operations, communication, behavioural concerns, and so forth. • Small Group Discussion: In each small group, ask students to generate all the reasons why an employee should insist on an accurate job description and all the reasons why an employer is protected with an accurate job description. Then, ask whether it is possible for job descriptions to be comprehensive and to cover everything an employee does on the job. • Stress that job descriptions are valuable for both employees and employers. • Explain that there is no standard format for job descriptions. • Most job descriptions will contain four typical sections, including job title, job identification, job duties, and job specification. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Refer students to Highlights in HRM 4.1: Job Description for Talent Acquisition Assistant on page 139 for an example of a job description. • Call-Out Question: Point out that job descriptions are not very interesting to many students and are often perceived as unimportant. Emphasize to students how lawsuits have been won on the basis of poor job descriptions, and that they need to make every effort to have an accurate one. Ask students to consider whether or not they should convince their employer to update a job description if it is inaccurate. Problems with Job Descriptions Managers consider job descriptions a valuable tool for performing HRM functions, but several problems are frequently associated with them: • If they are poorly written, using vague rather than specific terms, they provide little guidance to the jobholder. • They are sometimes not updated as job duties or specifications change. • They may violate the law by containing specifications not related to job success. • They can limit the scope of activities of the jobholder, reducing organizational flexibility. • Small Group Discussion: Use Discussion Question 3 on page 155 as a basis for a discussion: The description of the “administrative assistant” position often varies across organizations. Search the Internet for a few of these job descriptions and compare them. How can this “problem” be solved? See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Writing Clear and Specific Job Descriptions • Job descriptions should be written in statements that are terse, direct, and simply worded. The sentences describing job duties normally begin with a present-tense verb—for example, “maintains,” “supervises,” “coordinates,” “operates,” or “performs.” • Job descriptions must comply with the legal requirements. • Connectivity Activity: Ask students to develop a job description for the job of “student” at your university or college using the interview method. Ask students to interview one another, and to develop a list of duties and job specifications. Have them present the ideas to one another in class. Ask students to suggest how this information could be used to help prospective students at your university, and how it might also help administrators select students for courses. Ask students whether they believe that a student who meets all of the requirements on the job description will perform well at university. These types of questions might help students see the link between job analysis and other HRM activities. Job Design Use Figure 4.3: Basis for Job Design on page 141 to show that job design is a consideration of (1) the organizational objectives that the job was created to fulfill; (2) behavioural concerns that influence an employee’s job satisfaction; (3) industrial engineering considerations; and (4) ergonomic concerns. The organizational objective considerations of job design are to improve efficiency and employee job satisfaction. Behavioural Concerns • Herzberg’s job enrichment is any effort that makes work more rewarding or satisfying by adding more meaningful tasks to an employee’s job. • Hackman and Oldham’s job characteristics model proposes that three psychological states of a jobholder result in improved work performance, internal motivation, and lower absenteeism and turnover: (1) experienced meaningfulness of the work performed, (2) experienced responsibility for work outcomes, and (3) has knowledge of the results of the work performed. These three psychological states are elicited by five core job dimensions: 1. Skill variety 2. Task identity 3. Task significance 4. Autonomy 5. Feedback • Explain to students that the job characteristics model may not be applicable to all employees. Employees may resist job redesign if they do not have the skills and abilities to perform more complex jobs. Also, employees must have the psychological desire to want the autonomy, variety, responsibility, and challenge of enriched jobs. • Class Outing: Ask students to either think about, or actually go to the closest Tim Hortons, Starbucks, or Second Cup. Ask them to observe the jobholders, and to evaluate their jobs based on the five job characteristics. • Connectivity Activity: Find the job characteristics survey (Hackman and Oldham, 1974) via your online library system. Insert the word “student” for the word “employee,” and ask students to rate the motivating potential of their job as a student. Alternatively, if most of your students are employed, ask them to complete the survey in light of their current job. • Connectivity Activity: Use Huber and Lee’s (1988) experiential exercise on job design. See the full citation in the Recommended Reading section. • Employee empowerment, a less structured method than the two above, allows employees to initiate their own job changes. It means involving employees in their work through the process of inclusion. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: see Highlights in HRM 4.2: Empowered Employees Achieve Results on page 144 for some examples of how businesses are empowering employees. Industrial Engineering Considerations • Industrial engineering is a field of study concerned with analyzing work methods and establishing time standards. • Time study is the important process of developing time standards. Explain how stopwatch and work sampling techniques are performed. • Connectivity Activity: As a class exercise, use a stopwatch to time students performing a simple task, for example, placing pegs in a pegboard using tweezers or stacking checkers in piles of five. Then, ask students what they believe to be the advantages and disadvantages of industrial engineering and to mention jobs they feel are monotonous and boring to perform. Identify those jobs that are characterized by overspecialization. • Individual Essay/Class Discussion: Use Discussion Question 4 on page 155 as a basis for discussion: Explain how industrial engineering and behavioural considerations can both clash with and complement each other in the design of jobs. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. Ergonomic Considerations • Ergonomics is the study of people at work and the practice of matching the features of products and jobs to human capabilities, preferences, and the limitations of those who are to perform a job. • A substantial number of work injuries occur yearly due to bending, lifting, or typing. Ergonomics are employed by organizations to reduce or eliminate these employee injuries. • Connectivity Activity: Use some of the questions in Figure 4.4: Computer Workstation Ergonomics Checklist on page 145 to ask students’ about their current ergonomic status. What the long-term implications if they are forced to sit in that position for long periods of time? Designing Work for Groups and Teams • Call-out question: Describe the types of teams you have worked with. Were some more successful than others? If so, why? How might what you have learned from being a team member be applied in an HR context? • Organizations can satisfy the intrinsic needs of employees while increasing productivity by organizing employees into groups. Through groups, employee collaboration is increased and synergy is developed. • Newspapers, magazine articles, and special reports discuss the many actual examples of employee involvement groups and teams. Use these to demonstrate the various types of employee groups. • Group Activity: Assign students to small groups and have them complete HRM Experience: Establishing Ground Rules for Team Success on pages 155‒156. Employee Involvement Groups Employee involvement groups (EIs) are groups of employees who meet to resolve problems or offer suggestions for organizational improvement. These are also known as quality circles (QCs). • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Use Figure 4.5: The Dynamics of Employee Involvement Groups on page 146 to explain how EIs function. • Connectivity Activity: Ask students to think about their own experiences of working in teams for class projects. What made them great? Why did they fail to meet your expectations? What is different in a university setting versus an employment setting? How might instructors (or managers) ensure that students (or employees) work effectively in groups? Employee Teams Employee teams are an employee contributions technique whereby work functions are structured for groups rather than for individuals, and team members are given discretion in matters traditionally considered management prerogatives, such as process improvements, product or service development, and individual work assignments. • Call-Out Question: Employee teams are widely used by all types of organizations. This is true in both the public and private sectors and among large, medium, and small organizations. Ask students to identify organizations they know about that employ teams to achieve organizational improvement. Figure 4.7: Forms of Employee Teams on page 149 describes the most popular types of employee teams. Ask students what types of teams they have been involved with. • Call-Out Question: To begin the discussion on teams, use a sports analogy to consider whether a team is made up of self-serving individuals or ones who are devoted to the team structure. Do basketball players in the NBA play for themselves, for the team, or both? • Call-Out Question: Ask students what is meant by team synergy. Emphasize that not all teams develop or acquire synergy. Rather, team synergy develops when team members practise positive behaviours. Figure 4.6: Synergistic Team Characteristics on page 148 discusses the factors that contribute to enhancing synergy. • Self-directed work teams (also known as autonomous work groups, self-managed teams, or high-performance teams) are the highest form of team structure because the team is accountable for the entire work process or segment that delivers a product or service to an internal or external customer. • Virtual teams have widely dispersed members linked together through computer and telecommunications technology. Explain how they differ from traditional teams. • Connectivity Activity: Use Clark and Gibb’s (2006) experiential exercise on virtual teams. See the full citation in the Recommended Reading section. • Case Study: Use Case Study 3: Virtual Teams in Action: Building the F-35 Fighter on page 158 as the basis for a group case study. See the recommended responses in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Flexible Work Schedules • Flexible work schedules are not a true part of job design because job tasks and responsibilities are not changed. • Jobs can also be designed around the hours by which they are performed. The more common alternative work schedules include the following: 1. The compressed workweek shortens the number of days worked per week by lengthening the number of hours worked each day. 2. Flextime is referred to as flexible working hours that permit employees the option of choosing daily starting and quitting times, provided that they work a set number of hours per day or week. Flextime schedules include a “core” period when all employees are required to be at work. 3. Job sharing is an arrangement whereby two part-time employees perform a job that otherwise would be held by one full-time employee. 4. Telecommuting is the use of personal computers, networks, and other communications technology to do work in the home that is traditionally done in the workplace. Numerous organizations have some sort of telecommuting program. • Small Group Discussion: Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of telecommuting to the individual employee and to the organization. What additional burdens are placed on the supervisors? Figure 4.8: Keys for Successful Telecommuting on page 153 lists and discusses six specific recommendations for managing a successful telecommuting program. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Highlights in HRM 4.3: How to Request a Flexible Work Schedule on page 151. • Think-Pair-Share: Use Highlights in HRM 4.4: Flextime and Work–Life Balance on page 153 as the basis for this think-pair-share. Ask the students how flextime can help employees achieve work‒life balance. • Case Study: Use Case Study 1: Yahoo Cuts the Cord on Telecommuting on pages 156‒157 as a basis for a group discussion. See the recommended responses in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. FINISHING CLASS • Ask students to explore the National Occupational Code by visiting the NOC website at http://www5.hrsdc.gc.ca/NOC/English/NOC/2006/Welcome.aspx and finding their “dream” job; ask students to post their dream job description on the class discussion board. • Review the learning objectives. • Create a multiple-choice style quiz based on the lecture material to check learning. Use clickers if they are available. • Provide students with a “one-minute” paper and ask them to respond to the following questions: (1) What is the most important thing I learned today? (2) What question do I have that is left unanswered? Collect the one-minute papers and take up any unresolved issues in the following class. • Ask students a provocative question, such as Discussion Question 7 on page 155: An argument could be advanced that some job design methods, including those involving industrial engineering, have led to employees being “deskilled” and “alienated from their work.” Use this as a basis for debate on the online discussion board for your class. • Thank students for volunteering their ideas and experiences. Reinforce that class discussions advance their thinking about all topics. Additional Teaching Resources Recommended Reading • Clark, D.N., & Gibb, J.L. (2006). Virtual team learning: An introductory study team exercise. Journal of Management Education, 30(6), 765–787. • Flanagan, J.C. (1954). The critical incident technique. Psychological Bulletin, 51(4), pp. 327–358. • Huber, V.L., & Lee, T.S. (1988). Job design: The Airplane Assembly Exercise. Journal of Management Education, 12, 80–90. • Shantz, A., Alfes, K., & Truss, C. (2012). Alienation from work: Marxist ideologies and 21st century practice. International Journal of Human Resource Management. Chapter 5: Expanding the Talent Pool: Recruitment and Careers If nothing else, my students should learn that… • Organizations recruit both externally and internally, and each has its own advantages and disadvantages. Moreover, recruitment provides organizations with an opportunity to showcase their brand name to employees and customers alike. • People typically do not spend their entire career in one organization. Hence, managing one’s career has taken on new importance in today’s marketplace. Learning objectives 1. Describe how a firm’s strategy affects its recruiting efforts. 2. Outline the methods by which firms recruit internally. 3. Outline the methods by which firms recruit externally. 4. Explain the techniques organizations can use to improve their recruiting efforts. 5. Explain how career management programs integrate the needs of individual employees and their organizations. Why should students care? Increased competition for talent means that recruiting has acquired new importance for managers. Today, many jobs require higher skill levels, and managers can no longer rely solely on unsolicited applications to fill these positions. To stay apace of their competitors and expand their operations around the world, companies also have to look globally for workers. It is therefore essential that organizations do a good job of broadening their pools of talent—the number and kinds of people able to contribute to the success of the organization, and the variety of ways in which they recruit and retain them. Moreover, this chapter discusses career management—something that students should know a lot about, given that they will likely enter the workforce in just a few years’ time. Students will learn how to develop mentorship relationships, network for success, and manage their own career. Why is this chapter important? In this chapter, strategies and techniques that organizations use both internally and externally to recruit the talent they need are discussed. For example, to find ways to reach out to and recruit the right kinds of candidates, some companies develop employee profiles by surveying their top performers about what they like to do, what events they attend, and how they like to be contacted and recruited. They then pursue candidates using this information. The chapter also covers approaches that organizations take toward career management over time. This is important because, unlike physical assets, human assets (employees) can decide to leave the firm of their own accord. The Internet has helped make workers better informed about opportunities, and allowed them to telecommute or work off-site. As a result, rival firms are in a better position to lure good employees away. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started • Ask students to consider the jobs they have had in the past or present and recall what the process was for getting the job. How much effort did the students exert in finding work? How much effort did the employer exert in finding the students as future employees? Have students consider the costs associated with their job search, and also their recruitment. • Ask students to read over the “working here” section of the McDonald’s website: http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en/careers/rest_opp/working_here.html; ask students whether they would like to work for McDonald’s before and after reading this information. See whether they were persuaded by McDonald’s employee value proposition. • Use clickers and create a multiple-choice quiz to assess students’ current knowledge of recruitment practices. • Case Study: Download the Harvard Business Review Case (plus commentaries) entitled “Why Doesn’t This HR Department Get Any Respect?” The case is about Luke Robinson, managing partner of human resources (HR) at a fictional company named Loft Securities, who has tried many avenues to change his department’s reputation as an administrative backwater. It focuses on a number of HRM issues, including recruitment and talent management. See the Recommended Reading section for the reference. Strategic Aspects of Recruiting Who should do the recruiting? It depends on the size of the organization: • Most large firms have full-time, in-house HR recruiters. • In smaller organizations, an HR generalist might do the recruiting. • Organizations sometimes outsource their recruitment process, also known as recruiting process outsourcing. • Debate: Ask students to take a “pro recruitment outsourcing” or a “con recruitment outsourcing” position. Ask them to generate arguments for their assigned side, and then pair up with someone who has prepared with the opposite position. Take up the answers on the board to ensure the following information has been learned. Should a firm recruit internally or externally? • Benefits of internal recruitment include rewarding employees for past performance, providing motivation to other employees to observe that hard work is rewarded, broadening employees’ work experience, and eliminating orientation and training costs. • Potential limitations of recruiting internally include “inbreeding” of ideas and attitudes—the risk of employee cloning. Hiring applicants with specialized skills that often bring revenue as well as knowledge (e.g., salespeople, doctors, lawyers), and reaching diversity goals may necessitate external recruitment. Labour Markets • During periods of high unemployment, organizations might be able to maintain an adequate supply of qualified applicants from unsolicited résumés and internal labour markets. • In a tight labour market, employers may have to advertise heavily and/or seek assistance from local employment agencies. • Call-Out Question: Ask students to identify different occupations for which the labour market is currently tight or loose. Ask students to consider how recruitment might differ depending on the market. Regional and Global Labour Markets • Call-Out Question: Ask students whether they have ever noticed that competing firms are often located in the same areas. Oil and gas companies are plentiful in the Calgary area. Film and television companies are clustered around Toronto and Vancouver. This is not a coincidence. The clustering occurs because the resources these firms need—both human and natural—are located in some areas and not others. • In addition, companies are engaging in global sourcing, the practice of searching for and utilizing goods sourced from around the world in order to develop better products via a global workforce and to attract the best talent. Branding • Branding refers to a company’s efforts to help existing and prospective workers understand why it is a desirable place to work. • How does a company “burnish” its employment brand? • It can think of applicants as consumers and focus on what they want in terms of jobs and careers as opposed to what an organization has to “sell” them. • They can reach out to people via social networks. • Philanthropic activities can reach many applicants who are looking for more than just a paycheque. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Highlights in HRM 5.1: Marriott’s Recruitment Principles: Living Up to the Employment Brand on page 167 shows how the hotel chain has been able to establish its brand as an employer of choice by engaging in good recruiting practices. • Small Group Project: Ask students to find examples of “employee value propositions” from various organizations on the Internet. Ask students to bring them to class to share with their colleagues. • Connectivity Activity: Introduce the concept of “employee value proposition” (not in the textbook), and bring some examples to class (e.g., Google). State the employee value proposition, and then see whether students can guess which organization it belongs to. • Case Study: Use Case Study 2: Recruitment Channels on pages 196‒197 as a basis for class discussion. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Recruiting Internally Organizations use the following techniques to identify qualified candidates: 1. Internal Job Postings • Call-Out Question: Ask students to describe job postings where they work. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using this internal recruitment technique? 2. Identifying Talent through Performance Appraisals • Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Figure 5.1: An Example of a 9-Box Grid on page 169, which helps a manager assess and appraise information related to an employee’s actual and potential performance. 3. Skills Inventories and Replacement Charts: See Chapter 2 for definitions of each. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Some signs that the firm needs to work harder at grooming internal talent are shown in Figure 5.2: Warning Signs of a Weak Talent Bench on page 170. Recruiting Externally • Connectivity Activity: Assign students to small groups, and assign each group one external recruitment method. Ask the group to respond to the following questions: (1) Under what condition(s) would an organization use this recruitment method? (2) What are the advantages and disadvantages of this method? Take this up on the board, or ask students to present their ideas to one another. Advertisements Examples include websites, trade journals, help-wanted signs, billboards, Craigslist, social networking sites, email campaigns, Twitter, and text messages. • Advantages: Advertisements reach a large audience of possible applicants. • Disadvantages: Advertisements require creativity in terms of developing the design and message content. Also, many unqualified applicants apply. Walk-ins and Unsolicited Applications and Résumés • Advantages: As an unexpected source of employees, these methods are still valuable enough not to be ignored. • Disadvantages: The prospect of good candidates is not high. The Internet, Social Networking, and Mobile Recruiting • Looking on the Internet is the most commonly used search tactic by job seekers and recruiters. • Both companies and applicants find the approach cheap, fast, and effective. • Disadvantages of using social networks: There are costs involved that a recruiter might not necessarily think about, such as branding a Facebook campaign, or employing a part-time social media manager to maintain the company’s online presence; another potential drawback of using social media is that some groups of people are less likely to be “wired.” A 2010 study found that whereas 85 percent of adults without disabilities access the Internet, only 54 percent of adults with disabilities do. • Small Group Discussion: Use Discussion Question 3 on page 195 as a basis for a small group discussion: Companies are finding candidates through searches of LinkedIn profiles. They also use LinkedIn and other social media to screen candidates. Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using social media as a recruitment channel. See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. • Individual or Group Assignment: Ask the students to interview one or two current job seekers to discover the extent to which they use social media to look for jobs, and whether they actively manage their online profile in order to attract employers. What are the upsides and downsides for job candidates in having social media presence? This can also be a point of discussion. Instructors may wish to read the article “You’ve Been Tagged” by Smith and Kidder (2010). See the Recommended Reading section for a full reference. • Case Study: Use the Harvard Business Review Case entitled “We Googled You” to discuss the challenges that job seekers may face now that organizations search on social media for applicants. See the full reference in the Recommended Reading section. Job Fairs • Advantages: Job fairs are a good way to cast a wide net for diverse applicants in a certain region. • Disadvantages: Many applicants who attend job fairs might not be qualified. As well, they only attract applicants in the regional area in which they are held. Employee Referrals • Advantages: The quality of employee-referred applicants is normally quite high, since employees are generally hesitant to recommend individuals who might not perform well; they tend to remain with the organization longer as well. • Disadvantages: Employee referrals include the possibility of corporate inbreeding, systemic discrimination, and nepotism. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Highlights in HRM 5.2: Employee Referral Programs That Work on page 174 shows some additional ways that firms can encourage employee referrals. • Use Case Study 3: Get Paid for an Employee Referral on page 197 as a basis for discussion of the benefits and drawbacks of employee referrals. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Rerecruiting • Rerecruiting is the process of keeping track of and maintaining relationships with former employees to see if they would be willing to return to the firm. • Advantages: Rerecruiting reduces the cost of retraining, orientation, and understanding the organization’s culture. • Disadvantages: Employees may feel “hard done by” if their position was made redundant by the organization. Executive Search Firms • Advantages: This type of search brings in new ideas into an organization when there is a need for change and the organization currently cannot make it happen. • Disadvantages: Internally placed CEOs will outperform externally placed CEOs, and often the executive search firm is criticized for selling the “Superman” qualities of outside CEOs, which comes at a high cost to an organization. Educational Institutions • Advantages: Educational institutions are a significant source of young, inexperienced applicants who can be influenced by the organizational culture to become good employees. • Disadvantages: Some employers fail because of poor recruitment programs that do not maintain a planned and continuing effort on a long-term basis. Some recruiters sent to college campuses are not sufficiently trained or prepared to talk to interested candidates about career opportunities or the requirements of specific openings. Some organizations visit too many campuses and therefore dilute their recruiting efforts. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: See Figure 5.3: Steps for Strengthening a Firm’s On-Campus Recruiting Relationships on page 175. Why not ask students whether they have any additional ideas? • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Highlights in HRM 5.3: Making Your Internship Program a Success on page 176 shows steps companies can take to ensure truly successful internships. • Class Discussion: Ask the class whether anyone has completed an internship before. Ask the students to share their experiences. Compare the students’ experiences with Highlights in HRM 5.3: Making Your Internship Program a Success on page 176 to evaluate the internship and determine if the organization can do anything to improve the internship program. Professional Associations • Advantages: Certain professions, like engineers, have professional associations to help their members find jobs. This is more efficient for potential employees because all the jobs will be related to their field, and also for employers who can be guaranteed of the quality of potential applicants. There is usually no fee to the applicant. • Disadvantages: There might be too much homogeneity in the membership belonging to a professional association, which might limit the effectiveness of an external placement when innovation and creativity are what is needed. Labour Unions • Advantages: Labour unions might applaud the posting of jobs and they would be careful to apply the protocols in collective agreements. • Disadvantages: Labour unions might be suspicious of management’s request to post job applications and not cooperate fully unless a healthy union–management relationship exists. Public Employment Agencies Each province maintains an employment agency that administers its employment insurance program. • Advantages: Public employment agencies match unemployed applicants with job openings, and assist employers with employment testing, job analysis, evaluation programs, and community wage surveys. • Disadvantages: As with any government office, due to the bureaucracy of such agencies, the timeliness and effectiveness of these programs do not match the long-term employment needs of the applicants, but instead are a short-term solution for a greater systemic problem of unemployment. Private Employment and Temporary Agencies • Charging a fee enables private employment agencies to tailor their services to the specific needs of their clients; hence they tend to serve a specific occupation. • Advantages: These agencies focus on a certain type of client and develop specialization in finding CEOs or university presidents, for example. • Disadvantages: Not all recruiters are good, and they might encourage job seekers to accept jobs for which they are not suited, so job seekers would be wise to take the time to find a recruiter who is knowledgeable, experienced, and professional. Employee Leasing Employee leasing by professional employer organizations (PEOs) involves taking over the management of a smaller company’s HR tasks and becoming a co-employer to its employees, and in return being paid a placement fee of normally 4 to 8 percent of payroll cost plus 9 to 20 percent of gross wages. Improving the Effectiveness of Recruiting • Pre-Class Assignment: Ask the students to interview someone who manages others at work. They should ask this person what methods he or she has most successfully used to recruit employees. In class, the students share their findings. Does the recruiting source seem to depend upon the type of job? (1) Using Realistic Job Previews (RJP) An RJP informs applicants about all aspects of the job, including both its desirable and undesirable facets. In contrast, a typical job preview presents the job in only positive terms. • Debate: Use Discussion Question 4 on page 195 to debate the pros and cons of a realistic job preview: Explain how RJPs operate. Why do they appear to be an effective recruitment technique? Seethe recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. (2) Surveys • Survey managers and new hires about how satisfied they are with the process. • Candidates who turn down jobs often can provide valuable information about why they did not accept the firm’s offer. (3) Recruiting Metrics Quality-of-Fill Statistics • See Chapter 2: Appendix: Calculating Turnover and Absenteeism. • Firms have attempted to develop a quality-of-fill statistic they can use to improve their recruiting processes. The textbook on page 179 provides a way of calculating an annual quality-of-fill metric for an organization. Time to Fill • The time-to-fill metric refers to the number of days from when a job opening is approved to the date the person ultimately chosen for the job is selected. • Figure 5.4: Time-to-Fill Calculations on page 179 shows an example of how the time-to-fill metric is calculated. Yield Ratios • Yield ratios help indicate which recruitment sources are most effective at producing qualified job candidates. • A yield ratio is the percentage of applicants from a particular source that make it to the next stage in the selection process. Costs of Recruitment The average source cost per hire (SC/H) can be determined by a formula that is found in the textbook on page 180. Career Management: Developing Talent over Time • Reflection Paper: Ask students to read Peter Drucker’s classic paper in the Harvard Business Review called “Managing Oneself,” and to reflect on their own career in one page. See the full citation in Recommended Reading. • Call-Out Question: Why should both employees and employers be concerned about career management programs? The Goal: Matching Individual and Organizational Needs • A career development program should be viewed as a dynamic process that matches the needs of the organization with the needs of employees. Each party has a distinctive role to play. The textbook on pages 181‒183 outlines the employee’s role, the organization’s role, and their blended roles. • Use Figure 5.5: HR’s Role in Career Management on page 181 to illustrate how HR structures relate to some of the essential aspects of the career management process. • Use Figure 5.6: Blending the Needs of Individual Employees with the Needs of Their Organizations on page 182 to show that the organization’s goals and needs should be linked with the individual career needs of its employees in a way that improves the effectiveness of workers and their satisfaction as well as achieving the firm’s strategic objectives. Identifying Career Opportunities and Requirements Those who direct career management in the organization have to watch the needs and requirements of the organization. This involves an analysis of the competencies required for jobs, progression among related jobs, and supply of ready (and potential) talent available to fill those jobs. (a) Begin with a Competency Analysis Organizations should study its jobs carefully to identify and assign weights to the knowledge and skills that each one requires. (b) Identify Job Progressions and Career Paths • Plan job progressions, the hierarchy of jobs a new employee might experience, ranging from a starting job to jobs that successively require more knowledge and/or skill. • Job progressions then can serve as a basis for developing career paths—the lines of advancement within an organization—for individuals. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Use Figure 5.7: Typical Line of Advancement in HR Management on page 184 to illustrate a typical line of advancement in the human resources area of a large multinational corporation. (c) Track Career Stages • To begin the discussion on generations, ask students whether their behaviour would change in the class if their parents were sitting in on it. • Class Discussion: Career stages are outlined on page 184 (the typical age range and the major tasks of each stage are also discussed). Ask students to identify their own career stage, and that of their parents. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Reality Check: Career Edge Making a Difference on page 185 outlines how Career Edge helps people in this stage find their first job. • Class Discussion: Determine some of the ways that different generational groups are discriminated against. Consider the type of strategy that would be necessary to bring cohesion and communication to the generational groups. • Think-Pair-Share: Have students determine the advantages and disadvantages of having different generations working together within an organization. Is this type of diversity within the workforce easy to manage? What policies need to be in place in order for all generations to have a positive work experience? • Case Study: Use Case Study 1: Imprimax on pages 195‒196 as a platform to discuss intergenerational conflict. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. (d) Recognize Different Career Paths • An individual’s career advancement can move along several different paths via promotions, transfers, demotions, and exiting the organization. • Consider dual career paths for employees. • Consider the boundaryless career. • Help employees progress beyond career plateaus. • Consider the provision of sabbaticals. Career Development Initiatives The textbook outlines successful career management practices on pages 187‒188. It also provides a list of internal barriers that inhibit employees’ career advancement. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Supporting career development activities can help the organization achieve retention and productivity goals as outlined in The Business Case: The Value of Career Development Programs on page 188. • Think-Pair-Share: Use Ethics in HRM: Unpaid Internships: Training or Exploitation? on page 189 as a basis for this think-pair-share. Ask the students to share their experiences with unpaid internships, and to ask whether organizations who use them are getting away with unpaid labour by exploiting the fact that the graduates are desperate to find employment. Mentoring Executives and managers who coach, advise, and encourage employees are called mentors. • Clickers: Use Figure 5.8: Top 10 Myths about Mentors on page 191 to develop a set of True or False questions on mentoring. Use clickers to test students’ knowledge of mentoring. Networking Career networking is the process of establishing mutually beneficial relationships with other businesspeople, including potential clients and customers. Social networking sites such as LinkedIn.com have begun connecting professionals in formal and informal ways as well. FINISHING CLASS • Use Discussion Question 5 on page 195 to bring some of the learning points together. Ask students to get into small groups and generate some ideas: The Ottawa Police Services recognized that traditional recruiting practices may not work in a multicultural society. New immigrants may not view policing as an honourable profession, based on their previous experiences. Sitting in large groups hearing about opportunities in the police force is not effective, as many are reluctant to ask questions. Newcomers also do not know about the “ride along” program that most forces operate as a way to introduce potential recruits to the daily work of a police officer. Design a recruitment campaign for the police force that would be sensitive to the perceptions and needs of a multicultural candidate base. • Review the learning objectives. • Leave students with the following question, and then use it as a basis for online discussion: Is the achievement of a multi-generational workforce a type of diversity management? Can the management of the four designated groups benefit from these ideas? • Create a multiple-choice style quiz based on the lecture material to check learning. Use clickers if they are available. • Provide students with a “one-minute” paper and ask them to respond to the following questions: (1) What is the most important thing I learned today? (2) What question do I have that is left unanswered? Collect the one-minute papers and take up any unresolved issues in the following class. • Think-Pair-Share: Use the Small Business Application: Small Companies Often Offer Big Rewards on page 193 as the basis for this think-pair-share. After they read the information, ask the students to discuss whether they would prefer to find a job at a small or large organization. Additional Teaching Resources Recommended Reading • Coutu, D., Palfrey, J. G., Joerres, J.A., Boyd, D.M., & Fertik, M. (2007). We Googled You. Harvard Business Review, 85(6), 37‒47. • Drucker, P.F. (2005). Managing oneself. Harvard Business Review, 83(1), 100–109. • Galford, R. (1998). Why doesn’t this HR department get any respect?. Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 24‒26. • Teaching Notes for the HBR Case, Why Doesn’t this HR Department Get Any Respect? o Brockbank, W. (1998). What Is the Best Advice Rose Can Give Robinson? Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 38‒40. o Wall, J. (1998). What Is the Best Advice Rose Can Give Robinson? Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 36‒38. o Riley, T. (1998). What Is the Best Advice Rose Can Give Robinson? Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 34‒36. o Lawler III, E.E. (1998). What Is the Best Advice Rose Can Give Robinson? Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 32‒34. o Broedling, L. (1998). What Is the Best Advice Rose Can Give Robinson? Harvard Business Review, 76(2), 28‒32. • Payne, S.L., & Holmes, B. (1998). Communication challenges for management faculty involving younger “Generation X” students in their classes. Journal of Management Education, 22(3), 344–364. • Smith W, Kidder D. You’ve been tagged! (Then again, maybe not): Employers and Facebook. Business Horizons [serial online]. September 2010; 53(5): 491‒499. Available from: Business Source Premier, Ipswich, MA. Chapter 6: Employee Selection If nothing else, my students should learn that… • There are a variety of ways that employees can be selected for positions; HRM professionals have a tool kit of selection tools at their disposal. The primary purpose of selection is to predict future performance. • Examining the validity of a test is incredibly important so that HR can avoid “misses” and maximize “hits,” reach its diversity goals, and avoid accusations of discrimination. Learning objectives 1. Explain the objectives of the personnel selection process, its steps and why the information gathered during the process must be reliable and valid. 2. Describe the tools used to initially screen applicants, the types of employment interviews and methods to administer them, and the post-screening tools that organizations use. 3. Compare the value of different types of employment tests and how their reliability and validity are assessed. 4. Explain how firms evaluate the information they collect on a group of candidates and the decision strategies they use to select employees. Why is this chapter important? There is perhaps no more important topic in HRM than employee selection. If it is true that organizations succeed or fail on the basis of talents of employees, then managers directly influence that success by the people they hire. A study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) found that the cost of hiring someone for an intermediate position that has not been carefully planned is approximately $20,000, and the cost of hiring the wrong person for a senior manager’s position is $100,000. Regardless of whether the company is large or small, hiring the best and the brightest employees lays a strong foundation for excellence. Alternatively, an inordinate amount of time is spent trying to fix bad selection decisions. In addition, employment equity legislation has also provided an impetus for making sure that the selection process is done well. The bottom line is that good selection decisions make a difference. So do bad ones. What can I do in this class? This section includes ideas for how to start and finish the class. It also contains information from the textbook that can be used as a basis for a lecture. Moreover, it contains numerous suggestions for student engagement. Depending on your class size, the nature of the students, and your desire for classroom participation, choose from these activities to enliven the classroom. Getting started • Use Highlights in HRM 6.3: Hiring Managers Reveal Mistakes Candidates Make during Job Interviews on page 221 to share some of the funniest statements made by job applicants, or ask students to share some of the strangest or funniest interview questions they have been asked, or have asked applicants. • Use Discussion Question 1 on page 240 to get students thinking about how organizations select employees: In groups, describe to each other the steps in the selection process that you experienced in a recent job search. Compare these experiences and discuss the reasons why there would be differences. See the recommended responses in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. • Ask students to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory in advance of class. Use Billsberry and Gilbert (2008)’s article to guide a discussion. See the full citation in the Recommended Reading section. • Provide students with a copy of Reality Check: Selection at The Bay on page 236. Ask students what factors they think make the Bay’s recruitment and selection processes successful. Refer to this case throughout the lecture. Overview of the Selection Process Use Figure 6.1: The Goal of Selection: Maximize “Hits” on page 210 to show that the overall goal of selection is to maximize accurate predictions (“hits”) and avoid inaccurate predictions (“misses”). • Call-Out Question: What are the costs of a miss? It depends on the type of miss. One type of miss implies an opportunity cost (someone who would have been successful did not get the chance), and the other implies that the wrong person was hired for the job (someone was hired when they should not have been hired). (1) Begin with a Job Analysis It might be useful to review with students information presented in Chapter 4 on job specifications. (2) The Selection Process • Use Figure 6.2: Steps in the Selection Process on page 211 to highlight the steps, but let students know that not all applicants go through all of the steps. Alternatively, draw the figure without using words, and administer the handout so that students can fill in the missing information as the instructor suggests. • Regardless of the steps, the selection tools must be reliable and valid. • Reliability: This is the degree to which interviews, tests, and other selection procedures yield comparable data over time and alternative measures (there are different types of validities: inter-rater, inter-item, inter-method, test-retest). • Validity: This is the degree to which a test or selection procedure measures a person’s attributes (see a more elaborate discussion of validity later in the chapter). Initial Screening (1) Résumés • Generally, these documents are reviewed first with an eye toward who can be eliminated because they do not have the skills, abilities, education, or experience outlined in the job description for the application. • Evaluating résumés can be a subjective process because evaluators tend not to have a consistent standard across multiple candidates. • Use Figure 6.3: Application/Resume Assessment Grid on page 213 to show a structured approach to evaluating resumes. This approach can help make the process less subjective. • Manually screening résumés takes a long time; many HR professionals use computer software to make the process of screening resumes faster and easier. • Clickers: Give one-third of students in your class a résumé with an English-sounding name (e.g., Jeffrey Brown), one-third with a Chinese name (e.g., Jing Lin), and one-third with an Indian or Pakistani name (e.g., Akbar Ali). Ask students to rate the résumés on a number of dimensions (e.g., professionalism, likelihood of being interviewed by an organization, leadership ability, etc.). Since research shows that job applicants with English names have a greater chance of getting interviews than those with Chinese, Indian, or Pakistani names, you will likely find that ratings will be higher for the candidate with the English-sounding name, versus the other two. If you don’t find this, then discuss with the students why this might be the case. • Case Study: Use Case Study 2: Pros and Cons of Cleaning Up the “Resu-mess” on pages 241‒242 as a basis for a discussion on electronic resume management. (2) Internet Checks and Phone Screening Many HR professionals are “Googling” applicants’ names and checking social networking sites before deciding whether to invite someone for an interview. See Chapter 5 in the Instructor’s Manual for exercises and references on this important topic. (3) Application Forms Benefits: • Quick and systematic means of obtaining information about an applicant • Show whether the applicant meets the minimum requirements • Provide a basis for interview questions • Offer sources for reference checks • People less likely to lie on an application form than in a résumé Some organizations use a weighted application blank (WAB), which involves the use of a common standardized employment application that is designed to distinguish between successful and unsuccessful employees. • Small Group Discussion: Ask students to read Ethics in HRM: Writing It Wrong on page 215, and to respond to the following questions: (1) What should an employer do if they find out that someone has lied on an application form? (2) Why would someone omit information from their application form (e.g., degrees or experience)? Is it lying to omit information on an application form? • Online Applications: Advantages: quick, fast, and generate many candidates, leading to greater diversity Disadvantages: large volumes of applications submitted, many of which fail to meet the minimum requirements Employment Interviews The interview remains a mainstay of selection because (1) it is especially practical when there are only a small number of applicants; (2) it serves other purposes, such as public relations; and (3) interviewers maintain great faith and confidence in their judgments. • YouTube Video: You can find clips of Ali G interviewing various famous individuals on YouTube quite easily by searching “Ali G Interview.” His interviews are hilarious, and you can ask your students what Ali G did right, and how he could have interviewed better. (1) The Nondirective Interview • Nondirective interview ¬ allows the applicant the maximum amount of freedom in determining the course of the discussion, while the interviewer carefully refrains from influencing the applicant’s remarks • Low reliability and validity • Used mainly for high-level positions (2) The Structured Interview • Structured interview: an interview in which a set of standardized questions having an established set of answers is used • Provides a more consistent basis for evaluating job candidates • Twice as likely as nondirective interviews to predict on-the-job performance, and less likely than nondirective interviews to be attacked in court (3) The Situational Interview • Situational interview: an interview in which an applicant is given a hypothetical incident and asked how he or she would respond to it • Highlights in HRM 6.1: Sample Situational Interview Question on page 218 shows a question from a situational interview used to select systems analysts at a chemical plant. (4) The Behavioural Description Interview • Behavioural description interview (BDI): an interview in which an applicant is asked questions about what he or she did in a given situation • See Highlights in HRM 6.2: Behavioural Interviews at BMO on page 218 for sample behavioural questions posed by BMO Financial. • Making Explicit Real World Links: The Business Case: Behavioural Interviews Bring Big Returns on page 219 outlines the advantages of the behavioural interview. • Connectivity Activity: If you used the critical incident technique exercise when teaching Job Analysis, then this is a good opportunity to reuse those critical incidents to teach students how to develop situational and behavioural interview questions based on those incidents. Alternatively, you can find job descriptions for a variety of jobs online. Provide one to each group, and ask students to generate one situational and one behavioural interview question for those jobs. In taking up the exercise, students should be able to clearly state which KSAOs their questions tap into from the job description. (5) Panel and Sequential Interviews • Panel interview: an interview in which a board of interviewers questions and observes a single candidate • Advantages: higher reliability because it involves multiple inputs; shorter decision-making period; applicants more likely to accept the decisions made; hiring discrimination is minimized • Sequential interview: a format in which a candidate is interviewed by multiple people, one right after another (6) The Computer and Virtual Interviews • A computer interview requires candidates to answer a series (75 to 125) multiple-choice questions tailored to the job. These answers are compared either with an ideal profile or with profiles developed on the basis of other candidates’ responses. (7) Video and Digitally Recorded Interviews • They are flexible, quick, and cost effective. • Employers can make preliminary assessments about candidates’ technical abilities, energy level, appearance, and the like before incurring the costs of a face-to-face meeting. • Case Study: Use Case Study 1: Job Candidate Assessment Tests Go Virtual on pages 240-241as a basis for classroom discussion. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. Guidelines for Employment Interviewers • Call-Out Question: Do you think that the interviewer is an important determinant in an applicant’s decision to take a job? Have you ever been interviewed by someone who you either really liked or disliked? How did that influence your opinions about the job or the organization? What characteristics do you think an interview should have? (Answers may include: humility, the ability to think objectively, maturity, and poise; experience in associating with people from a variety of backgrounds; not over-talkative, no extreme opinions or biases.) (1) Interviewer Training • Training has been shown to dramatically improve the competence of interviewers. • Introduce the concept of “beautyism”—discrimination against unattractive but talented people. (2) Employment Equity: Are your Questions Legal? The examples of appropriate and inappropriate questions shown in Highlights in HRM 6.4: Appropriate and Inappropriate Interview Questions on page 223 may serve as guidelines for application forms, as well as for pre-employment interviews. • Clickers: Develop True or False questions based on Highlights in HRM 6.4: Appropriate and Inappropriate Interview Questions on page 223, and ask students whether the interview questions that you develop are legal or illegal. Post-Interview Screening • Case study: Use Reality Check: Selection at the Bay on page 236 to learn how the Bay reaches out to recruits and makes selection decisions for its candidates. (1) Reference Checks • The most reliable information usually comes from supervisors, who are in the best position to report on an applicant’s work habits and performance. • Highlights in HRM 6.5: Sample Reference Checking Questions on page 225 includes a list of helpful questions to ask about applicants when checking their references. • Many organizations are reluctant to put into writing an evaluation of a former employee for fear of being sued by the person. • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Ask students to imagine that they were applying for their “dream” job. If the employer asked them to provide a reference, who would they choose? Encourage students to think about all non-relatives that they know, and if they do not have a reference, they should consider cultivating relationships now with others, so that when the time comes, they have a person who they can ask. (2) Background Checks The vast majority (over 90 percent) of Canadian companies surveyed by the Canadian HR Reporter indicated that they conduct background checks for previous employment history (92 percent), academic qualifications (53 percent), criminal record (50 percent), and credit rating (11 percent). (3) Credit Checks For positions of trust, such as those involving financial instruments in banks, credit reports must be used. Applicants must agree in writing to a credit report and have the right to review its contents. The reason for the credit report must be job related. Preemployment Tests 1. Job Knowledge Tests 2. Work Sample Tests • Connectivity Activity: If students had to select a new professor for their course in human resource management, what kind of work sample test could they provide to ensure that the professor is able to perform the job well? (Examples might include presenting on a topic of relevance to HRM; grading papers; responding to student questions, etc.) 3. Assessment Centre Tests (including in-basket exercises, leaderless group discussions, role-playing, and behavioural interviews) 4. Cognitive Ability Tests (Figure 6.5: General Competency Test Level 1 on page 228 provides examples of questions from the General Competency Test (GCT) administered by the Public Service Commission of Canada.) 5. Biodata Tests • Think-Pair-Share: Use Discussion Question 4 on page 240 as a basis for a think-pair-share: What characteristics do job knowledge and job sample tests have that often make them more acceptable to the examinees than other types of tests? See the recommended solutions in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. 6. Personality and Interest Inventories (The “Big Five” factors are extroversion, agreeableness, conscientiousness, neuroticism, and openness to experience.) • In-Class Personality Assessment: Use Saucier’s Mini Markers to allow students to self-assess the Big Five. See the full reference for this article in the Recommended Reading section. 7. Polygraph Tests (prohibited under the Employment Standards Acts in both Ontario and New Brunswick) 8. Honesty and Integrity Tests • Making Explicit Real-World Links: Payless ShoeSource has used a paper-and-pencil honesty test to reduce employee theft. When the company began its program, losses totalled nearly $21 million per year among its 4,700 stores. Within only one year of implementing its screening program, inventory shrinkage fell by 20 percent to less than 1 percent of sales. 9. Physical Ability Tests (Use with caution; refer to bona-fide occupational requirements in Chapter 3.) 10. Medical Examinations • After-Class Assignment: Ask students to pair up and go to the Treasury Board Secretariat of the federal government and report back to class with its policies on the accommodation of persons with disabilities: http://www.tbs-sct.gc.ca/pubs_pol/hrpubs/TB_852/ppaed_e.asp 11. Drug Testing (Addiction to drugs or alcohol is considered a disability, and the employer is to be guided by legislation and by practices such as workplace accommodation.) Determining the Validity of Tests (1) Criterion-Related Validity • Call-Out Question: Use Discussion Question 2 on page 240 to see whether students understand how the word criterion is used in HRM: What is meant by the term criterion as it is used in personnel selection? Give some examples of criteria used for jobs with which you are familiar. See the recommended solution in the Answers to End-of-Chapter Discussion Questions. • Criterion-related validity is the extent to which a selection tool predicts, or significantly correlates with, important elements of work behaviour. • There are two ways to establish criterion-related validity: • Concurrent validity involves obtaining criterion data from current employees at about the same time that test scores (or other predictor information) are obtained. • Predictive validity, on the other hand, involves testing applicants and obtaining criterion data after those applicants have been hired and have been on the job for a certain period of time. • Cross-validation is a process in which a test or battery of tests is administered to a different sample of people (drawn from the same population) for the purpose of verifying the results obtained from the original validation study. (2) Content Validity Content validity is assumed to exist when a selection instrument, such as a test, adequately samples the knowledge and skills a person needs to do a particular job. (3) Construct Validity Construct validity is the extent to which a selection tool measures a theoretical construct, or trait (e.g., intelligence, anxiety). • Case Study: Use Case Study 3: Searching for Spies on pages 242‒243 to encourage students to apply concepts related to validity to a selection process. See the recommended solutions in the Notes for End-of-Chapter Case Studies. • Connectivity Activity: Use Nassif and Khalil’s ideas found in their article entitled “Making a Pie as a Metaphor for Teaching Scale Validity and Reliability.” See the full reference in the Recommended Readings section. Reaching a Selection Decision Use Figure 6.6: Candidate Evaluation Form on page 233 to show an example of a checklist while evaluating candidates. (1) Summarizing Information about Applicants Fundamentally, an employer is interested in what an applicant can do and will do. • Call-Out Question: Which is easier to ascertain: “can do” or “will do” factors? It is easier to measure what individuals can do than what they will do? The “can do” factors are readily evident from test scores and verified information. What the individual will do can only be inferred. Employers can use the responses to interview and application form questions and references to obtain information for making inferences about what an individual will do. (2) Decision-Making Strategy There are two approaches to decision-making strategy: • Clinical Approach: a number of individuals use their judgment to come to a decision about who to hire; most commonly used. • Statistical Approach: involves identifying the most valid predictors and weighting them using statistical methods such as multiple regression; better than clinical in predicting performance. An important statistic to take into consideration is the selection ratio: the number of applicants compared to the number of people to be hired. • In-Class Exercise/Connectivity Activity: The Society for Human Resource Management has a wonderful teaching tool that is available for free online that walks through examples of how to make selection decisions. (Note: I’ve tried this exercise, and it’s great, but it takes at least 1.5 hours to get through in its entirety, but the students can really see how the manner in which decisions are made influence selection decisions. Also, the link here gives the instructor’s manual, so you will need to create your own handouts: http://www.shrm.org/india/hr-topics-and-strategy/talent-acquisition-and-people-flows/testing-and-selection/Documents/Employee_Selection_Structure_Exercises.pdf) Final Decision • After a preliminary selection/screening by a firm’s HR department has been conducted, the applicants who appear most promising are then referred to the departments with vacancies. • In large organizations, notifying applicants of the decision that has been made and making job offers is often the responsibility of HR departments. FINISHING CLASS • Use HRM Experience: Designing Selection Criteria and Methods on page 240 to help students solidify and integrate the lecture material. • Connectivity Activity: Ask the students to generate a selection toolkit that could be used to select students to take a course in Advanced Human Resource Management, making sure that the tools that they choose are valid, reliable, and are cost-effective. • Review the learning objectives. • Create a multiple-choice style quiz based on the lecture material to check learning. Use clickers if they are available. • Provide students with a “one-minute” paper and ask them to respond to the following questions: (1) What is the most important thing I learned today? (2) What question do I have that is left unanswered? Collect the one-minute papers and take up any unresolved issues in the following class. • Ask students a question, such as: How long does it take before you know that you do not fit an organization’s culture? What indicators might you observe? Remind students that although they might be very competent in their jobs, they will be miserable if they do not fit the organization’s culture. Fitting a culture is very individualized and cannot be easily taught. Use this as a basis for discussion on the online discussion board for your class. Additional Teaching Resources Recommended Reading • Billsberry, J., & Gilbert, L H. (2008). Using Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory to teach different recruitment and selection paradigms. Journal of Management Education, 32(2), 228–247. • Latham, G.P., & Sue Chan, C. (1999). A meta-analysis of the situational interview: An enumerative review of reasons for its validity. Canadian Psychology, 40(1), 56–67. • Nassif, N. & Khalil, Y. (2006). Making a Pie as a Metaphor for Teaching Scale Validity and Reliability American Journal of Evaluation, 27(3), 393‒398. • Saucier, G. (1994). Mini-Markers: A brief version of Goldberg’s unipolar Big Five Markers. Journal of Personality Assessment, 63(3), 506–516. Instructor Manual for Managing Human Resources Shad Morris, Monica Belcourt, George W. Bohlander, Scott A. Snell, Parbudyal Singh 9780176570262, 9781337387231, 9781285866390, 9780357033814, 9781337387231, 9781111532826, 9780176798055, 9780176407292, 9781285866390, 9781111532826
