• Job Fairs - A recruitment method in which several employers are
Employee Selection: Recruiting
and Interviewing
Employee recruitment
An important step in selecting employees is recruitment: attracting people with the
right qualifications (as determined in the job analysis) to apply for the job.
• External recruitment - The process of attracting employees to an organization
• Internal recruitment - Recruiting employees already employed by the
organization.
Kinds of recruitment
• Media Advertisements/ Newspaper Ads - Running ads in periodicals such as
local newspapers or professional journals is a common method of recruiting
employees
As shown in Figure 4.2, newspaper advertisements
typically ask the applicant to respond in one of four ways:
1. respond by calling,
2. applying in person,
3. sending a résumé directly to the organization, or
4. Sending a résumé to a blind box.
• Electronic Media
Digital advertising (also known as online advertising) is a form of marketing used by
companies to promote its brand, product, or service through digital channels. It
consists of actions in web browsers, social media pages, blogs, apps, or any other
form of contact through the Internet.
• Point-of-Purchase Methods
Or POP, is a marketing material that retailers use in their stores to promote
products, catch consumers' attention and incite them to buy. It is also a term
referring to the strategic placement of products in the store.
Recruiters
• Campus recruiters
At its simplest level, campus recruitment involves finding, engaging and hiring
interns and entry-level employees on college campuses.
Due to cost considerations, many employers have cut back on the use of on-campus
recruiting. As a result, an increasing number of colleges are organizing virtual job
fairs, in which their students and alumni can use the web to “visit” with recruiters
from hundreds of organizations at one time. In a virtual job fair, applicants can talk
to or instant message a recruiter, learn more about the company, and submit
resumes.
• Outside Recruiters
Outside recruiters work independently on behalf of any number of companies
(a.k.a. their clients). These recruiters might work for themselves, or they may be
employed by an executive recruiting firm. Their job is to find potential candidates
for their client to interview and hire.
Employment Agencies and Search Firms
• Employment Agencies - An organization that specializes in finding jobs for
applicants and finding applicants for organization looking for employees
• Executive Search Firms - Employment agencies, often also called headhunters
that specialize in placing applicants in high-paying jobs.
• Public Employment Agencies - An employment service operated by a state or
local government, designed to match applicants with job openings.
Employee Referrals
A method of recruitment in which a current employee refers a friend or family
member for a job.
Direct Mail
A method of recruitment in which an organization sends out mass mailings of
information about job openings to potential applicants.
Internet
The Internet continues to be a fast-growing source of recruitment. Internet
recruiting efforts usually take one of three forms: employer-based websites, job
boards, and social networking sites.
• Employer-Based Websites - An employment website is a website that deals
specifically with employment or careers. Many employment websites are designed
to allow employers to post job requirements for a position to be filled and are
commonly known as job boards.
• Social Media - Social media recruiting is the process of using social media
platforms, like LinkedIn, Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, to share job postings,
network with professionals, and research potential job candidates.
available at one location so that many applicants can obtain information at one
time.
Realistic Job Previews
A realistic job preview offers a realistic look into what a job is actually like – no
sugar coating – showing both the positives and the negatives so the candidate can
get a real feel for what skills and qualifications are needed on the job, as well as
what a typical day would look like.
For example, instead of telling the applicant how much fun she will have working on
the assembly line, the recruiter honestly tells her that although the pay is well
above average, the work is often boring and there is little chance for advancement.
Employment Interviews
A method of selecting employees in which an interviewer asks questions of an
applicant and then makes an employment decision based on the answers to the
questions as well as the way in which the questions were answered.
Types of Interviews
• Structured interview - Interviews in which questions are based on a job
analysis, every applicant is asked the same questions, and there is a standardized
scoring system so that identical answers are given
identical scores.
• Unstructured interview - An interview in which applicants are not asked the
same questions and in which there is no standard scoring system to score applicant
answers.
• Style - The style of an interview is determined by the number of interviewees
and number of interviewers. One-on-one interviews involve one interviewer
interviewing one applicant. Serial interviews involve a series of single interviews.
• Medium - Interviews also differ in the extent to which they are done in person.
In face-to-face interviews, both the interviewer and the applicant are in the same
room. Face-to-face interviews provide a personal setting and allow the participants
to use both visual and
vocal cues to evaluate information.
Employee Reference and testing
Predicting Performance Using references and letters of Recommendation
• Reference Checks - the process of confirming the accuracy of information
provided by the applicant
• Reference - is the expression of opinion might be oral or written checklist
regarding applicant’s ability, previous performance, work habits, character or
potential for future success.
Letter of Recommendation
Reasons for Using References and Recommendation
• Confirming Details on a resume – As it is uncommon that applicants resort to
resume fraud
• Checking for Discipline Problems - History is important for an organization to
discover to avoid future problems as well as to protect itself from a potential charge
of negligent hiring.
• Discovering New information About the applicant
• Predicting Future Performance
• Leniency
• Knowledge of the applicant
• Reliability
• Extraneous Factors
Ethical Issues
Because providing references and letters of recommendation is a rather subjective
process, several ethical problems can arise involving their use.
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Training and Education
According to Ng and Feldman (2009), better educated employees had higher
performance, most likely to engage in on-the –job substance abuse than were
employees with lower levels of education
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Knowledge
Used primarily in the public sector, especially for promotions, job knowledge tests
are designed to measure how much a person knows about a job. Even though job
knowledge tests o good job of predicting performance, they often result in adverse
impact and can be used only for jobs in which applicants are expected to have job
knowledge at the time of hire or promotion.
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Ability
Ability tests tap the extent to which an applicant can learn or perform a job-related
skill. This is utilized primarily for occupations in which applicants are not expected
to know how to perform the job at the time of hire. Instead, new employees will be
taught the necessary job skills and knowledge.
• Cognitive Ability - is important for professional, clerical, and supervisory jobs,
including such occupations as supervisor, accountant, and secretary. One of the
most widely used cognitive ability tests in industry is the Wonderlic Personnel Test.
The short amount of time (12 minutes) necessary to take the test, as well as the fact
that it can be administered in a group setting, makes it popular.
• Perceptual Ability - consists of vision (near, far, night, peripheral), color
discrimination, depth perception, glare sensitivity, speech (clarity, recognition), and
hearing (sensitivity, auditory attention, sound localization) (Fleishman & Reilly,
1992b). Abilities from this dimension are useful for such occupations as machinist,
cabinet maker, die setter, and tool and die maker.
• Psychomotor Ability - includes finger dexterity, manual dexterity, control
precision, multi coordination, response control, reaction time, arm-hand steadiness,
wrist-finger speed, and speed-of-limb movement (Fleishman & Reilly, 1992b).
Psychomotor abilities are useful for such jobs as carpenter, police officer, sewing-
machine operator, post office clerk, and truck driver.
• Physical Ability - Are often used for jobs that require physical strength and
stamina, such as police officer, firefighter, and lifeguard. Physical ability is measured
in one of two ways: job simulations and physical agility tests.
• Job relatedness
• Passing cores
• When the ability must be present
Predicting Performance Using Applicant Skill
• Work Sample - are excellent selection tools for several reasons. First, because
they are directly related to job tasks, they have excellent content validity.
Second, scores from work samples tend to predict actual work performance and
thus have excellent criterion validity (Callinan & Robertson, 2001; Roth, Bobko, &
McFarland, 2005).
Third, because job applicants are able to see the connection between the job
sample and the work performed on the job, the samples have excellent face validity
and thus are challenged less often in civil service appeals or in court cases
(Whelchel, 1985).
Finally, work samples have lower racial differences in test scores than do written
cognitive ability tests (Roth, Bobko, McFarland, & Buster, 2008), although the actual
extent of the difference is still under debate (Bobko, Roth, & Buster, 2005).
• Assessment Centers- A method of selecting employees in which applicants
participate in several job-related activities, at least one of which must be a
simulation, and are rated by several trained evaluators. A method of selecting
employees in which applicants participate in several job-related activities, at least
one of which must be a simulation, and are rated by several trained evaluators
Predicting Performance Using Prior Experience
• Experience Ratings - The basis for experience ratings is the idea that past
experience will predict future experience. In giving credit for experience, one must
consider the amount of experience, the level of performance demonstrated during
the previous experience, and how related the experience is to the current job. That
is, experience by itself is not enough. Having 10 years of low-quality unrelated
experience is not the same as 10 years of high-quality related experience.
• Biodata - A method of selection involving application blanks that contain
questions that research has shown will predict job performance
Predicting Performance Using Personality, Interest and Character
• Personality Inventories - Personality inventories fall into one of two categories
based on their intended purpose: measurement of types of normal personality or
measurement of psychopathology (abnormal personality)
• Interest Inventories - These tests are designed to tap vocational interests. The
most commonly used interest inventory is the Strong Interest Inventory (SII), which
asks individuals to indicate whether they like or dislike 325 items such as bargaining,
repairing electrical wiring, and taking responsibility.
• Integrity Test - (also called honesty tests) tell an employer the probability that
an applicant would steal money or merchandise.
• Conditional Reasoning test - Conditional reasoning tests were initially
developed by James (1998) to reduce these inaccurate responses and get a more
accurate picture of a person’s tendency to engage in aggressive or
counterproductive behavior. Conditional reasoning tests provide test takers with a
series of statements and then ask the respondent to select the reason that best
justifies or explains each of the statements. The type of reason selected by the
individual is thought to indicate his or her aggressive biases or beliefs.
• Credit History - These credit checks are conducted for two reasons:
(1) Employers believe that people who owe money might be more likely to steal or
accept bribes, and
(2) Employees with good credit are more responsible and conscientious and thus
will be better employees.
• Graphology - an interesting method to select employees is handwriting analysis,
or graphology. The idea behind handwriting analysis is that the way people write
reveals their personality, which in turn should indicate work performance.
Predicting Performance Limitations Due to Medical and Psychological Problems
• Drug testing - Tests that indicate whether an applicant has recently used a drug
• Psychological exams - In jobs involving public safety (e.g., law enforcement,
nuclear power, transportation), it is common for employers to give psychological
exams to applicants after a conditional offer of hire has been made. If the applicant
fails the exam, the offer is rescinded. . It is important to keep in mind that
psychological exams are not designed to predict employee performance. Therefore,
they should only be used to determine if a potential employee is a danger to himself
or others.
• Medical Exams - In jobs requiring physical exertion, many employers require
that a medical exam be taken after a conditional offer of hire has been made. In
these exams, the physician is given a copy of the job description and asked to
determine if there are any medical conditions that will keep the employee from
safely performing the job.
Rejecting applications
- Once a decision has been made regarding which applicants will be hired, those
who will not be hired must be notified. Rejected applicants should be treated well
because they are potential customers and potential applicants for other positions
that might become available in the organization (Koprowski, 2004; Waung & Brice,
2003).
• Rejection letter - A letter from an organization to an applicant informing
the applicant that he or she will not receive a job offer. It could consists
of the following:
• A personally addressed and signed letter
• The company’s appreciation to the applicant for applying for a position
with the company
• A compliment about the applicant’s qualifications
• A comment about the high qualifications possessed by the other
applicants
• Information about the individual who was actually hired
• A wish of good luck in future endeavors
• A promise to keep the applicant’s résumé on file
HIRING, FIRING, LEGAL ISSUES
HIRING
• After valid and fair selection, tests have been administered to a group of
applicants, a final decision must be made.
• This may seem to be an easy decision - hire the applicants with the highest test
score.
• The decision becomes more complicated as both the number and variety of tests
increase
Multiple Regression
• If more than one criterion-valid test is used, the scores on the tests must be
combined through this statistical procedure.
• In multiple regression, each test score is weighted according to how well it
predicts the criterion.
• Linear approaches to hiring usually take one of four forms: unadjusted top-down
selection, rules of three, passing scores, or banding.
Compensatory Approach
• The assumption is that if multiple test scores are used, the relationship between a
low score on one test can be compensated for by a high score on another.
• To determine whether a score on one test can compensate for a score on another,
multiple regression is used in which each test score is weighted according to how •
well it predicts the criterion.
• When considering the use of a compensatory approach, it is essential that a high
score on one test would actually compensate for a low score on another
• For example, in a recent audit, the OFCCP argued that the organization being
audited should let a high score on a personality inventory compensate for a low
score on a physical ability exam.
Rule of Three
• A technique often used in the public sector in which the names of the top three
scorers are given to the person making the hiring decision.
• This person can then choose any of the three based on the immediate needs of
the employer.
• This method ensures that the person hired will be well qualified but provides
more choice than top-down selection.
• Passing scores are a means for reducing adverse impact and increasing flexibility.
• With this system, an organization determines the lowest score on a test that is
associated with acceptable performance on the job.
• There is also a multiple-cutoff approach or a multiple-hurdle approach. Both
approaches are used when one score can’t compensate for another or when the
relationship between the selection test and performance is not linear.
• With a multiple-cutoff approach, the applicants would be administered all of the
tests at one time. If they failed any of the tests (fell below the passing score), they
would not be considered further for employment.
There are also several methods such as:
Multiple-hurdle approaches
• The applicant is administered one test at a time, usually beginning with the least
expensive.
• Applicants who fail a test are eliminated from further consideration and take no
more tests.
• Applicants who pass all of the tests are then administered the linearly related
tests; the applicants with the top scores on these tests are hired.
Banding
• Banding takes into consideration the degree of error associated with any test
score.
• Thus, even though one applicant might score two points higher than another, the
two-point difference might be the result of chance (error) rather than actual
differences in ability.
• The question then becomes, “How many points apart do two applicants have to
be before we say their test scores are significantly different?”
FIRING
Terminate Employees
• The primary use of performance appraisal results is to provide feedback to
employees about their behavior.
• Performance appraisal results are also used to make positive personnel decisions
such as raises and promotions.
• Unfortunately, there are times when managers have to terminate an employee’s
employment.
Employment-at-Will Doctrine
• In the United States, there is a big difference between terminating an employee in
the public sector and terminating an employee in the private sector.
• In the private sector, the employment-at-will doctrine in most states allows
employers freedom to fire an employee without a reason—at will. In the public
sector, an employee can be fired only for cause.
Limitations to the employment-at-will doctrine
• State law - States such as California, Montana, and New York have laws that an
employee can be fired only for cause—e.g.
• Provisions of federal or state law - Employees cannot be fired for reasons
protected by federal or state law. For example, an employer cannot fire an
employee because she is female, pregnant, nonwhite, or over the age of 40
• Public policy/interest - Employers cannot terminate an employee for exercising a
legal duty such as jury duty or refusing to violate the law or professional ethics.
• Contracts - If an individual employee has a signed employment contract
stipulating a particular period of employment, an organization cannot fire the
employee without cause. Unions enter into collective bargaining agreements
(contracts) with employers that also limit or negate employment-at-will.
• Implied contracts - Employment-at-will is nullified if an employer implies that an
employee “has a job for life” or can be fired only for certain reasons.
• Covenants of good faith and fair dealing - Though employers are generally free to
hire and fire at will, the courts have ruled that employers must still act in good faith
and deal fairly with an employee.
Legal Reasons for Terminating Employees
■ Probationary Period
• In many jobs, employees are given a probationary period in which to prove that
they can perform well.
• Though most probationary periods last 3 to 6 months, those for police officers
are usually a year, and the probationary period for professors is 6 years!
• Employees can be terminated more easily during the probationary period than
at any other time.
■ Violation of Company Rules
• Courts consider five factors in determining the legality of a decision to
terminate an employee
o The first factor
• A rule against a particular behavior must actually exist.
• Organizations often have “unwritten” rules governing employee behavior.
These unwritten rules will not hold up in court.
o The second factor
• If a rule exists, a company must prove that the employee knew the rule.
• Rules communicated in handbooks are the most legally defensible.
• To prove that an employee knew a rule, organizations require employees
to sign statements that they received information about the rule, read the rule, and
understand the rule.
o The third factor
• The ability of the employer to prove that an employee actually violated the
rule.
• Proof is accomplished through such means as witnesses, video recordings,
and job samples.
• Human resources professionals almost have to be detectives because
proving rule violations is often not easy
o The fourth factor
• Considered by the courts is the extent to which the rule has been equally
enforced
• That is, if other employees violated the rule but were not terminated,
terminating an employee for a particular rule violation may not be legal.
o The fifth factor
• The extent to which the punishment fits the crime.
• Employees in their probationary period (usually their first 6 months) can be
immediately fired for a rule infraction.
• For more tenured employees, however, the organization must make a
reasonable attempt to change the person’s behavior through progressive discipline.
Inability to Perform
• Employees can also be terminated for an inability to perform the job.
• To do so, an organization will need to prove that the employee could not perform
the job and that progressive discipline was taken to give the employee an
opportunity to improve.
• For an employer to survive a court challenge to terminating a poor-performing
employee, it must demonstrate that a reasonable standard of performance was
communicated to the employee.
• The organization must next demonstrate that there was a documented failure to
meet the standard. Such documentation can include critical-incident logs and work
samples
• A properly designed performance appraisal system is the key to legally
terminating an employee.
Reduction in Force (Layoff)
• Employees can be terminated if it is in the best economic interests of an
organization to do so.
• Reductions in force, more commonly called layoffs, have been used by the vast
majority of
• Fortune 500 companies in the past few decades.
• In cases of large layoffs or plant closings, the Worker Adjustment and Retraining
Notification Act (WARN) requires that organizations provide workers with at least 6
days’ notice.
The Termination Meeting
■ Prior to the Meeting
• The first step is to ensure that the legal process has been evaluating employee
performance followed.
• The next step is to determine how much help, if any, the organization wants to
offer the employee. Forms of help can include references, severance pay, and
outplacement assistance.
• Usually, greater levels of help are given to employees who sign agreements not
to sue the organization.
• The final step is to schedule an appropriate place and time for the meeting to
occur.
• The meeting should be held in a neutral, private location. To avoid potential
damage caused by a hostile reaction to the termination decision, the meeting
should not be held in a supervisor’s office.
■ During the Meeting
• During the meeting, the supervisor should get to the point about terminating
the employee.
• The employee usually knows why she has been called in, and there is no reason
to prolong the agony.
• The supervisor should rationally state the reasons for the decision, express
gratitude for the employee’s efforts (if sincere), and offer whatever assistance the
organization intends to provide.
• Administrative duties such as obtaining copies of keys and completing
paperwork are then performed.
• Finally, the employee is asked to gather personal belongings and is escorted out
the door.
■ After the Meeting
• Once the meeting is over, the natural reaction of the supervisor is to feel guilty.
To relieve some of this guilt, a supervisor should review the facts.
 • When an employee is fired, other employees will be tense. It is important to be
honest with the other employees about what happened; at the same time, negative
statements about the terminated employee’s character must be avoided.
COMPENSATION
• Compensation refers to the monetary and nonmonetary rewards employees
receive in exchange for the work they do or an organization.
• Compensation can be either direct or indirect.
Compensation Philosophy
• Supports the goals of the organization
• Communicates what's valued by the organization
• Enhances the likelihood of consistency
• Helps attract, motivate, and retain employees
Equity Theory
• Equity theory, you and your employees will be motivated to work harder (provide
inputs) when you believe that your compensation (outcome received) is at the right
level for the work you are doing
Job Evaluation
The most common job evaluation approaches:
• Job Ranking
• Job Classification
• Point Method
• Factor Comparison
Salary Surveys
• System way to collect wage information
• Carefully constructed to be reliable and valid
• Conduct your own or purchase from a vendor
• Information gathered from similar organizations
• From geographic labor market
Job Pricing
• Job pricing is the systematic process of assigning monetary rates to jobs so that a
firm’s internal wages are aligned with the external wages in the marketplace.
LEGAL ISSUES FOR EMPLOYEE SELECTION
The Legal Process
• To know whether a given employment practice is legal, it is important to
understand the legal process as it relates to employment law.
• The first step in the legal process is for some legislative body, such as the U.S.
Congress or a state legislature, to pass a law. If a law is passed at the federal level,
states may pass laws that expand the rights granted in the federal law; states may
not, however, pass laws that will diminish the rights granted in federal legislation
• For example, if Congress passed a law that gave women six months of maternity
leave, a state or local government could pass a law extending the leave to eight
months, but it could not reduce the amount of maternity leave to less than the
mandated six months.
• Once a law has been passed, situations occur in which the intent of the law is not
clear. For example, a law might be passed to protect disabled employees. Two years
later, an employee is denied promotion because he has high blood pressure.
• The employee may file a charge against the employer claiming discrimination
based on a disability. He may claim that high blood pressure is a disability but that
he can still work in spite of the disability and consequently deserves the promotion.
• The organization, on the other hand, might claim that high blood pressure is not a
disability and that even if it were, an employee with high blood pressure could not
perform the job. It would then be up to the courts to decide.
Resolving complaint privately
• Before a complaint can be filed with the Equal Employment Opportunity
Commission (EEOC), an employee must utilize whatever internal resolution process
is available within the organization.
• As a result, most organizations have formal policies regarding how discrimination
complaints will be handled internally. With a grievance system, employees take
their complaints to an internal committee that makes a decision regarding the
complaints.
• If employees do not like the decision, they can then take their complaints to the
EEOC.
• With mediation, employees and the organization meet with a neutral third party
who tries to help the two sides reach a mutually agreed upon solution.
• If they cannot reach a solution, the complaint can be taken to arbitration or to the
EEOC.
• A charge of discrimination is usually filed with a government agency.
• A state agency is used if the alleged violation involves a state law; a federal
agency, usually the EEOC, handles alleged violations of federal law.
• An EEOC complaint must be filed within 180 days of the discriminatory act, but
within 300 days if the complainant has already filed a complaint with a state or local
fair-employment practice agency.
• The government agency will try to notify the employer within 10 days about the
complaint, obtain further information from both parties if necessary, and review
the charge to determine whether it has merit.
• It is important to note that the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, signed into law by
President Barack Obama in 2009, clarified that the 180-day period for filing a
lawsuit alleging pay discrimination begins at the time of the last paycheck rather
than when the employee’s salary was determined.
Outcome
If Charge has merit:
• If the EEOC believes that the discrimination charge has merit, it will try to work
out a settlement between the claimant and employer without taking the case to
court.
• These settlements might include an employer offering a job or promotion to the
person filing the complaint, the payment of back wages, and the payment of
compensatory or punitive damages.
• These settlements can range in size from a few dollars to more than $100
million.
If charge does not have merit:
• If, after reviewing a complaint, the governmental agency does not find merit,
one of two things can happen based on whether the person filing the complaint
accepts the decision.
• If the complainant accepts the decision, the process ends.
• If the complainant does not accept the decision, he is issued a “right to sue”
letter that entitles him to hire a private attorney and file the case himself.
Harassment
• An issue of growing concern in the workplace is sexual harassment.
• In 2013, 21,371 complaints of harassment were filed with the EEOC; 7,256 of
these were for sexual harassment.
• Of these 7,256, 17.6% were filed by males.
• Approximately 40% involve racial harassment, 34% sexual harassment, and 26%
harassment of other protected classes.
• Research indicates that as many as 44% of women and 19% of men have been
victims of sexual harassment (U.S. Merit Systems Board,
1995).
• These percentages increase when employees are the sole representative of their
gender (called gender pioneers) or consist of a small minority of the employees in a
particular work setting (called gender isolates)
Types of Harassment
1. Quid Pro Quo
2. Hostile environment
- Pattern of behavior
- Based on gender
- Negative to reasonable person
Organizational Liability for Sexual Harassment
• Preventing Sexual Harassment
• Correcting Sexually Harassing Behavior
1. All complaints, no matter how trivial or far-fetched they appear, must be
investigated.
2. The organization’s policy must encourage victims to come forward and afford
them multiple channels or sources through which to file their complaint.
3. Complaints must be kept confidential to protect both the accused and the
accuser. Information from the investigation should be kept in a file separate from
the employee’s personnel file.
4. Action must be taken to protect the accuser during the time the complaint is
being investigated. Actions might include physically separating the two parties or
limiting the amount of contact between them.
5. Both the accused and the accuser must be given due process, and care must be
taken to avoid an initial assumption of guilt
6. The results of the investigation must be communicated in writing to both parties.
7. The severity of the punishment (if any) must match the severity of the violation.
Family Medical Leave Act
• In 1993, Congress passed the Family Medical Leave act, or FMLA, which entitles
eligible employees (both male and female) to a minimum of 12 weeks of unpaid
leave each year to deal with the following family matters:
o Births, adoptions, or placement for foster care
o To care for a child, parent, or spouse with a serious health condition
o For employee’s own serious health condition that makes him or her
unable to perform the job
Eligibility
• Employees are eligible if they:
o work for a covered employer;
o have worked for the organization for at least one year; and
o have worked at least 1,250 hours over the previous 12 months.
• Because the FMLA allows employees to take leave for the serious illness of a child,
parent, spouse, or themselves, there has been some debate about how serious an
illness has to be to qualify.
• The Department of Labor defines a serious health condition this way:
o Any period of incapacity of more than three consecutive calendar days
and at least two visits to a health-care provider or one visit and issuance
of prescription medicine (or)
o Any period of incapacity due to a chronic serious health condition
requiring periodic treatment covering an extended period of time (or)
o Any period of absence to receive multiple treatments for a condition
that would result in a three or more day period of incapacity if left
untreated.
Affirmative Actions
■ Reasons for Affirmative Action Plans
• Organizations have affirmative action plans for one of four reasons, two of
which are involuntary and two voluntary (Robinson, Allen, & Abraham, 1992).
o Involuntary: Government Regulation
o Involuntary: Court Order
o Voluntary: Consent Decree
o Voluntary: Desire to Be a Good Citizen
Affirmative Action Strategies
1. Monitoring Hiring and Promotion Statistics
2. Intentional Recruitment of Minority Applicants
3. Identification and Removal of Employment
4. Practices Working Against Minority Applicants and Employees
5. Preferential Hiring and Promotion of Minorities
Legality of Preferential Hiring and Promotion Plans
• Recently, the courts have indicated that any form of preferential hiring or
promotion must undergo a “strict scrutiny analysis,” in which the plan must be
narrowly tailored and meet a compelling government interest (Gutman, 2004).
• The various courts have ruled that achieving diversity in such settings as a
university (Grutter v. Bollinger, 2003) and a police department (Petit v. City of
Chicago, 2003) are compelling government interests.
A History of Discrimination
• The first criterion examined is whether there has been a history of discrimination
by a particular organization (Western States Paving v. Washington State
Department of Transportation, 2005).
• If there is no strong basis in evidence to indicate that discrimination has recently
occurred, then preferential hiring is neither necessary nor legal.
• For example, if 30% of the qualified workforce is African American, as is 30% of a
police department’s officers, it would be illegal to engage in preferential hiring
based on race.
• However, if 25% of the qualified workforce is African American and there are no
African American state troopers (as was the case in Alabama in 1980), preferential
hiring could be justified (U.S. v. Phillip Paradise, 1987).
Beneficiaries of the Plan
• The second criterion concerns the extent to which the plan benefits people who
were not actual victims of discrimination.
• If the plan benefits only actual victims, it will probably be considered legal, but if it
benefits people not directly discriminated Against by the organization, other criteria
will be considered.
Population Used to Set Goals
• The third criterion concerns which of two types of populations was used to
statistically determine discrimination and to set affirmative action goals.
• With area populations, an organization compares the number of minorities in the
general area with the number of minorities in each position in the organization.
• If a discrepancy occurs, the organization sets hiring goals to remedy the
discrepancy.
• For example, if 80% of the area surrounding an organization is Hispanic but only
20% of the salaried workers in the organization are Hispanic, the organization might
set hiring goals for Hispanics at 90% until the workforce becomes 80% Hispanic.
Impact on Nonminorities
• The fourth criterion used by courts to determine the legality of an affirmative
action program is whether the remedy designed to help minorities is narrowly
tailored:
• Does the plan “unnecessarily trammel” the rights of nonminorities? That is, a plan
that helps women cannot deny the rights of men.
• Preference can be given to a qualified minority over a qualified nonminority, but
an unqualified minority can never be hired over a qualified nonminority.
End Point of the Plan
• The fifth and final criterion concerns setting an end point for the plan. That is, an
affirmative action plan cannot continue indefinitely; it must end when certain goals
have been obtained.
Unintended Consequences of Affirmative Action Plans
• Though affirmative action and diversity programs are an important tool in
ensuring equal opportunity, they can result in some unintended negative
consequences for people hired or promoted as the result of affirmative action
(Kravitz et al., 1997).
Privacy Issues
• As discussed previously in the chapter, an employment practice is illegal if it
results inadverse impact and is not job related.
• An employment practice can also be illegal if it unnecessarily violates an
individual’s right to privacy.
• The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution protects citizens against
unreasonable search or seizure by the government.
• Its importance to I/O psychology is in the area of drug testing and locker searches.
• Several courts have ruled that drug testing is considered a “search” and that
therefore, to be legal in the public sector, drug testing programs must be
reasonable and with cause.
• It is important to understand that the Fourth Amendment is limited to public
agencies such as state and local governments.
• Private industry is not restricted from drug testing by the Fourth Amendment but
government regulation may require drug testing (e.g., for trucking companies and
railroads), but drug testing and searches by a private organization must be
conducted in “good faith and with fair dealing.”
• Generally, employers are free (even encouraged by the government) to test job
applicants for current drug use.
• In fact, the federal Drug-Free Workplace Act requires employers with federal
contracts of $100,000 or more to maintain a drug-free workplace. Furthermore,
such states as Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, and Georgia provide discounts on
workers’ compensation rates to employers with a drug-free workplace program
(Steingold, 2013).
o Drug Testing
o Office and Locker Searches
o Psychological Tests
o Electronic Surveillance
TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT
TRAINING
A SYSTEMATIC ACQUISITION OF SKILLS, RULES, CONCEPTS, OR ATTITUDES THAT
RESULT IN IMPROVED PERFORMANCE (GOLDSTEIN & FORD, 2022)
DEVELOPMENT
Broader; it encompasses the functions of training
DIFFERENCE
TRAINING is concerned with the immediate improvement of employees; whereas
DEVELOPMENT is concerned with handling critical situations in the future.
WHY DOES TRAINING EXIST?
To help employees in getting equipped and acquiring the knowledge and skills in
performing well in a certain job without having to ask for help
DETERMINING TRAINING NEEDS
NEEDS ANALYSIS – the first step in developing an employee training system
wherein the training needs are determined in order to achieve the goals established
3 TYPES OF NEEDS
ANALYSIS
• ORGANIZATIONAL
ANALYSIS
• TASK ANALYSIS
• PERSON ANALYSIS
ORGANIZATIONAL ANALYSIS CHOOSE THE BEST TRAINING METHOD
The process of determining the organizational factors that will either facilitate or
inhibit training effectiveness

TASK ANALYSIS
The process of determining job analysis methods in order to identify the tasks
performed, conditions, and competencies needed to perform
1. The tasks and competencies should be identified
2. Determined how employees learn to perform each task and obtain
competencies

When doing task analysis, tasks are listed on the first column. While, the skills that
need to be learned are listed on the second column.
CLASSROOM SETTING
■ LECTURES
Lectures are a good training source if the goal is for employees to obtain knowledge
HANDOUT
• a cover sheet
• a list of goals and objectives
• a schedule for the training
• a biographical sketch of the trainer
\
• the notes
• activity sheets
PERSON ANALYSIS
• a form
The final step in which an employee is determined whether he/she needs further
training for every task performed ■ CASE STUDY
• to determine the individual training needs for each employee, person analysis A training technique in which employees are presented with a real or hypothetical
uses performance appraisal scores, surveys, interviews, skill and knowledge tests, workplace problem and are asked to propose the best solution.
and/or critical incidents. Trainees should first be taught the principles involved in solving a particular type of
problem
SURVEYS
Questionnaires asking employees about the areas in which they feel they need ■ SIMULATION
training Exercises allow the trainee to practice newly learned skills
ADVANTAGES Place an applicant in a situation that is similar to the one that will be encountered
• Eliminate the problems of performance rating errors on the job.
• Employees know their strengths and weaknesses
• Training needs can be determined with surveys ■ ROLE-PLAY
A training technique in which employees act out simulated roles
DISADVANTAGES
• Employees may lie ■ BEHAVIOR MODELING
• The organization may not be able to afford the training Employees observe correct behavior, practice that behavior, and then receive
feedback about their performance.
INTERVIEWS MOTIVATING EMPLOYEES TO ATTEND TRAINING
It is done with selected number of employees, extensive, and can yield even more 1. Relate the training to an employee’s immediate job.
in-depth answers to questions 2. Make the training interesting.
ADVANTAGE 3. Increase employee buy-in.
• The feelings and attitudes of the employees are revealed more clearly. 4. Provide incentives
DISADVANTAGE 5. Provide food
• Difficult to quantify and analyze 6. Reduce the stress associated with attending
SKILL AND KNOWLEDGE TESTS DELIVERING THE TRAINING PROGRAM
SKILL TEST – a test that measures an employee’s level of some job-related skill 1. Classroom training
KNOWLEDGE TEST – a test that measures the level of an employee’s knowledge 2. Distance learning
about a job-related topic 3. On the job training
PROBLEM ■ CLASSROOM TRAINING
There are few tests and an organization have to construct its own test which time- Who will conduct the training? In-house trainers and external trainers
consuming and expensive. Where will the training be held? On-site and off-site
How long should the training be? Distributed learning and massed learning
CRITICAL INCIDENTS
A method by which the observations of human behavior that comply with defined ■ Distance learning
criteria are gathered Asynchronous - employees can complete the training at their own pace and at a
ADVANTAGES time of their choosing.
• Information collected is behavioral Synchronous - require employees to complete the training at the same time and at
• Information is critical the same pace although they may be in different physical locations.
DISADVANTAGES
• Incidents don’t represent the full job ■ ON THE JOB TRAINING
• Process is labor extensive doubtful that the • MODELING - learning through watching and imitating the behavior of others.
• Information is transferrable from one situation to another. • JOB ROTATION - employees are given the opportunity to perform several
different jobs in an organization.
ESTABLISHING GOALS AND OBJECTIVES APPRENTICE TRAINING - employees combine formal coursework with formal on-
1. What learners are expected to do the-job training.
2. The conditions at which they are expected to do it • COACHING
3. The level at which they are expected to do it EXPERIENCED EMPLOYEES - a new employee is assigned to an experienced
employee
PROFESSIONAL COACHES - hired to coach a particular employee, usually a
manager
• MENTORING - a form of coaching that has recently received much attention.

EVALUATION OF TRAINING RESULTS
RESEARCH DESIGNS FOR EVALUATION:
• PRACTICALITY
• EXPERIMENTAL RIGOR
PRETEST - a measure of job performance or knowledge taken before the
implementation of a training program.
POSTTEST - a measure of job performance or knowledge taken after a training
program has been completed.
DIAGRAM FOR A PRETEST/POSTTEST CONTROL GROUP DESIGN
SOLOMON FOUR-GROUPS DESIGN
An extensive method of evaluating the effectiveness of training with the
use of pretests, posttests and control groups.
EVALUATION CRITERIA
• CONTENT VALIDITY - the only way that training can be evaluated is by comparing
training content with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform a job.
Content validity the only way that training can be evaluated is by comparing training
content with the knowledge, skills, and abilities required to perform a job.
• EMPLOYEE REACTIONS - a method of evaluating training in which employees are
asked their opinions of a training program.
• EMPLOYEE LEARNING - valuating the effectiveness of a training program by
measuring how much employees learned from it.
• APPLICATION OF TRAINING - measurement of the effectiveness of training by
determining the extent to which employees apply the material taught in a training
program.
• BUSINESS IMPACT - a method of evaluating the effectiveness training by
determining whether the goals of the training were met.
• RETURN ON INVESTMENT - the amount of money an organization makes after
subtracting the cost of training or other interventions.
MOTIVATIONAL THEORIES
EMPLOYEE MOTIVATION
Industrial psychologists generally define work motivation as the internal force that
drives a worker to action as well as the external factors that encourage that action
(Locke & Latham, 2002).
Various theories suggest that employees will be highly motivated if they have a
personality that predisposes them to be motivated;
• their expectations have been met;
• the job and the organization are consistent with their values;
• the employees have been given achievable goals;
• the employees receive feedback on their goal attainment;
• the organization rewards them for achieving their goals;
• the employees perceive they are being treated fairly; and
• their coworkers demonstrate a high level of motivation
Is an Employee Predisposed to Being Motivated?
Researchers have found four individual differences that are most related to work
motivation:
• Personality - most psychologists believe that there are five main personality
dimensions: Openness to experience, conscientiousness, extraversion,
agreeableness, and stability.
• Self-Esteem - is the extent to which a person views himself as valuable and
worthy.
■ Korman’s consistency theory
• Chronic self-esteem - The positive or negative way in which a person views
himself or herself as a whole.
• Situational self-esteem - The positive or negative way in which a person
views him or herself in a particular situation.
• Socially influenced self-esteem - The positive or negative way in which a
person views him or herself based on the expectations of others.
■ Self-Esteem Workshops
To increase self-esteem, employees can attend workshops in which they are given
insights into their strengths.
■ Experience with Success
• Self-fulfilling prophecy - The idea that people behave in ways consistent with
their self-image.
• Galatea effect - When high self-expectations result in higher levels of
performance.
■ Supervisor Behavior
• Pygmalion effect - The idea that if people believe that something is true, they
will act in a manner consistent with that belief.
• Golem effect - When negative expectations of an individual cause a decrease
in that individual’s performance.
Intrinsic Motivation
They will seek to perform well because they either enjoy performing the actual
tasks or enjoy the challenge of successfully completing the task.
■ Extrinsic motivation – Work motivation that arises from such nonpersonal
factors as pay, coworkers, and opportunities for advancement.
■ Work Preference Inventory (WPI) - A measure of an individual’s orientation
toward intrinsic versus extrinsic motivation.
Needs for Achievement and Power
A theory developed by McClelland (1961) suggests that employees differ in the
extent to which they are motivated by the need for achievement, affiliation, and
power.
■ Need for achievement - According to trait theory, the extent to which a person
desires to be successful.
■ Need for affiliation - The extent to which a person desires to be around other
people.
■ Need for power - According to trait theory, the extent to which a person
desires to be in control of other people.
Are Employees Effectively Involved in Self-Regulating
Behavior?
Most psychologists believe that the answer comes from the process of self-
regulation: a person’s ability to select, set, and modify goals to adapt to changing
conditions. Self-regulation is a four-step process in which people:
1. Choose their goals and set levels for each goal
2. Plan how they will accomplish those goals
3. Take action toward accomplishing the goals (goal striving)
4. Evaluate progress toward goal attainment and either maintain, revise, or
abandon a goal
Have the Employee’s Values and Expectations Been Met?
The extent to which we might select a work goal and apply energy toward that goal
is influenced by the discrepancy between what we want, value, and expect and
what the job actually provides.
■ Realistic job preview (RJP) - A method of recruitment in which job applicants
are told both the positive and the negative aspects of a job
• Job Expectations
A discrepancy between what an employee expected a job to be like and the reality
of the job can affect motivation and satisfaction.
• Job Characteristics
A discrepancy between what an employee expected a job to be like and the reality
of the job can affect motivation and satisfaction.
• Needs, Values, and Wants
A discrepancy between an employee’s needs, values, and wants and what a job
offers can also lead to low levels of motivation and satisfaction (Morris & Campion,
2003). Three theories focus on employees’ needs and values: Maslow’s needs
hierarchy, ERG (existence, relatedness, and growth) theory, and two-factor theory.
■ Maslow’s Needs Hierarchy
1. Basic biological needs - The first step in Maslow’s needs hierarchy,
concerning survival needs for food, air, water, and the like.
2. Safety needs - The second step in Maslow’s hierarchy, concerning the need
for security, stability, and physical safety.
3. Social needs - The third step in Maslow’s hierarchy, concerning the need to
interact with other people.
4. Ego needs - The fourth step in Maslow’s hierarchy, concerning the
individual’s need for recognition and success.
5. Self-actualization needs - The fifth step in Maslow’s hierarchy, concerning
the need to realize one’s potential.
■ ERG Theory
Aldefer’s needs theory, which describes three levels of satisfaction: existence,
relatedness, and growth
■ Two-Factor Theory
Herzberg (1966) believed that job-related factors could be divided into two
categories—hygiene factors and motivators—thus the name two-factor theory.
 1. Hygiene factors - are those job-related elements that result from but don
not involve the job itself.
2. Motivators - are job elements that do concern actual tasks and duties.
Do Employees Have Achievable Goals?
To increase motivation, goal setting should be used. With goal setting, each
employee is given a goal such as increasing attendance, selling more products, or
reducing the number of grammar errors in reports.
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-Bound
• Employee Participation
Are Employees Receiving Feedback on Their Goal Progress?
To increase the effectiveness of goal setting, feedback should be provided to
employees on their progress in reaching their goals. Feedback can include verbally
telling employees how they are doing, placing a chart on a wall, or using nonverbal
communication such as smiles, glares, and pats on the back. Feedback best
increases performance when it is positive and informational rather than negative
and controlling.
Are Employees Rewarded for Achieving Goals?
An essential strategy for motivating employees is to provide an incentive for
employees to accomplish the goals set by an organization.
■ Operant conditioning - A type of learning based on the idea that humans learn
to behave in ways that will result in favorable outcomes and learn not to behave in
ways that result in unfavorable outcomes.
Six factors must be considered in determining the effectiveness of incentive
programs:
1. Timing of the incentive - Research indicates that a reinforcer or a punisher is
most effective if it occurs soon after the performance of the behavior.
Unfortunately, if the timing of the incentive is too long, the effectiveness of the
incentive to improve performance will be hindered.
2. Contingency of the consequences - If it is not possible to immediately reward or
punish a behavior, it should at least be made clear that the employee understands
the behaviors that brought reward or punishment.
3. Type of incentive used
• Premack Principle - The idea that reinforcement is relative both within an
individual and between individuals.
• Financial Rewards
• Recognition
• Travel
4. Use of individual-based versus group-based incentives
■ Individual Incentive Plans - designed to make high levels of individual
performance financially worthwhile.
• Pay for performance - A system in which employees are paid on the basis of
how much they individually produce.
• Merit pay - An incentive plan in which employees receive pay bonuses based
on performance appraisal scores.
■ Group Incentive Plans
• Profit-sharing - programs provide employees with a percentage of profits
above a certain amount. The profits to be shared can be paid directly to employees
as a bonus (cash plans) or placed into the employees’ retirement fund (deferred
plans).
• Gainsharing - A group incentive system in which employees are paid a bonus
based on improvements in group productivity.
• Baseline - The level of productivity before the implementation of a
gainsharing plan.
5. Use of positive incentives (rewards) versus negative incentives (punishment)
Rather than rewarding desired behaviors, we can change employee performance by
punishing undesired behaviors. That is, instead of rewarding employees who do not
miss work, we punish those who do.
6. Fairness of the reward system (equity)
Are Rewards and Resources Given Equitably?
Another factor related to motivation and job satisfaction is the extent to which
employees perceive that they are being treated fairly. The first theory on this topic
was equity theory (Adams, 1965).
■ Equity theory - A theory of job satisfaction stating that employees will be
satisfied if their ratio of effort to reward is similar to that of other employees.
• Inputs - In equity theory, the elements that employees put into their jobs.
• Outputs - In equity theory, what employees get from their jobs.
• Input/output ratio - The ratio of how much employees believe they put into
their jobs to how much they believe they get from their jobs.
Expectancy Theory
Which was first proposed by Vroom (1964) and then modified by others, including
Porter and Lawler (1968). This theory has three components, the definitions of
which vary with each modification of the theory.
■ Expectancy (E): The perceived relationship between the amount of effort an
employee puts in and the resulting outcome.
■ Instrumentality (I): The extent to which the outcome of a worker’s
performance, if noticed, results in a particular consequence.
■ Valence (V): The extent to which an employee values a particular consequence.
To understand or predict an employee’s level of motivation, these components are
used in the following formula:
Motivation = E (I x V)
Thus, all possible outcomes of a behavior are determined, the valence of each is
multiplied by the probability that it occurs at a particular performance level, and
then the sum of these products is multiplied by the expectancy of an employee
putting in the effort to attain the necessary level of performance. As can be seen
from this formula, the higher the score on each component, the greater the
employee’s motivation.
Are Other Employees Motivated?
Employees observe the levels of motivation and satisfaction of other employees and
then model those levels. Thus, if an organization’s older employees work hard and
talk positively about their jobs and their employer; new employees will model this
behavior and be both productive and satisfied.
EMPLOYEE SATISFACTION AND COMMITMENT
■ Job satisfaction - the attitude has toward her job.
■ Organizational commitment - the extent to which an employee identifies with
and is involved with an organization.
What Causes Employees to Be Satisfied with and Committed to Their Jobs?
■ Affective commitment - The extent to which an employee wants to remain
with an organization and cares about the organization.
■ Continuance commitment - The extent to which employees believe they must
remain with an organization due to the time, expense, and effort they have already
put into the organization.
■ Normative commitment - The extent to which employees feel an obligation to
remain with an organization.
Individual Difference Theory
Postulates that some variability in job satisfaction is due to an individual’s personal
tendency across situations to enjoy what she does.
■ Genetic Predispositions
■ Core Self-Evaluations
• Internal locus of control - The extent to which people believe that they are
responsible for and in control of their success or failure in life.
■ Culture
■ Intelligence
Are Employees Satisfied with Other Aspects of Their Lives?
Judge et al. (1998), Judge and Watanabe (1993), and Tait et al. (1989) have
theorized not only that job satisfaction is consistent across time but that the extent
to which a person is satisfied with all aspects of life (e.g., marriage, friends, job,
family, and geographic location) is consistent as well.
Is the Employee a Good Fit with the Job and the Organization?
They consider the extent to which their values, interests, personality, lifestyle, and
skills match those of their vocation (e.g., a career such as nursing, law enforcement,
or psychology), job (its particular tasks), organization, coworkers, and supervisor
(Kristof-Brown, Zimmerman, & Johnson, 2005).
Social Information Processing Theory Also called social learning theory, postulates
that employees observe the levels of motivation and satisfaction of other
employees and then model those levels (Salancik & Pfeffer, 1977).
Are Rewards and Resources Given Equitably?
■ Equity theory - A theory of job satisfaction stating that employees will be
satisfied if their ratio of effort to reward is similar to that of other employees.
• Organizational justice - A theory that postulates that if employees perceive
they are being treated fairly, they will be more likely to be satisfied with their jobs
and motivated to do well.
• Distributive justice - The perceived fairness of the decisions made in an
organization.
• Procedural justice - The perceived fairness of the methods used by an
organization to make decisions.
• Interactional justice - The perceived fairness of the inter-personal treatment
that employees receive in an organization.

Is There a Chance for Growth and Challenge?
• Job rotation - A system in which employees are given the opportunity to perform
several different jobs in an organization.
• Job enlargement - A system in which employees are given more tasks to perform
at the same time.
• Job enrichment - A system in which employees are given more responsibility over
the tasks and decisions related to their job
Job characteristics theory
The theory proposed by Hackman and Oldham that suggests that certain
characteristics of a job will make the job more or less satisfying, depending on the
particular needs of the worker.
Measuring Job Satisfaction and Commitment
Measures of Job Satisfaction
■ Faces Scale - A measure of job satisfaction in which raters place a mark under a
facial expression that is most similar to the way they feel about their jobs.
■ Job Descriptive Index (JDI) - A measure of job satisfaction that yields scores on
five dimensions.
■ Minnesota Satisfaction Questionnaire (MSQ) - A measure of job satisfaction
that yields scores on 20 dimensions.
■ Job in General (JIG) Scale - A measure of the overall level of job satisfaction.
■ Unmeet needs - Employees whose needs are unmet will become dissatisfied
and perhaps leave the organization.
■ Escape - A common reason employees leave an organization is to escape from
people, working conditions, and stress
■ Unmeet Expectations - Employees come to an organization with certain
expectations about a variety of issues, such as pay, working conditions, opportunity
for advancement, and organizational culture.
Counterproductive Behaviors
Employees who are unhappy with their jobs miss work, are late to work, and quit
their jobs at higher rates than employees who are satisfied with their jobs and are
committed to the organization.
Lack of Organizational Citizenship Behaviors
Employees who engage in Organizational Citizenship Behaviors (OCBs) are
motivated to help the organization and their coworkers by doing the “little things”
that they are not required to do.

Measures of Commitment
■ Allen and Meyer 1990 - survey has 24 items, 8 each for the 3 factors of
affective, continuance, and normative commitment.
■ Organizational Commitment Questionnaire (OCQ) - A 15-item questionnaire
developed by Mowday, Steers, and Porter (1979) to measure three commitment
factors: acceptance of the organization’s values and goals, willingness to work to
help the organization, and a desire to remain with the organization.
■ Organizational Commitment Scale (OCS) - A nine-item survey developed by
Balfour and Wechsler (1996) that measures three aspects of commitment:
identification, exchange, and affiliation.

Consequences of Dissatisfaction and Other Negative Work Attitudes

Absenteeism - when employees are dissatisfied or not committed to the
organization, they are more likely to miss work and leave their jobs than are
satisfied or committed employees.
■ Linking Attendance to Consequences - The basis behind rewarding
attendance and punishing absenteeism is that employees make a decision each day
as to whether they will or will not attend work.
■ Rewards for Attending - Attendance can be increased through the use of
financial incentives, time off, and recognition programs.
• Financial incentive - programs use money to reward employees for achieving
certain levels of attendance.
1. Well pay - A method of absenteeism control in which employees are paid for
their unused sick leave.
2. Financial bonus - A method of absenteeism control in which employees who
meet an attendance standard are given a cash reward.
3. Games - An absenteeism control method in which games such as poker and bingo
are used to reward employee attendance.
• Paid time off program (PTO) - An attendance policy in which all paid
vacations, sick days, holidays, and so forth are combined.
• Recognition programs
■ Discipline for Not Attending - Absenteeism can be reduced by punishing or
disciplining employees who miss work. Discipline can range from giving a warning or
a less popular work assignment to firing an employee.
■ Clear Policies and Better Record Keeping - Another way to increase the
negative consequences of missing work is through policy and record keeping. Most
organizations measure absenteeism by counting the number of days missed, or
frequency. Perhaps a better method would be to record the number of instances of
absenteeism rather than the number of days.
■ Increasing Attendance by Reducing Employee Stress - Absenteeism can be
reduced by removing the negative factors employees associate with going to work.

Turnover
Cost of Turnover - The first step in reducing turnover is to find out why your
employees are leaving.
■ Unavoidable Reasons - Unavoidable turnover includes such reasons as school
starting (e.g., quitting a summer job) or ending (e.g., a student quits her job as a
part-time receptionist because she has graduated and will be moving), the job
transfer of a spouse, employee illness or death, or family issues (e.g., employees
staying home to raise their children or take care of their parents).
■ Advancement - Employees often leave organizations to pursue promotions or
better pay.