CHAPTER 4 Employee Selection: Recruiting
and Interviewing
RECRUITMENT - Attracting people with the right
qualifications to apply for the job.
● Internal Recruitment: promote someone from
within the organization.
● External Recruitment: hire someone from
outside the organization.
A. MEDIA ADVERTISEMENTS
1. NEWSPAPER ADS
● Respond by calling, apply-in-person ads,
end-resume ads, and sending resumes to a
blind box.
● There is plenty of expert advice on the best
way for an employer to write recruitment
advertisements.
2. ELECTRONIC MEDIA
● Television and radio
3. SITUATION-WANTED ADS
● Placed by the applicants rather than by
organizations.
4. POINT-OF-PURCHASE METHODS
● Based on the same point-of purchase
advertising principles used to market
products to consumers.
5. RECRUITERS
● Campus Recruiters
● Outside Recruiters: outside recruiting
sources such as private employment
agencies, public employment agencies, and
executive search firms.
B. EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES AND SEARCH
FIRMS
1. EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES
● Especially useful if an HR department is
overloaded with work or if an organization
does not have an individual with the skills
and experience needed to select employees
properly.
2. EXECUTIVE SEARCH FIRMS
● The jobs they represent tend to be
higher-paying, non-entry level positions.
3. PUBLIC EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES
● Designed primarily to help the unemployed
find work, but they often offer services such
as career advertisement and resume
preparation.
C. INTERNET
1. EMPLOYER-BASED WEBSITES
● An organization lists available job openings
and provides information about itself and
the minimum requirements to apply for a
particular job.
2. INTERNET RECRUITERS
● A private company whose website lists job
openings for hundreds of organizations and
resumes for thousands of applicants.
D. JOB FAIRS - Many types of organizations have
booths at the same location.
E. INCENTIVES - Offering incentives for
employees to accept jobs with an organization.
Realistic Job Previews
● Involve giving an applicant an honest
assessment of a job.
● Even though telling the truth about the job
scares away many applicants, the ones who will
stay will not be surprised about the job.
● Informed applicants tend to stay longer.
● Expectation-Lowering Procedure: lowers an
applicant’s expectations about work and
expectations in general.
EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE SELECTION
TECHNIQUES
EFFECTIVE EMPLOYEE SELECTION SYSTEMS
SHARE THREE CHARACTERISTICS: (1) Valid,
(2) Reduce the chance of a legal challenge, (3)
Cost-effective
● A valid selection test based on a job analysis,
predicts work-related behavior and measures
the construct it purports to measure.
EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS
● The most commonly used method to select
employees.
● Types of interviews: structure, style, and
medium.
A. STRUCTURE OF INTERVIEW
● Structure: determined by the source of the
questions, the extent to which all applicants are
asked the same questions and the structure of
the system used to score the answer.
○ STRUCTURED INTERVIEW: the source of
questions is job analysis; all applicants are
asked the same questions; and there is a
standardized scoring key.
○ UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW: free to ask
anything you want. Highly structured
interviews are more reliable and valid.
B. STYLES OF INTERVIEW - It is determined by
the number of interviews and number of
interviewers.
● ONE-ON-ONE INTERVIEWS: involves one
interviewer interviewing one applicant.
● SERIAL INTERVIEWS: It involves a series of
single interviews.
● RETURN INTERVIEWS: Similar to serial
interviews with difference being a passing of
time between the first and subsequent
interview.
● PANEL INTERVIEWS: multiple interviewers
asking questions and evaluating answers of the
same applicant at the same time.
● GROUP INTERVIEWS: have multiple
applicants answering questions during the
same interview.
● SERIAL-PANEL-GROUP INTERVIEW:
combination of different styles
C. MEDIUM OF THE INTERVIEW - which they are
done in person or virtual
● FACE-TO-FACE INTERVIEWS: both the
interviewer and the applicant are in the same
room.
● TELEPHONE INTERVIEWS: often used to
screen applicants but do not allow the use of
visual cues.
● VIDEO CONFERENCE INTERVIEWS: the
applicant and the interviewer can hear and see
each other (nor is the image and vocal quality
of the interview as sharp as in face-to-face
interviews).
● WRITTEN INTERVIEWS: involve the applicant
answering a series of written questions and
then sending the answers back through regular
mail or through email.
JOB SEARCH SKILLS SUCCESSFULLY
SURVIVING THE INTERVIEW PROCESS
● Scheduling the Interview
○ Arriving late will have lower scores
● Before the Interview
○ Learn about the company
○ Dress neatly and professionally (adjust your
style as necessary to fit the situation).
● During the Interview
○ Firm handshake, eye contact, smiling, and
head-nodding.
○ Ask questions, do not ask about salary, do
not speak slowly, and do not hesitate when
answering questions.
○ First impressions last
● After the Interview
○ Write a brief letter thanking the interviewer
for time.
WRITING RESUME
● These are summaries of an applicant’s
professional and educational background.
● Views as a history of your life or an
advertisement of your skills.
● Must be attractive and easier to read.
TYPES OF RESUMES
● Chronological Resume: list previous jobs in
order from the most to least recent.
● Functional Resume: organizes jobs based on
skills required to perform them rather than the
order in which they were worked.
● Psychological Resume: contains the strengths
of both the chronological and functional styles
and is based on psychological theory and
research.
CHAPTER 5 Employee Selection: References
And Testing
A. Predicting Performance using References
and Letters of Recommendation
● Reference Check: is the process of confirming
the accuracy of information provided by an
applicant.
● Reference: the expression of an opinion, either
orally or through a written checklist, regarding
an applicant’s ability, previous performance,
 work habits, character, or potential for future
success.
● Letter of Recommendation: letter expressing
an opinion regarding the applicant’s ability,
previous performance, work habits, character,
or potential future success.
B. Predicting Performance using Applicant
Training and Education
● It is common that the applicants must have a
minimum level of education or training to be
considered.
C. Predicting Performance Using Applicant
Knowledge
● Job Knowledge Tests: designed to measure
how much a person knows about a job.
● Excellent content and criterion validity; high
face validity.
D. Predicting Performance using Applicant
Ability
● Cognitive Ability: dimensions such as oral and
written comprehension, oral and written
expression, numerical facility, originality,
memorization, reasoning, and general learning.
● Perceptual Ability: consists of vision, color
discrimination, depth perception, glare
sensitivity, speech, and hearing.
● Psychomotor Ability: finger dexterity, manual
dexterity, control precision, multi limb
coordination, response control, reaction time,
arm-hand steadiness, wrist-finger speed, and
speed-of-limb movement.
● Physical Ability: used for jobs that require
physical strength and stamina.
E. Predicting Performance using Applicant
Skill
● Work Samples: the applicant performs actual
job-related tasks.
● Assessment Centers: selection techniques
characterized by the use of multiple
assessment methods that allow multiple
assessors actually to observe applicants
perform simulated job tasks.
● Rate the applicants going through assessment
centers.
○ In-basket Technique: designed to simulate
the types of daily information that appear on
a manager’s or employee’s desk.
○ Simulations: include diverse activities such
as role plays and work samples, place an
applicant in a situation that is as similar as
possible to one that will be encountered on
the Job.
○ Work Sample: if simulation does not
involve situational exercise.
○ Leaderless Group Discussions:
applicants meet in small groups and are
given a job-related problem to solve or a
job-related issue to discuss.
○ Business Games: exercises that allow the
applicant to demonstrate such attributes as
creativity, decision-making, and ability to
work with others.
F. Predicting Performance Using Prior
Experience
● Experience Ratings: 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.
● Biodata: selection method that considers an
applicant’s life, school, military, community, and
work experience.
○ Application blank or questionnaire
containing questions that research has
shown measure the differences between
successful.
G. Predicting Performance using Personality,
Interest, and Character
1. Tests of Normal Personality
● measures the traits exhibited by normal
individuals in everyday life
● Can be based on a theory (MBTI), statistically
based (16PF), or empirically based (MMPI).
● Big Five or Five Factor Model:
2. Test of Psychopathology
● determines whether individuals have serious
psychological problems.
 ○ Projective Tests: provide the respondent
with unstructured tasks such as describing
ink blots and drawing pictures.
○ Objective Tests: structured so that the
respondent is limited to a few answers that
will be scored by standardized keys.

3. Integrity tests
● honesty tests; tell an employer the probability
that an applicant would steal money or
merchandise.
● Personality-based integrity tests – are more
general in that they tap a variety of personality
traits thought to be related to a wide range of
counterproductive behavior.

4. Conditional Reasoning Test

● to reduce the inaccurate response and get a
more accurate picture of a person’s tendency to
engage in aggressive or counterproductive
behavior.

H. Predicting Performance Limitations due to

Medical and Psychological Problems
● Drug Testing
● Psychological Exams
● Medical Exams

I. Rejecting Applicants
● Rejected applicants should be treated well
because they are potential customers and
potential applicants for another position.
● Applicants who were rejected “properly” were
more likely to continue to be a customer at the
organization and apply for future job openings.