C.Legal Considerations in the Selection Process
Learning objective 3
Distinguish between affirmative action and reverse discrimination.(Text pages244-246)
1.Many laws prohibit discrimination in employee selection.
2.An affirmative action plan (AAP) is a written document outlining specific goals and timetables for remedying past discriminatory actions.
a.All federal contractors that meet certain conditions are required to develop written AAPs.
b.The Office of Federal Contract Compliance Program (OFCCP) monitors these programs.
3.Organizations without AAPs should identify employment practices that have discriminatory effects.
4.Reverse discrimination is providing preferential treatment for one group (e.g., minority or female) over the other group (e.g., which male) rather than merely providing equal
opportunity. / PowerPoint 9-8
Selection (Refers to text page 244)
PowerPoint 9-9
Selection (continued)
(Refers to text pages 244-246)
TEXT Figure 9.4
EEOC’s Suggestions for Developing an Affirmative Action Plan
(Text page 245)
ETHICAL MANAGEMENT(Text page 245)
An employee working in the HR department overhears an employee discussing a personal commitment to purchase a new house to provide space for a new child in the family. But the HR employee also knows of plans to make personnel changes, including the position of this same person. Should this personal information be communicated to the director of HR?
Sharing personal information about employees has many implications and therefore has to be handled with care. Hearing information second hand and assuming it is true can be treacherous. In this case, you have to consider what loyalty is – are you loyal to your employer or do you place more value on loyalty to a coworker? Sharing your inside information with the coworker could cause trouble for you and your chances for advancement in the company. Discussing the situation with your boss in HR is also problematic. Personnel decisions should be made based on the work performance of an individual, not his or her family situation. Imagine the ethical implications of sparing a male worker and laying off a working mother instead. Would your boss want to know this information? Would it make a difference? Is the layoff a done deal, or just a trial balloon? How are you going to feel about yourself for each action?
D.Selection Procedure
1.The preliminary screening and preliminary interview eliminate candidates who are obviously not qualified for the job.
E.Testing
1.Tests provide a sample of behavior that is used to draw inferences about the future performance of an individual.
a.Aptitude tests measure a person’s capacity or potential to learn.
b.Psychomotor tests measure a person’s strength, dexterity, and coordination.
c.Job knowledge tests measure the job-related knowledge possessed by a job applicant.
d.Proficiency tests measure how well the applicant can do a sample of the work to be
performed.
e.Interest tests determine how a person’s interests compare with the interests of successful people in a specific job.
f.Psychological tests
attempt to measure personality characteristics.
g.Polygraph tests, known as lie detector tests, record physical changes in the body as the test subject answers a series of questions.
2.Employment tests must be valid and reliable.
a.Test validity refers to the
extent to which a test predicts a specific criterion.
b.Test reliability refers to the consistency or reproducibility of the results of a test.
3.There are three methods to determine test reliability: test-retest, parallel forms, and split halves.
F.Background and Reference Checks
1.Contacting personal and academic references has limited value.
2.Previous employers can supply the most objective information, but usually provide only the following information:
a.whether the applicant worked there
b.what the employee’s dates of
employment were
c.what position he or she held
3.If a job applicant is rejected because of information in a credit report, the applicant must be given the name and address of the credit reporting agency.
Progress Check Questions(Text page 248)
- What are the six broad categories of information that may be included in a skills inventory?
- Explain the human resource planning (HRP) process.
- Summarize the seven significant government bills and laws that have affected human resource planning.
- What are the six general categories of tests that organizations use in the selection process?
Steps in the Selection
Process (Text page 246)
PowerPoint 9-10
Selection (continued)
(Refers to text pages 246-248)
CASE INCIDENT 9.1
The Employment Interview(Text page 250)
Jerry Sullivan is interviewing candidates to replace an employee at a large insurance company. While he expects to interview Barbara Riley at her scheduled 9 a.m. interview, he gets a call from his boss (just returning from vacation), and talks with the boss until 9:30 a.m. At 9:30 a.m. he invites Barbara in to his office for the interview and takes another call from IBM regarding some equipment delivery. Now the interview begins at 9:40 a.m. After a brief discussion with Ms. Riley about her education and her comment that this would be her first full time job, the next schedule interview person arrives and cuts their meeting short.
1.Outline the inadequacies of this interview.
Interviewing is an extremely nerve-racking activity for many people for many reasons. Many people are very nervous and may not give an accurate reflection of their ability to do the respective job. In this interview, the interviewer’s job is to find the best applicant through a structured, careful plan of questions to determine the applicants potential fit for the job. In this case, the interviewer did not make the applicant at ease because of his lateness and other distractions, did not have a systematic list of fair questions to judge the applicant’s potential for the job, and finished the interview abruptly with no sense of what the company was looking for or and how this position might relate to her qualifications.
The most egregious interview error was the final questioning by Jerry. He asked if she were married and if she had children. Both questions are inappropriate and violate basic equal employment opportunity regulations. The fact that Barbara has children does not make her more or less likely to be a good employee. If Jerry wanted to know about her flexibility, he could have asked if she would be able to travel for the job. That question deals with work performance, not personal information.
2.What information did Jerry learn?
Jerry did not find out any real information about the applicant that he had not already learned based on their short conversation on her education. He learned nothing about any job-related experiences or educational achievements that might qualify her for the job. Jerry did ask personal questions relating to her marital status and family obligations that were not appropriate because they do not relate directly to her qualifications for the job that he is seeking to fill.
3.What do you think of Jerry’s last questions?
The personal question again does not relate to the candidate’s ability to directly handle the job duties, and it should not be asked. The questions have no relevance on the person’s ability to do the assigned job.
4.What questions would you have asked? Why?
To learn more about the applicant, students should be able to give a list of questions that the feel would be good interview questions, such as the applicants strengths and weaknesses, specifics of her educational degree, type of job she would like to have, size of company she would like to work for, goals for the next three to five years, etc.
D.Conducting Effective Interviews
1.Interviewers should be carefully
selected and trained.
2.The interview should be planned to make sure that all questions are asked.
3.The interviewer should try to put the applicant at ease.
4.The interview facts should be recorded immediately.
5.The effectiveness of the interview process should be evaluated.
E.Personal Judgment
1.The final step is to make a personal judgment about which individual to
select for the job.
2.When none of the applicants is satisfactory, adjustments must be made. / PowerPoint 9-13
Employment Interview (continued)(Refers to text pages 251-252)
TEXT REFERENCE
Study Skills Box:
Importance of Good
Communication Skills!
Many business situations call for good communication skills.(Box in text on page 252.) An additional exercise and discussion is available in this chapter on page 9.Error! Bookmark not defined.Error! Reference source not found.Error! Reference source not found..
VI.transfers, promotions, and separations
A.A transfer involves moving an employee to another job at approximately the same level in the organization with basically the same pay and status.
1.Planned transfers can be an excellent development technique.
2.They can also balance workloads
between departments.
3.Transferring a “problem employee” to an unsuspecting manager can be a problem.
B.A promotion moves an employee to a job involving higher pay, higher status, and higher performance requirements.
1.Most organizations use merit and
seniority as promotion criteria.
2.Union contracts require that seniority be considered in promotions.
3.Basing promotions on merit can
reward performance.
4.However, success in one job does not guarantee success in another job.
C.A separation involves either voluntary or involuntary termination of an employee.
1.In voluntary separation, the exit
interview can help determine why the employee is leaving.
2.Involuntary separations involve terminations and layoffs.
a.Layoffs occur when there is not enough work for all employees.
b.A termination occurs when an employee is not performing his or her job.
c.Terminations are costly.
Progress Check Questions(Text page 253)
- Explain the six most common types of interviews.
- What is the halo effect?
- What five things should you do to increase the effectiveness of the interviewing process?
- “Terminations should only be made as a last resort.” Do you agree with this statement? Why or why not?
Transfers, Promotions, and Separations (Refers to text pages 252-253)