S.G.

Cowen:
New Recruits
MGMT E-4240

Recruitment Goals & Priorities

Attract large numbers of candidates?

Attract highly qualified candidates?
Attract candidates who will accept offers?
Fill vacancies quickly?
Fill at minimal cost?
Hire high performers?
Hire people who stay?
Generate positive perceptions, feelings,
spillovers?

Recruitment Philosophy
Internal or External Sources?
Fill current vacancies or hire for long
term potential?
How important is diversity?
Are applicants commodities or
customers?
What recruitment practices are
unethical?

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Executives make up their minds
about whether they like a candidate
in the first 20 seconds and spend
the next half-hour justifying their
decision. Its called the `halo
effect. Once you have formed an
opinion, you only see what you
want to see.

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Are the personal characteristics for
which they are searching a true
reflection of the qualities needed to
perform the job, rather than being
merely a reaction to the kind of
person you like as a friend or tennis
partner?

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Objective:
Fit between individual and jobs
requirements
Find persons whose skills,
abilities and personal
characteristics suit job

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Requires
Fleshing out position
requirements, accurately,
completely
Assessing applicants fit with
requirements

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Two factors for analyzing

requirements and fit
Background education,
experience
Personal factors intellectual,
personality, motivation

Note on Hiring - Roberts

BACKGROUND
Education
Experience

= WHAT a recruit does/has done

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Experience
Industry
Specific knowledge required

Functional
Focus on skills, not title

Company
Culture matters

Level
Scope, decision making, responsibility

Note on Hiring - Roberts

PERSONAL FACTORS
Intellectual ability
Personality
Motivation

= HOW a recruit does/has done his/

her work

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Intellectual Ability
Analytical ability problem
definition, resolution
Creative ability new ideas,
solutions
Decision-making style

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Personality
Behavior is linked to personality
4 Basic Traits
Dominance exertion of power over people,
events
Extroversion social interactions
Patience pace of activity
Formality attention to rules, structure

Big Five Personality Dimensions

(Fisher, et. al.)
1. Extraversion --- introversion
2. Friendliness, agreeableness --hostility, non-compliance
3. Neuroticism --- emotional stability
4. High conscientiousness --low conscientiousness
5. High openness to experience --- low
openness to experience

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Also think about:
Types, set of tasks performed
Traits that will translate into good
performance
Personalities and management styles of
peers, superiors, subordinates

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Motivation
How much effort will he/she apply?
Goals
Interests
Energy

Note on Hiring - Roberts

The Interview
All appear successful!
Digging behind to get facts
Forming opinion of success
patterns
Interviewer must have an agenda

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Agenda
Verify and expand on information
Have agenda: dont let resume be it
= only opportunity to probe
personal factors
Probe responsibilities
Look for translation to success

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Interview Strategy
Topic opener: Tell me aboutDescribe..
Self-appraisal
Follow up to opener
Specific behavior, thinking
Particular qualities leading to success
Test link between self-assessment and behavior

Situation-based questions

Note on Hiring - Roberts

Situation-based Questions
Problem how dealt with
Continuum self-assessment (patient v.
demanding)
Comparison ask for views on different
situations related to job
Future assessment projecting
performance

Effective Structured Interview Formats

Situational Interview
What would you do if two of your
subordinates were having a conflict?

Behavior Description Interview

Tell me about a time two of your
subordinates were having a conflict.
What did you do?
How well did it work?
What else did you try?

Figure 8.7 Cone Method of

Semistructured Interviewing
(Fisher, et. al.)

The Interview
Interrater reliability of interviews may be low
Validity of interviews depends on structure
Unstructured interviews are least valid
Semi-structured interviews have some preplanning and some tailoring to the candidate
Structured interviews (same questions asked of
each candidate) based on a job analysis are most
valid

Improving the Interview

Base questions on a thorough job analysis

Use a more structured format
Use situational and/or behavior description questions
Have interview conducted by a trained panel of
interviewers
Assess only qualities that are visible in interviews

Selecting Managers
Assessment Centers
Multiple assessees
Multiple assessors
Multiple exercises: In-basket test,
leaderless group discussion, interview,
tests

Valid but expensive

Benefits of Careful and Strategic

Selection
Tradeoff with training/socialization
Hire more carefully, less training may be needed
Hire less carefully, train more afterwards

Improved performance
Effective strategy implementation
Hire the kind of people needed to implement
strategy

Sustainable competitive advantage

Match strategy to the unique human resources
you have

Interviewer Errors and Biases

Similarity Error (favorable predisposition to someone
similar)

Contrast Error (comparing to previous candidate, not

objective standard)

Overweighting of Negative Information

Race, Sex, and Appearance Bias
First Impression Error
Halo Error (overall impression or single dimension
influences others)

Nonverbal Factors
Faulty Listening and Memory
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Table 8.9 Average Validity and Incremental

Validity of Selection Devices

Source: Data from F.L. Schmidt and J.E. Hunter, The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical
Implications of 85 Years of Research Findings, Psychological Bulletin, Vol.124, 1998, pp. 262-274. Note that the correlations in the second
column are correct upwards to account for restriction in range and unreliability in the measurement of performance.

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Table 6.2 Effectiveness of

Recruitment Methods

Source: Based on a survey of 303 HR Professionals, from HR Magazine, December 1996, p. 53. Data on Internet
recruiting is from HR Focus,May 2000, p. 8

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Other Exercises
What is the defined
labor market you intend
to reach?
What method(s) will
you use to reach this
target audience?
How will you attract
qualified candidates to
apply?
Justify how your
recruiting plan is
appropriate and costeffective for the job(s)
to be filled.
What selection process
will you use?

A - Chilis restaurant chain wants to

grow faster & has a target of 10-12
percent per year. The main impediment
is the difficulty of recruiting enough
qualified restaurant managers.
B - The Transportation Security
Administration must hire 55,000 highly
reliable airport security staff within 10
months. How should such a mass
hiring operation be managed?
C - A U.S.-based manufacturer of
agricultural chemicals needs a regional
manager to spearhead entry into the
Southeast Asian market.

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