Employee Selection Criteria

Employee Selection Criteria

Holly Perry

Employee Selection Criteria

As times change, technology and trends change for society, so do the needs of corporations. As corporations change to meet the demands of the consumers, so do their needs of employees, and work structure, this is restructuring. Following the fictional characters “Joe” an Organizational Development (OD) consultant for the Eastern Financial Company, which has undergone corporate restructuring. The restructuring has led to the creation of new jobs, absolved some old jobs whose responsibilities were absolved by other positions. Due to the restructuring they are in need of Joe’s help to determine if the changes best meet the needs of the company. Joe will evaluate this by creating new selection criterion measures (of the employees) and plans to conduct validation studies to compare the old and new criterion measures to help predict how the restructure will fill the needs of the company (Argosy University Online, 2016) (AOU).

Determining base rate of successful employees

In this scenario, Joe must first gather the base rate of existing successful employees to help determine new criteria and selection measures that will aid the company with the changes and future hires (AOU, 2016). Determining a base rate of successful employees, will allow Joe and other Industrial/Organizational (I/O) psychologist to view the success rate of current employees. This can be done by viewing the pervious selection of criteria, methods used to determine success (such as job evaluations, training, cognitive tests and other areas used to select new hires, and evaluated job performance), this then will be compared to the current selection criteria, to determine the validity of the new selection criteria and tests (Levy, P., 2010). To select the base rate from the previous evaluations of job performance and new hire criteria, the I/O or company can determine portion of the employees that is successful by their ratings and test scores. This will then give a percentage of workers who are determine to be and continue to be successful with both old and new criteria (Riggio, R. 2008).

Predictive Validity

Predictive validity –defined by Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. (2009). “The validity of a test or a measurement tool that is established by demonstrating the ability of a test or measure to predict the results of ananalysis of the same data made with another test instrument or measurement tool.”

Joe is now tasked to predict job performance after the corporate restructuring by using the old criteria and data to determine to criteria and data. Joe and other I/O s may be able to create new criteria by examining past performance evaluations and pre hire tests in order to develop more appropriate criteria for the future of the company. Joe may use some of the evaluations of employees that determined how well they did with jobs outside of their required job description, and if the percentage of the employees did well, he could predict what employees could successfully handle the absolved positions as well as determine if a raise should be given for the new workload (Riggio, R., 2008). Joe could then administer the new battery of test and validity generalization (measures that seem to valid to across various situations and jobs), and measure them against job performance at a later time (AUO, 2016). Joe can evaluate job performance in 90 days. The evaluation to be compared to test results may be the review of performance, absenteeism, evaluations by other employees, management evaluations, employee satisfaction, employee job loyalty and so. I/O psychologists can evaluate these measures on both current successful employees and the new hire employees (AOU, 2016).

Concurrent Validity

Concurrent validity is the result of test scores and job performance being measured at the same time. For Joe, the use of concurrent validity may be useful for the preexisting employees. Joe could test the cognitive aptitude (to cover new responsibilities of the employee), personality tests, ability to handle fast paced environments, and self-questionnaires and compare them to an evaluation of performance that is administered around the same times as the results are measured (Riggio, 2008). He will then compare the two results to determine a prediction employee and position success. Using the concurrent validity may allow for a reduction in time to test and predict the successfulness that will aid in the future of the company’s needs (AUO, 2016).

Charges of discrimination

With the restructuring of the Eastern Financial Company, Joe will need to keep in mind areas of concern that may bring about possible charges of discrimination. Joe and other I/O psychologists can determine and avoid charges of discrimination by following things such as the Equal Opportunity Commission requirements, such as the equal Pay Act of 1963 and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Riggio, 2008). The Equal Opportunity Commission enforces companies to adhere to federal laws to protect employees and job applicants from discrimination from things such as (U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, n.d.)

Unfair treatment because of one’s race, religion, age (40+), ethnicity, sex, and disabilities or genetic information

Being refused reasonable workplace accommodations of an employee due to religion or disability

Protection from harassment from management, coworkers, and others within the workplace due to race, religion, age (40+), ethnicity, sex, and disabilities or genetic information

Protects an employee from retaliation, who was the whistle blower about workplace discrimination, and to those who facilitated in an investigation or lawsuit.

While Joe is looking over job requirements, skills related to complete the job, personable attributes to determine comparable worth “(equal pay for equal worth)” by examining fair market value for each position he can be sure offer pay is fair. If the position is more than likely to be filled by a woman Joe can compare traditional male oriented jobs that have the equal or similar skills and requirements compared to the company’s worth, to be sure that a fair compensation is set. This will help avoid possible equal pay discrimination cases. When considering those with disabilities and the ADA, Joe and other I/O psychologists can evaluate job positions and requirements to determine what would be reasonable accommodations for employees that are otherwise capable of fulfilling the job requirements (Riggio, 2008). For example, there may be a computer based sales/ call job that allows a person who is wheelchair bound, where pacing a ramp will be inexpensive and fairly easy to install. Other areas of discrimination can be curbed with employee training concerning what is sexual harassment, respecting multi cultures and acceptance courses for all areas of discrimination while in the workplace.

Many companies such as the fictional Eastern Finical Company face restructuring and often more than once for many reasons. Hiring an I/O psychologist or similar can aid the company in streamlining the changes, the restructure of current positions, creating new positions, and implementing criteria selections that will aid in selecting successful employees, all while keeping the company’s financial and customer base needs met. An I/O psychologist can help implement new selection criteria and test the validity of these areas against old hiring and evaluating practices, to help predict and hire future successful employees.

References

Argosy University Online (2016). Module 2. Retrieved from www.myeclassonline.com

Levy, P. (2010). Industrial/organizational psychology: understanding the workplace. Chap. 7. (3rd ed). New York, NY: Worth Publishers.

Predictive validity. (n.d.) Mosby’s Medical Dictionary, 8th edition. (2009). Retrieved from http://medicaldictionary.thefreedictionary.com/predictive+validitydictionary.thefreedictionary.com/predictive+validity

Riggio, R. (2008). Introduction to industrial/organizational psychology (5th ed). Upper Saddle River, N. J., Pearson Education, Inc. n facilitated communication.

U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (n.d.) Employers. Retrieved from http://www.eeoc.gov/employers/