Validity of Selection Method

If selection methods are invalid, employee selection decisions are no more accurate than decisions based on a toss of a coin. Validity is the degree to which a measure accurately predicts job performance. Selection methods are valid to the extent that predictors measure or are significantly related to work behavior, job products, or outcomes. The process of demonstrating that a predictor is significantly related to a measure of work behavior, job products, or outcomes is validation.

The validation process demonstrates that a significant statistical relationship exists between a predictor and a criterion measure of successful performance on a job. A predictor is any piece of information that can be used to screen applicants. Predictors include information from application blanks (education level, experience, and so on) and reference checks; scores on tests of skill, ability, or aptitude; data from interest and personality inventories; and interviewer ratings of an applicant. Criterion measures are any measures of work behavior, job products, or outcomes that have value to an employer. Job success is an abstract concept that means different things to different employers.

Major Types of Validation

There are three major types of validation used to validate predictors. They are

(1) criterion-related validity;

(2) construct validity; and

(3) content validity.

Criterion-related validity.

A predictor has criterion-related validity if a statistically significant relationship can be demonstrated between the predictor and some measure of work behavior or performance. Examples of performance measures are production rates, error rates, tardiness, absences, length of service, and supervisor's ratings. Suppose a department store uses as a predictor for its sales personnel one year of sales experience. To validate this predictor, the employer would have to demonstrate that a statistically significant relationship exists between one year of sales experience and some measure or measures of work behavior or job products, perhaps number of sales and/or low percentage of errors in ringing up purchases.

Construct validity.

Instead of directly testing or using other information to predict job success, some selection methods seek to measure the degree to which an applicant possesses psychological traits called constructs. Constructs include intelligence, leadership ability, verbal ability, mechanical ability, manual dexterity, etc.

Constructs deemed necessary for successful performance of jobs are inferred from job behaviors and activities as summarized in job descriptions. They are the job specifications part of job descriptions. Construct validity requires demonstrating that a statistically significant relationship exists between a selection procedure or test and the job construct it seeks to measure. For example, does a reading comprehension test reliably measure how well people can read and understand what they read?

Content validity.

A selection procedure has content validity if it representatively samples significant parts of a job, such as a filing test for a file clerk or a test of cash register operation for a grocery checker. Selection tests that approximate significant aspects of a job are called job sample tests. Job sample tests require applicants to perform certain aspects of a job's major activities, thus demonstrating competence at tasks which are an actual and important part of the job. Significant aspects of a job are determined through job analysis and set forth in job descriptions of jobs. Job sample tests should approximate aspects of the job as closely as possible, since this increases content validity.

Evaluation Criteria in Performance Appraisal

In choosing an appraisal system, HR professionals should consider their own organization's needs for performance appraisal. Key considerations are (1) whom the company should evaluate, and (2) what criteria should be used to evaluate.

Whom Company Should Evaluate
First, the organization must determine which employees in what types of jobs should be evaluated. Whom the organization needs to evaluate has implications for the type of system chosen. For example, a system that effectively appraises managerial performance would be quite different from a system evaluating the performance of clerical workers. Different jobs place different demands on appraisal systems. Jobs that are difficult to describe or that vary substantially in terms of activities and tasks create difficulties in terms of appraising performance.

What criteria should be used to evaluate
Next, an organization must decide what criteria it will use for evaluation. Does it want a system based on evaluating individual traits, behaviors, or job results? This decision depends in part on who is being evaluated and how the organization intends to use the performance appraisal.

TRAIT

Early graphic rating scales evaluated workers on individual traits or personal characteristics which were presumably related to job performance. Initiative, aggressiveness, reliability, and personality are examples of traits on which employees have been rated. One problem with trait rating is that the traits themselves are difficult to define and may be subject to varying interpretation by evaluators.

BEHAVIOR
Rating employees according to job behaviors is based on the assumption that there are effective and ineffective behaviors and that these have been identified for each job or type of job. Behaviors are judged effective or ineffective in terms of the results the behaviors produce (either desirable or undesirable). For example, a customer service representative could be judged on the amount of patience shown to irate customers. Evaluating employees along behavioral dimensions is especially important for employee development purposes.

JOB RESULT
Results indexes are often used for appraisal purposes if an employee's job has measurable results. Examples of job results indexes are dollar volume of sales, amount of scrap, and quantity and quality of work produced. When such quantitative results are not available, evaluators tend to use appraisal forms based on employee behaviors and/or personal characteristics. In some cases, appraisals may of necessity focus on results rather than behaviors. This is especially true where job content is highly variable, as in many managerial positions, thus making it difficult to specify appropriate behaviors for evaluative purposes. Results indexes such as turnover, absenteeism, grievances, profitability, and production rates can be used to evaluate the performance of organization units.