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.

The Tactical side of Talent Recruitment

Talent Recruitment is the backbone of any professional organization. The tactical side of recruiting becomes ridiculously efficient with intuitive automation and unique features like Event Scheduler and eOffer that leave you with more time to deliver game-changing talent. There are few steps that need to be sophisticatedly applied in the recruitment cycle.

Attract

Broadcast a head-turning employment brand and create a no-hassle candidate experience with unlimited, audience-specific career portals and employee referral programs.

Match

Eliminate the needle in a haystack feeling for your recruiters and candidates. Candidates describe their dream job and internal HR software should automatically match them to open requisitions that most closely match their interests and skills.

Qualify

Focus your resources on the right candidates with integrated assessments, background checks, references and pre-screening tools.

Interview

Eliminate endless email chains and instantly connect candidates with the right hiring manager. Different Questionnaires support the interview panel with job-specific interview questions and real-time scheduling.

Electronic Offer

Seal the deal faster with eOffers, complete with electronic signature acceptance of employment terms, including preconfigured compensation and benefit packages.

Hire

Complete new hire paperwork electronically to help ensure compliance while on- boarding kicks into high gear.

Onboard

Welcome new hires into the organization and provide them with the knowledge, tools and information to be productive from day one.

Measure

Support leaders with key data, analysis and insights into bench strength, recruitment efficiency, quality of talent and compliance vulnerability.

Pre Employment Reference Checks

In today’s competitive environment, it has become essential to find the ‘right fit’. Hence, HR today has become overtly cautious and is indulging in extensive background checks before bringing a prospective employee on board. It has become imperative to confirm and reconfirm a candidate’s credentials, his/her character and his/her proposed experience before it’s too late.

Organizations today have become highly alert and are ready to do anything to have the kind of employees on board. The market is booming and the IT industry has witnessed a phenomenal growth and hence, it has become important to ensure that best quality professionals were getting inducted into the organization. It was a customer centric initiative to establish credibility with respect to the caliber of the people they recruit in the organization. In a well known IT company the pre-employment check, more popularly referred to as the ‘Background Check Process’ is a very critical part of the recruitment procedure. Employees are not allocated to projects without the background check being cleared for the employee.

In another Training and Staffing Solutions company, hiring is done only on referral basis and hence it becomes imperative to have referral checks as the first step in the entire pre-employment procedure. Every necessary check is done before calling the candidate for the interview. This company gives more weight age to job performances, work ethics, attendance at work and attitude. Hence, pre-employment checks form the first step. In Xerox, it is mandatory to conduct such screening and it is an auditable process. They collect detailed information about his/her candidature, personal and professional history and analyze it well.

These checks are important because they allow better-informed and less subjective evaluations to be made about a person. Integrity and performance on the job are some of the important factors today. With the advent of new MNCs into India, it is getting rather important to do pre-employment checks as companies investing heavily in India cannot risk taking employees with dubious backgrounds. The above is practiced by an organization which is into recruitment for senior level positions it becomes all the more pivotal since these candidates are going to be in strategic/leadership positions and are accustomed to a lot of confidential information.

At Patni computers, pre-employment screening is outsourced to a third party with clear ‘Service Level Agreements’ (SLAs) defined. Their screening usually consists of educational qualifications check, previous experience check and database (criminal and credit) checks.

At Enhanzee, Employment Verification means ensuring that the selected candidate actually worked in the positions listed in the application resume, cover letter or otherwise cited by the candidate that quality him/her for the position sought. Background checks, employment verification documents, reference checks, character and personal reference checks are amongst the various checks that are performed in that organization before hiring. And all these procedures are done by their in-house HR team.

Organizations in India can benefit tremendously from an employee-screening program. Decreased turnover, reduced expenses and elimination of risks of theft and fraud are just some of the advantages. Being employers, it is up to them to provide their employees a safe and secure working environment. Hence, it is their job to reject those people who might have violent or criminal records. They must be sure about the quality of our software professionals and having clear cases on board makes it that much easier to practice integrity as a value in each of their actions. The only drawback of this practice is the delay in actual allotment that happens due to stringent SLAs. However, breaking up the process into parts is done so that essential checks are completed without delay.

This procedure saves a lot of time wasted in conducting too many interviews. Once all the necessary checks are done, only a few short listed candidates are called for, which saves time and energy. The most important virtues an employer looks for in any candidate are honesty and integrity because all the other traits can be acquired but these can be inherent traits.

Today, organizations are being more and more cautious because they do not want to bear the brunt of a faulty recruitment process and bring a misfit aboard and to these organizations, pre-employment screening is a boon as they are employing people almost everyday, every hour.