Reference no: EM133334185

Questions: Please answer the following questions about the article below:

Identify the specific area of human resources management this article relates to.
Clearly identify the perspective or slant or bias of the article and provide examples to support your opinion.
Address how the content of the article relates to HR theory (i.e., how it impacts the HR profession, affects the employee and/or the employer, etc.). 3 Unique Impacts.

Case Study: ATTRACTING AND SELECTING: WHAT PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH TELLS you

HR professionals are challenged to address the varied needs of an organization when it comes to recruiting and staffing. They must come up with new strategies for attraction, new tools for selection, and new ways to enhance workforce diversity.

In this article, we will discuss how research can guide HR professionals in meeting recruitment and staffing challenges, including what selection tools work, what recruitment strategies work, and how selection-tool use relates to workforce diversity.

In external staffing situations, a great deal of research has not been widely embraced by the HR practitioner. This is because the research is not well disseminated and is not translated into "something useful" and made accessible to HR executives. Many HR professionals in staffing functions face constant pressure to deliver qualified candidates quickly, lack the time to create new recruiting and selection programs that take into account current research findings, and find myriad legal requirements confusing.

There is considerable body of knowledge regarding methods of selecting employees, but wide gaps between knowledge and practice exist in many organizations. For example, 72% of HR managers believed that conscientiousness is a better predictor of employee performance than intelligence, whereas the reverse is actually true.

In our work with organizations, we run across hiring managers who make blanket statements that testing is not worthwhile, despite the substantial body of research that demonstrates that testing can be very useful.

Table I provides a summary of the basic characteristics of various tools used in staffing situations, including validity, costs, and group differences. Larger numbers indicate more accurate prediction statistically, but even low numbers increase the accuracy of prediction statistically.

Table I presents potential values for selection devices, but exact results will depend upon the specific situation present. HR managers will be concerned about issues such as the cost to develop the tool and use it, the ease of administration, and the likelihood of adverse impact.

When choosing a valid tool, cost and subgroup differences should be considered as additional considerations only after an acceptable level of validity has been established. A poorly developed tool will not function at the optimal level suggested by the table.

Some selection tools are not appropriate for a particular situation, and managers may make judgments about the usefulness of all personality testing based on negative experiences with a specific tool for a specific position. Further, to maximize the effectiveness of a selection system, consider how well tools might work in combination.

Higgs, Papper, and Carr (2000) noted eight drivers of selection process success, including empirical validity, expense, face validity, marketability, timeliness, and management of the process. The usefulness of a selection tool in any given situation will require evaluating context-specific factors not presented in the table.

The research-practice gap in selection-tool use is due to a lack of information regarding the business reasons for tool use. HR managers need information on how individual-level prediction translates to organizational-level results.

Research on recruitment does not always translate into practice. Even armed with knowledge of these issues, HR managers often find themselves facing an implementation gap - they cannot apply what they know.

In times of a tight labor market, companies may change their applicant sourcing practices to attract the best applicants. However, the key themes of recruitment research are informativeness and personable treatment.

The use of cognitive ability tests and employee referrals are effective hiring and recruitment strategies, yet both may affect organizational diversity in adverse ways. Psychological researchers have researched how to minimize adverse impact in hiring practices while using a process with high validity.

The gap between research and practice involving adverse impact and diversity is particularly relevant here, because the HR professional confronts an extremely perplexing dilemma: how to maximize the accuracy of predictions made on the basis of tests while reducing adverse impact?

HR managers are concerned that the tools and recruitment approaches best supported by research might serve to "turn off the most desirable applicants". However, there are some basic practical steps that HR managers can consider in designing and implementing selection and recruiting practices.

Table IV provides some key suggestions arising from basic psychological research on perceptions of justice, including ways to mitigate negative perceptions of a negative outcome and best approaches to explaining the process and decisions to ensure the most positive perceptions possible.

The gaps between research and practice in the area of applicant perceptions can be explained by a lack of accurate knowledge about the entire applicant pool and erroneous assumptions about applicant preferences.

We have highlighted four areas in staffing where gaps between research and practice exist, and have provided a list of audit questions to aid the HR manager in evaluating the fit between research and practice.

To understand psychological research in recruiting and selection, use a professional. Industrial and organizational psychologists have years of education and experience and can help you translate research into effective practice.

Find a recruiter who can explain research, understands your organizational environment, and has experience in real-world settings. Educate yourself and critically evaluate research, and collect data to aid in making correct interpretations of the facts and careful evaluations.