 Executive summaryThis CQ Dossier describes how organizations can utilize structured interviews to attract and retain talented personnel. In particular, the dossier focuses on general cognitive ability (IQ) and how HR professionals can utilize situational structured interviews to assess those competencies that are reflective of an applicant’s IQ. The dossier describes the research supporting the use of cognitive ability as a predictor of job performance and describes how organizations can circumvent the problems of IQ testing through utilization of the structured interview. About the Author Annette was born in England and now lives in the United States. She has a PhD in Industrial and Organizational Psychology and has taught at several institutions. Annette has published in several journals, including Journal of Applied Psychology, Personnel Psychology, Human Resource Development Quarterly, and Organizational Research Methods. She worked in the public and private sector for many years, primarily as a management trainer. Summary Schmidt and Hunter The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. From the point of view of practical value, the most important property of a personnel assessment method is predictive validity: the ability to predict future job performance, job- related learning (such as amount of learning in training and development programs), and other criteria. Use of hiring methods with increased predictive validity leads to substantial increases in employee performance. The conclusion from this research is that for hiring employees without previous experience in the job the most valid predictor of future performance and learning is general mental ability ([G M A ], i.e., intelligence or general cognitive ability; On the basis of meta-analytic findings, this article examines and summarizes what 85 years of research in personnel psychology has revealed about the validity of measures of 19 different selection methods that can be used in making decisions about hiring, training, and developmental assignments. The cumulative findings show that the research knowledge now available makes it possible for employers today to substantially increase the productivity, output, and learning ability of their workforces by using procedures that work well and by avoiding those that do not. Determinants of Practical Value (Utility) of Selection Methods Research over the last 15 years has shown that the variability of performance and output among (incumbent) workers is very large and that it would be even larger if all job applicants were hired or if job applicants were selected randomly from among those that apply 1) The variability of employee job performance can be measured in a number of ways, but two scales have typically been used: dollar value of output and output as a percentage of mean output. Dollar value of output: The minimum 40% of the mean salary of the job is the lower bound value. (Look at article for formula) Employee output can also be measured as a percentage of mean output; that is, each employee's output is divided by the output of workers at the 50th percentile and then multiplied by 100. (Look at article for formula) 2) Another determinant of the practical value of selection methods is the selection ratio— the proportion of applicants who are hired. Our purpose here is to make three important points: (a) the economic value of gains from unproved hiring methods are typically quite large, (b) these gains are directly proportional to the size of the increase in validity w hen moving from the old to the new selection methods, and (c) no other characteristic of a personnel measure is as important as predictive validity. |
