Predicting Voluntary Turnover from Job Applicant Biodata and Other Applicant Information

Research suggests that biodata (i.e., personal history information) is one of the best predictors of voluntary employee turnover. Given this fact, it is surprising that research on biodata has declined in recent years, and that biodata is not commonly used by employers for selecting employees. This article presents the results of a study that focused on the ability of biodata items and other information available on job applicants to predict voluntary turnover. With one exception, the hypotheses offered were confirmed. Specifically, applicant status (i.e., previously had applied for a job), submission of optional personal history information, employment status (i.e., job applicant was employed), and recruitment source (i.e., employee referral) all predicted voluntary turnover. The ability of applicant status, submission of a personal statement, and recruitment source to predict employee performance also was examined. Applicant status and recruitment source were found to predict subsequent performance ratings.     

Using Biodata to Predict Turnover,Organizational Commitment,and Job Performance in Healthcare

The purpose of the present study was to test whether or not a biodata instrument could be used to predict turnover, organizational commitment, and job performance in healthcare organizations. A criterion‐related, predictive validation strategy was used using a sample of 672 employees from two different hospitals in the southeastern United States. Supervisory ra0tings of organizational commitment and job performance were highly correlated with responses to the organizational commitment scale and the total score on the biodata instrument, respectively. Actual turnover was correlated with responses to the retention scale, although the effect size was small. Additionally, the study examined the fairness of biodata in this context as it relates to differences in performance among minority and non‐minority candidates. The findings in this study suggest that using such an instrument may provide organizations with the potential to improve organizational commitment and job performance, while reducing turnover with minimal group differences.     

Job Requirements Biodata as a Predictor of Performance in Customer Service Roles

A job requirements approach to biodata item specification, similar to the content-valid job analysis approach developed by Pannone (1984), is used to predict customer service. Applicants rate the extent to which their current and previous jobs involve tasks and behaviours that have been identified through an analysis of the target job. On a sample of 245 employees in an international hotel, the criterion-related validity of job requirements biodata compares favourably with traditional construct-oriented biodata measures of customer service, cognitive ability and personality (Conscientiousness, Agreeableness and Extroversion). The job requirements approach provides a simple, direct and content-valid method of biodata item specification. As the approach can also be tailored for particular jobs or organizations, validity is also potentially optimized.     

Is the past prologue for some more than others? The hobo syndrome and job complexity

The current study examines the relationship between an individual's history of changing jobs and future turnover (the so-called “hobo syndrome”). Relying on self-consistency theory, it was hypothesized that the relationship between job mobility history and turnover is moderated by job complexity. Using a sample of 393 employees from two healthcare organizations, multiple methods were used to assess the variables of interest. Job mobility history was assessed with a biodata questionnaire collected before employees were hired. Job complexity was measured objectively by a job complexity index calculated from O*NET data. Turnover was assessed with actual turnover data collected over an 18-month post-hire period. Consistent with our hypothesis, results using event history analyses revealed that previous job changes were positively related to turnover likelihood. Additionally, job complexity moderated the relationship between previous job changes and turnover likelihood, such that previous job changes were more positively related to turnover in complex jobs. Implications for future research and practice are discussed.     

履历数据测评的效度分析

履历数据是人员测评的重要手段, 但其组织情景性限制使得国外同类工具不能适用于国内人事选拔, 国内也缺乏实证研究验证其信度、效度。本研究结合某通信企业的招募选拔工作, 开发履历数据分析工具, 选取250名应聘者的履历数据、一般认知能力、大五个性和面试结果数据, 通过效标关联效度、增量效度思想, 分析履历数据有效性。结果表明, 以面试结果为效标, 履历数据具有良好的效标关联效度, 与其他测评工具组合使用时有良好的增量效度。     

Applying theory to the black box: A model for empirically scoring biodata

Despite being an effective predictor of job performance, empirically keyed biodata assessments have been criticized as black box empiricism unlikely to generalize to new contexts. This paper introduces a model that challenges this perspective, explicating how biodata content, job demands, and criterion variables collectively influence the construct validity, and generalizability of empirically scored biodata. Across two field studies, expected changes in scale correlations with external measures were found that coincided with changes in the contextual similarity between calibration and holdout contexts, the criteria used, and the content validity of biodata items. Collectively, this paper offers a framework that helps understand and optimize empirical biodata keying in practice, furthering confidence for their use in applied settings.     

Scoring Biodata: Is it rational to be quasi‐rational?

Five quasi‐rational biodata scales were developed by empirically keying biodata items to predict scores on a measure of the Big Five dimensions of personality. The criterion‐related validities of the quasi‐rational scales were compared to empirical and rational biodata keying methods using supervisory ratings of job performance as the criterion. Empirical keying outperformed the quasi‐rational and rational methods (which had similar validities).     

Job context, selection decision outcome, and the perceived fairness of selection tests: biodata as an illustrative case

S. W. Gilliland (1993) has proposed a model of perceived selection system fairness to help understand applicants' prehire and posthire behavior. The present study aimed to verify and extend his framework by investigating the role of job context in the formation of fairness perceptions of biodata. A sample of 255 students (108 men, 147 women) completed an operational biodata instrument, believing that it would be used to hire persons for either international, local, or unspecified entry-level managerial positions. Participants were then presented with outcome information (selected or rejected for further consideration). Consistent support was found for the research hypotheses derived from the Gilliland model. Participants' perceptions of the fairness and job relatedness of biodata were affected by the selection context and decision outcome. The importance of considering selection context in assessments of perceived test fairness is discussed.     

Reducing voluntary, avoidable turnover through selection

The authors investigated the efficacy of several variables used to predict voluntary, organizationally avoidable turnover even before the employee is hired. Analyses conducted on applicant data collected in 2 separate organizations (N = 445) confirmed that biodata, clear-purpose attitudes and intentions, and disguised-purpose dispositional retention scales predicted voluntary, avoidable turnover (rs ranged from -.16 to -.22, R = .37, adjusted R = .33). Results also revealed that biodata scales and disguised-purpose retention scales added incremental validity, whereas clear-purpose retention scales did not explain significant incremental variance in turnover beyond what was explained by biodata and disguised-purpose scales. Furthermore, disparate impact (subgroup differences on race, sex, and age) was consistently small (average d = 0.12 when the majority group scored higher than the minority group).     

COMBINING BIODATA TEST AND INTERVIEW INFORMATION: PREDICTING DECISIONS AND PERFORMANCE CRITERIA

An important question in real world selection situations is: How do interviewers integrate employment test scores and interview information in making selection decisions? The present study expands on previous research by examining how valid biodata test scores and interview information interact in the prediction of actual interviewer selection decisions and actual job performance criteria for hired candidates. The sample for the study was 577 actual candidates for the position of life insurance sales agent evaluated by insurance agency managers from a single company. The results indicated the presence of interaction effects in predicting both the interviewers' decision and 12-month survival. The interview information predicted the decision and survival best for candidates with low passing scores on the biodata test and poorest for candidates with high passing scores. The results clarify the conditions under which interview information is most predictive of job performance criteria.     

Integrating expectations,experiences, and psychological contract violations: A longitudinal study of new professionals

This research investigated the relationships among pre‐entry expectations, post‐entry experiences and psychological contract violations. The goal was to clarify the conceptual distinctions between the constructs and to test their differential impact on job satisfaction. In a national longitudinal study, 235 final‐year occupational therapy students were surveyed immediately prior to entering the profession and again 14 months later. Post‐entry experiences regarding supervision were found to predict psychological contract violation. Post‐entry experiences and psychological contract violations were found to jointly predict job satisfaction, with psychological contract violations demonstrating the stronger relationship. Pre‐entry expectations were positively correlated with job satisfaction, but this relationship was fully mediated by post‐entry experiences. Met expectations, as measured by an interaction between pre‐entry expectations and post‐entry experiences, was not a predictor of psychological contract violation. Nor did met expectations predict job satisfaction after controlling for contract violations. The findings reinforce a positive relationship between job satisfaction and turnover. These findings support the use of separate and commensurate measures of pre‐entry expectations and post‐entry experiences, and the integration of all three constructs in models of job satisfaction.     

Turnover in dirty work occupations: A focus on pre‐entry individual characteristics

The current study explored newcomer turnover in a unique population: dirty workers. Based on social identity theory (SIT) and conservation of resources theory (COR), a set of individual level predictors theoretically relevant to dirty work turnover were identified. We examined whether differences in access to job information prior to hire, career commitment, belief in the value of the job, negative affectivity (NA), and maladaptive coping style were related to turnover of animal shelter employees with euthanasia responsibilities. Results supported the potential importance of all variables for understanding turnover amongst these dirty workers. Access to job information, NA, and maladaptive coping style were found to have the highest relative importance amongst the set of predictors.     

Development of a global measure of job embeddedness and integration into a traditional model of voluntary turnover

Recent research on job embeddedness has found that both on- and off-the-job forces can act to bind people to their jobs. The present study extended this line of research by examining how job embeddedness may be integrated into a traditional model of voluntary turnover. This study also developed and tested a global, reflective measure of job embeddedness that overcomes important limitations and serves as a companion to the original composite measure. Results of this longitudinal study found that job embeddedness predicted voluntary turnover beyond job attitudes and core variables from traditional models of turnover. Results also found that job embeddedness interacted with job satisfaction to predict voluntary turnover, suggesting that the job embeddedness construct extends beyond the unfolding model of turnover (T. R. Mitchell & T. W. Lee, 2001) it originated from.     

Similarity Bias and Ratings of Applicants: Fact or Artifact?

The present study investigated the relationship between similarity of self-reported biodata and recruiter ratings of applicant job preparedness. Subjects included 108 dyads, each composed of a corporate recruiter and a university student applying for a position posted by the recruiter's company. Because no effect of similarity bias was found, the results challenged the generalizability of previous laboratory study findings. The question of possible experimental design artifacts in prior field studies was also raised.     

A Biodata Inventory Administered via Interactive Voice Response (IVR) Technology: Predictive Validity, Utility, and Subgroup Differences

Although organizations are increasingly using interactive voice response (IVR) systems to help screen and select job applicants, few if any published studies have investigated the effectiveness of such systems. The current study responded to this need by evaluating a biodata inventory administered via IVR technology. A predictive validity study revealed that both a 42-item biodata measure and a more parsimonious 6-item composite correlated with supervisor ratings of performance and did not result in adverse impact or differential prediction. In addition, a utility analysis indicated that both IVR biodata measures would likely result in considerable financial gains to the hiring organization. The implications of these results for selection research and practice are discussed.     

基于行为事件的履历资料评估

行为事件的履历资料评估能有效克服传统履历数据构思效度弱、情景限制多等问题。本研究结合某通信企业招聘工作,选取250名应聘者数据,结合关键事件法,通过对履历事件的行为锚定来评估应聘者的胜任特征。研究在多重比较行为履历资料、履历表数据、认知能力等多个指标组合对录用结果预测的回归模型基础上,检验新增指标的预测效度。结果表明,行为事件的履历资料评估具有效标关联效度,与其他工具组合使用时具有增量效度。     

Distinguishing personality and biodata items using confirmatory factor analysis of multitrait-multimethod matrices

Hard biodata, soft biodata, and personality items were developed to measure three personal constructs (Dependability, Demeanor, and Ambition). This resulted in nine sets of items forming a three-method (personality, soft biodata, and hard biodata) by three-trait (Dependability, Demeanor, and Ambition) Multitrait-Multimethod (MTMM) matrix. Four models were proposed to represent the nine scales and each was tested on a sample of 477 job applicants and subsequently cross-validated on a sample of 958 job applicants, using confirmatory factor analysis. The model where the personality and soft biodata items represented one factor and the hard biodata items represented another, distinct factor, was both the best fitting and most parsimonious model, thus confirming Asher's (1972) taxonomy.This research was based in part on a doctoral dissertation submitted to Wayne State University. I would like to thank committee members Lois Tetrick (Chair), Alan Bass, Sebastiano Fisicaro, and Thomas Naughton. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 8th annual conference of the Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology (SIOP), San Francisco, CA: April, 1993.     

INCREMENTAL VALIDITY OF EMPIRICALLY KEYED BIODATA SCALES OVER GMA AND THE FIVE FACTOR PERSONALITY CONSTRUCTS

The major purpose of this study was to determine whether empirically keyed, cross-validated biodata scales accounted for incremental variance over that accounted for by the five factor model (FFM) of personality and GMA predictors. A concurrent validation study was employed using 376 employees in a clerical job (222 in the developmental sample and 154 in the cross-validation sample). Results for the cross-validation sample provided support for the hypothesis that biodata predictors accounted for substantial incremental variance beyond that accounted for by the FFM predictors and GMA for 3 of the 4 criteria. Support was also found for the hypothesized zero-order correlations between GMA, FFM, and biodata predictors and the 4 criteria. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.     

Exploring predictors of alternative job changes

Previous studies have found that the variables that predict employee turnover vary considerably across situations. This lack of consistency may reflect limitations imposed by viewing turnover only as a decision to leave a current job. The variables that predict turnover may depend on the type of job change that an employee makes after leaving. This study explored which variables predicted leaving a job and moving to three alternative types of job change. The results show that different variables predicted employee moves to a new type of job in the same organization, the same job in a different organization, and a different job in a different organization. This supports the concept that turnover may be better modelled as a decision not only to leave a job, but also to move to a different work situation.     

TELL ME SOME MORE: EXPLORING HOW VERBAL ABILITY AND ITEM VERIFIABILITY INFLUENCE RESPONSES TO BIODATA QUESTIONS IN A HIGH‐STAKES SELECTION CONTEXT

Although self‐rated or self‐scored selection measures are commonly used in selection contexts, they are potentially susceptible to applicant response distortion or faking. The response elaboration technique (RET), which requires job applicants to provide supporting information to justify their responses, has been identified as a potential way to minimize applicant response distortion. In a large‐scale, high‐stakes selection context (N= 16,304), we investigate the extent to which RET affects responding on a biodata test as well as the underlying reasons for any potential effect. We find that asking job applicants to elaborate their responses leads to overall lower scores on a biodata test. Item verifiability affects the extent to which RET decreases faking, which we suggest is due to increased accountability. In addition, verbal ability was more strongly related to biodata item scores when items require elaboration, although the effect of verbal ability was small. The implications of these findings for reducing faking in personnel selection are delineated.