Pre‐employment risk screening: Comparability of integrity assessment technology platforms

The prevalence of mobile devices (e.g., smartphones and tablets) has led to job applicants increasingly choosing to use these mobile devices to complete online pre‐employment assessments in the application process. This study identifies increasing mobile device usage trends for applicants completing an unproctored integrity assessment across 13 quarterly time periods. Further, the comparability of the integrity assessment results when completed on mobile devices compared to when it is completed on computers was examined. Results revealed that the integrity assessment had comparable mean scores, number of admissions, reliability estimates, and validity coefficients across mobile devices and computers. Pass rates for the assessment across the delivery modes showed small differences though some were statistically significant. Applicants using smartphones to complete the assessment took significantly more time than applicants using computers or tablets.     

Volunteer Experience May Not Bridge Gaps in Employment

This study investigated whether volunteer experience compensates for a gap in employment that occurs either early or late in one's career. Recruiters (n = 82) evaluated resumes of fictitious applicants with either early or late employment gaps, plus one of three types of volunteer experience: career‐related, career‐unrelated, and none. For applicants with an employment gap, resumes with volunteer experience – regardless of its career‐relatedness – were not rated significantly higher than resumes without volunteer experience. Although not statistically significant, resumes with late employment gaps were rated highest when they had career‐related volunteer experience and lowest when they had no volunteer experience. In line with human capital theory, applicants late in their career were rated higher than applicants early in their career.     

Analyzing Judgments of Ethnically Diverse Applicants During Personnel Selection: A study at the Dutch police

A judgment‐analysis study was used to investigate assessors' judgment processes, evaluating ethnic minority vs ethnic majority applicants. Sixteen ethnic majority assessors judged 5089 applicants during the Dutch police officer selection procedure, with each assessor judging 30 ethnic minority applicants minimally. Information from an employment interview, an assessment center, and a Big Five personality test were combined into a final selection advice. Results showed that as much as or more information sources were used to judge ethnic minority than ethnic majority applicants. Furthermore, a larger number of irrelevant cues were used for the judgment of ethnic minority applicants. Finally, when judging ethnic minority applicants, assessors based their decision to a lesser extent on their own ratings than on ratings of others.     

Job applicants and preemployment agreements: what employment counselors need to know

U.S. society is becoming increasingly litigious. Nowhere is this more evident than in the employment process, where preemployment agreements for job applicants are becoming more common. Preemployment agreements require applicants to accept certain terms or provisions before they are offered a position. In this article, the authors describe types of preemployment contracts and legal issues associated with them and present attorney‐selected sample cases to assist employment counselors to better prepare their clients for addressing this legal phenomenon.     

Reliability of the 16PF questionnaire for security guard applicants

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was administered to a group of security guard applicants to determine its retest reliability after a moderate (9-month) interval. All of the Pearson correlations for specific test scales were lower than the reliabilities reported by the test's authors. These data raise questions as to the usefulness of the 16PF for the prediction of security guard behavior.     

The Development of Traditional Psychopathology (Book)

The Sixteen Personality Factor Questionnaire (16PF) was administered to a group of security guard applicants to determine its retest reliability after a moderate (9-month) interval. All of the Pearson correlations for specific test scales were lower than the reliabilities reported by the test's authors. These data raise questions as to the usefulness of the 16PF for the prediction of security guard behavior.     

Reexamining Nonlinear Structural Equation Modeling Procedures: The Effect of Parallel and Congeneric Measures

The current study examines the performance of the extended unconstrained approach (EXUC) and the latent moderated structural equation modeling procedure (LMS) in situations where quadratic and interaction terms are tested simultaneously and investigates their limitations with regard to the employment of parallel and congeneric measures, relatively low indicator reliabilities, and relatively large numbers of indicators. By means of a Monte Carlo study, we found LMS to be the best option for testing multiple nonlinear effects given sufficient sample size (n ≥ 500) and normally distributed exogenous variables. Its advantages became more prominent when indicator reliabilities were heterogeneous and small. The EXUC was a viable option for estimating the model when indicators were parallel and exhibited large indicator reliabilities. An empirical example of the results is provided, and the relevance of measurement model characteristics to assess nonlinear relationships is discussed.     

Employment Interviews: How Critical

In order to determine the relationship between selected characteristics and behaviors of applicants for employment and the outcome of their interviews, interviewer ratings of 398 registrants of a university placement office were analyzed. Factor analysis suggested that applicants were rated on two dimensions: their behavior during the interview and their credentials. The importance of the candidate's general impression on the interviewer is noted, and the need for applicants to be aware that credentials and interview behavior alone do not ensure employment is stressed.     

The Influence of Applicant and Interviewer Characteristics on the Use of Impression Management1

This study investigated the relationship between characteristics of applicants and interviewers, and type and amount of impression management (IM) used by applicants in the employment interview. Specifically, applicant self-monitoring, self-esteem, locus of control, age, and training, and interviewer communication apprehension, interpersonal communication skill, age, and experience all were expected to influence the type and amount of IM behavior exhibited by applicants in the employment interview. Data from 64 field interviews confirmed that characteristics of the interviewer and, to a lesser extent, characteristics of the applicants were related to the use of IM tactics by applicants.     

Differential Effectiveness of Applicant Impression Management Tactics on Employment Interview Decisions1

It has been a commonly held belief for some time that applicants attempt to manage impressions of interviewers in the employment interview process, but only recently have researchers begun to examine systematically the tactics applicants use, and how effective they are. The present study contrasted two sets of impression management tactics used by applicants and observed their effects on interviewer decisions in a controlled laboratory experiment. An applicant who employed self-focused-type impression management tactics was rated higher, received more recommendations for a job offer, and received fewer rejections from business students, who had just completed an interviewer training program, than when he used other-focused-type tactics. The implications of these results in terms of both theory and practice are discussed.     

Forewarned is forearmed: Potential between and within sex discrimination

Effects of sex and concern for equal employment opportunity on responses to mailed job applicant resumes were examined. Applicant sex and concern for equal employment opportunity were systematically varied to yield four different resumes for two functionally equivalent applicants. One of the four resumes of the applicants was sent to 200 corporations. Sex of the applicant was identified using a female name and initials (neutral designation). Interest in equal employment opportunity was manipulated using a thesis title involving sex discrimination and no thesis reported. Results indicated that both the number of replies and number of positive responses were influenced by the interaction of an applicant's sex and interest in sex discrimination.     

MOTIVATIONAL COMPONENTS OF TEST TAKING

The first phase of this research effort describes an effort to directly measure the attitudes and opinions of employment test takers toward the tests they just took; the instrument is called the Test Attitude Survey (TAS). Nine factors were developed which reflect test takers' expressed effort and motivation on the test, the degree of concentration, perceived test ease, and the like. Several studies were conducted showing that TAS factors were significantly sensitive to differences in test types and administration permitting the inference that the TAS possessed construct validity. The second phase of this study tested several propositions and hypotheses. In one study, it is shown that the applicants report significantly higher effort and motivation on the employment tests compared to incumbents, even when ability is held constant. A second study showed that a small but significant relationship exists between TAS factor scores, test performances, and the person factors. Moreover, some of the racial differences on test performances can be accounted for via the TAS factor scores; it is observed that after holding these TAS factors constant, racial differences on the employment tests scores diminished. In a third study, very limited evidence was found for the incremental and moderating effects of these attitudes, but there were several limitations to the study associated with small sample sizes, unknown reliabilities in the criterion scales, and so forth. Discussion focussed on the potential practical applications of the TAS instrument and factor scores. It is suggested that further research could have some utility in this domain.     

AN EXPERIMENTAL FIELD STUDY OF INTERPERSONAL DISCRIMINATION TOWARD MUSLIM JOB APPLICANTS

Integrating justification-suppression and stereotype content models of prejudice, this research examines religious discrimination in employment settings. In the first study, confederates dressed in either Muslim-identified or nonreligious attire, who either did or did not provide stereotype-inconsistent information, applied for retail jobs. No differences emerged with regard to interview offers between job applicants dressed in traditional Muslim attire and those in the control condition. However, interactions were shorter and rated (by confederates, observers, and naïve coders) as more interpersonally negative when applicants wore Muslim attire and did not provide stereotype-inconsistent information than when applicants wore nonreligious attire. Similarly, results from a second experimental study in which participants rated fictitious Muslim or non-Muslim job applicants suggest that reactions were most negative toward Muslim applicants who did not provide stereotype-inconsistent information. Together, these findings suggest that justification-suppression and stereotype content models are complementary, and that Muslims may face challenges to employment that reflect a lack of acceptance of this religious identity.     

Honest and Deceptive Impression Management in the Employment Interview: Can It Be Detected and How Does It Impact Evaluations?

Applicants use honest and deceptive impression management (IM) in employment interviews. Deceptive IM is especially problematic because it can lead organizations to hire less competent but deceptive applicants if interviewers are not able to identify the deception. We investigated interviewers’ capacity to detect IM in 5 experimental studies using real‐time video coding of IM (N = 246 professional interviewers and 270 novice interviewers). Interviewers’ attempts to detect applicants’ IM were often unsuccessful. Interviewers were better at detecting honest than deceptive IM. Interview question type affected IM detection, but interviewers’ experience did not. Finally, interviewers’ perceptions of IM use by applicants were related to their evaluations of applicants’ performance in the interview. Interviewers’ attempts to adjust their evaluations of applicants they perceive to use deceptive IM may fail because they cannot correctly identify when applicants actually engage in various IM tactics. Helping interviewers to better identify deceptive IM tactics used by applicants may increase the validity of employment interviews.     

PERFORMANCE TESTING: A ROSE AMONG THORNS?

Data on 21 performance tests, entry level and promotional, motor and verbal, were evaluated for 263 applicants for city government jobs over a 17-month period. The heterogeneity in applicants was matched by a similar heterogeneity in raters. Thorough training of raters, clear performance standards, and content valid tests resulted in average inter-rater reliabilities of .93 (promotional), .87 (entry level), .91 (motor) and .89 (verbal) for the different types and levels of tests. There was no evidence of adverse impact, and turnover decreased from 40 percent to less than 3 percent in the 9-26 months following the introduction of performance testing. In comparison to paper and pencil tests, performance tests were more cost effective, more face valid, and more acceptable to applicants in this situation. Considering the growing problems in public sector management, performance testing may be viewed as a rose among thorns.     

Counseling— A Friend to Placement

The policy declaring placement as top priority, accompanied by a responsive focus of staff and budget resources, has decreased the availability of counseling services to applicants contacting the employment service. Many people, if they are to be assisted in finding and keeping jobs, need the help given by professional employment service counselors. Management and program planners need an accountability rate of the importance of counseling services in the accomplishment of the placement priority. A study, covering two years of employment activities, was conducted in the Utah agency to gain insight into the question. The statistical material studied concerned available applicants, number placed, number counseled, and counseled applicants placed. The data indicated that counseled applicants have better than twice the chance of being placed on a job than uncounseled applicants. Thus, in Utah, counseling services have a positive influence in the job placement of an applicant.     

Placement Outcomes Of Counseled Applicants

Several questions were investigated regarding the placement rates of counseled and uncounseled employment security applicants. A random sample of 221 inactive application cards was drawn from 12 employment security district offices. Comparisons were made between the counseled and uncounseled groups. It was found that counseled applicants typically had more employability barriers than did those who had not received counseling. Regardless of that fact, the placement rate of counseled applicants was almost twice that of the uncounseled. In general, as the number of counseling interviews increased there was a corresponding increase in the placement rate. This relationship was consistent with a variety of applicant groups.     

The Name Game: Employability Evaluations of Prototypical Applicants with Stereotypical Feminine and Masculine First Names

This study was designed to examine professional human resource managers recommendations and inferences about prototypical applicants who had identical qualifications, in which the presence of periods of unemployment and name (feminine, masculine) of applicants were manipulated. Results indicate that although overall income for female applicants was less than male applicants in some conditions, male applicants were penalized and evaluated more harshly than female applicants when they had experienced periods of unemployment. Specifically, male applicants with employment gaps were seen as less committed and as less hirable than their female counterparts. Overall, male applicants were less likely to be recommended for an interview, and, when they experienced multiple gaps, they were less likely to be recommended for further consideration.     

Employment Qualifications,Person–Job Fit,Underemployment Attributions,and Hiring Recommendations: A three‐study investigation

Using an experimental design across three studies and four samples, we investigated the effects of employment qualification level (i.e., underqualified, adequately qualified, or overqualified) on hiring recommendations, and how the relationship was influenced by person–job (P‐J) fit and underemployment attributions. In Study 1, we tested and found support for the strength and effectiveness of the employment qualification level manipulation. In Study 2, the results demonstrated that overqualified applicants received higher ratings on objective P‐J fit, subjective P‐J fit, and hiring recommendations than underqualified applicants. Also, overqualified applicants were rated higher on objective and subjective P‐J fit than adequately qualified applicants. However, the results indicated no significant differences between adequately qualified and overqualified applicants on hiring recommendations. Finally, P‐J fit was found to fully mediate the employment qualification level–hiring recommendation relationship, but only subjective P‐J fit (i.e., and not objective P‐J fit) was a significant mediator. In Study 3, we assessed the potential effects of underemployment attribution (i.e., internal‐controllable vs. external‐uncontrollable) on interviewer hiring recommendation. Results demonstrated that applicants who made an external‐uncontrollable attribution for their overqualification were perceived negatively and received lower ratings on hiring recommendations than applicants who made an internal‐controllable attribution for their underemployment. Furthermore, the underemployment attribution‐hiring recommendation relationship was found to be fully mediated by subjective (but not objective) P‐J fit. Contributions of these results to theory, research, and practice, strengths and limitations, and directions for future research are discussed.