Using the information below and from your archive, coherently and concisely describe the Screening methods and which methods determine who is most qualified for the job.

SCREENING METHODS

We now consider the common traditionally used screening procedures, including the review of information obtained from application forms, biographical information blanks, resumes, and reference and background checks, as well as the evaluation of applicant work experience. More recent technology-enabled tools, such as social networking site searches, virtual career fairs, and virtual job auditions, will also be considered. Well-designed and implemented screening tools identify and eliminate applicants who lack the MQs for the position in a manner that is cost-effective and legally defensible. APPLICATION FORMS

Individuals applying for jobs are almost always asked to complete, online or otherwise, an employment application form, commonly referred to as an application blank, which requests information related to the MQs for the target position. The questions often involve educational background, job experience, special training, and other areas relevant to job performance. For example, successful completion of a course on CPR (cardiopul- monary resuscitation) may be an MQ for a security dispatcher.

Regardless of the specific format used, information from application forms provides a preliminary pre-employment screen that addresses position-related MQs. Use of a standard form ensures that the same information is collected from all applicants, which can then be a common point of comparison in subsequent screening activities.

Before any information on an application form can be used for screening, its job- relatedness should be established through a job analysisa fact often overlooked by employers. It is not in the interest of the employer to inappropriately exclude capable individuals from consideration, not only because it would be a lost opportunity to build capacity, but also because there is the potential of legal liability if members of protected groups are impacted. For example, if being credentialed to administer CPR is used as an application screen for security dispatcher, a court challenge could require the employer to demonstrate that the CPR credential is job related. Thus, when a screen has adverse impact against members of a designated minority group, whether intentional or other- wise, it is not sufficient to merely believe that applicants "ought" to have a particular credential. Human rights issues must be considered when developing and using any screen, including information from the application form.

humAn rightS conSiderAtionS

Employers cannot ask for information that is prohibited on discriminatory grounds under human rights legislation unless it can be established that the information is a bona fide occupational requirement (BFOR). If there is a court challenge, the employer must be able to show that the information in question is a BFOR.

Frequently, employers unwittingly collect information on application formssuch as social insurance number, date of birth, sex, marital status, number of dependants, name of next of kin, and health status3,4that leaves them open to charges of discriminatory hiring. To avoid allegations that these items were inappropriately used in the hiring process, this information should be collected only after an individual is hired. Further, it is prudent for organizations that lack HR specialists to request a human rights commission review of their application forms to ensure legal compliance. The review and approval can then be noted on the application form itself, thereby decreasing the likelihood of complaints. A template job application by the Ontario Human Rights Commission is available on its website. Also, guidelines concerning legally inappropriate application form content are provided by the Canadian Human Rights Commission. You can locate the guidelines on the CHRC site by searching A Guide to Screening and Selection in Employment at http://www.chrc-ccdp.ca/sites/default/files/ screen_1.pdf. The Canadian Human Rights Reporter is a useful source for human rights cases and legal guidelines for recruitment, screening, and assessment.

Sometimes it is necessary to collect information on applicants concerning protected class status in order to monitor applicant flow as prescribed by the Employment Equity Act. This should be done using a form and a process separate from screening, while assuring applicants that the information collected is a government requirement and will not be seen by persons making hiring decisions. Guidelines for collecting sensitive information of this nature are available from government employment equity officers.

For decisions concerning application form content, consider:

What is the purpose of including the item and how will the information be used?

Does the item conflict with provincial, territorial, or federal human rights guide- lines concerning questions that cannot be asked on an application form (see Chapter 3)?

If the item-based information is used in the screening decision, is it likely to have an adverse impact on a protected minority group?

Is it more appropriate to obtain the information only after making a job offer?

Has the job-relatedness of the item been established?

Independently of legal considerations it is important to note that employers can put themselves at a disadvantage, in tight labour markets especially, by using a poorly designed application form. For example, candidates who complete forms containing dis- criminatory questions tend to view the employer as less attractive and less just; they also express higher litigation intentions than those who complete legally compliant forms, especially when the employer fails to provide an explanation of the screening process.5 Finally, candidates encountering application forms with discriminatory questions are less likely to pursue employment with the organization, less likely to accept a job offer, and less likely to recommend the organization to a friend.6

While respecting the rights and interests of job candidates, employers also need to protect their own interests by verifying the information applicants provide. Failure to do so can be embarrassing for all parties. For example, the former manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, Tim Johnson, was forced to resign during Spring training in 1999 when he admitted to falsely claiming that he had engaged in combat duty as a Marine during the Vietnam War, as well as being offered a basketball scholarship at UCLA.7 In anticipation that applicants may distort their credentials, it should be explicitly and visibly stated on the application form that the data provided will be checked thor- oughly for accuracy. For example: "I understand that providing any false, misleading, or incomplete information is grounds for immediate discharge from employment."8 This will help discourage misrepresentation and provide grounds for dismissal should a candidate be hired and found subsequently to have embellished credentials.

Weighted Application Blanks

Sometimes information concerning a single item on an application form is sufficient to screen out a candidate, such as when successful completion of a bar exam is essential for positions involving the practice of law. However, for many applicants and many positions, a single piece of information on the application will not provide for a simple error- free determination. Instead, the screener must use personal judgment and experience to evaluate the entirety of the information the candidate provides, much like a person might review the voting record of a candidate for political office. Of course, for automated tracking and screening systems algorithms remove all personal judgment.

Whether personal judgment or algorithms filter applications, scoring keys typically bring fairness, objectivity, and standardization to the process. For example, lawyers who have not passed the bar exam might be given a score of 0, while those who have passed receive a 1. Similarly, weights are assigned to other item responses with the higher num- bers reflecting answers of applicants who subsequently proved to be successful in the target job. Summing all the assigned weights together produces a total score for each applicant. Such a formal scoring procedure is referred to as a weighted application blank (WAB) and is analogous to the process bank managers use to evaluate loan applications, as there are personal indicators, financial and otherwise, that reliably predict loan repay- ment. Of course, today, with online job application software, assignment and summing of weights is done effortlessly and instantaneously.

Like any selection instrument, the WAB must exhibit good psychometric properties. Scoring of WABs is developed against aspects of employee performance that matter to the employer. For example, low absenteeism may be so important for a security dispatcher's position that the HR manager might use the maximum permissible days absent per year to divide the current and previous dispatchers into groups that fall above and below the acceptable number. The original application forms of these particular dispatchers would then be reviewed for the pattern of item responses that best differentiates between the low- and high-absenteeism groups. So, perhaps 80 percent of security dispatchers with only a high school education fall into the good attendance category, while the remaining 20 percent have poor attendance. The 60 percent difference (i.e., 80 2 20 5 60) is the basis of the "net weight" for "high school graduate." Similarly, for university graduates, if 60 percent have a low absenteeism rate and 40 percent have a high rate, the 20 percent difference would be the "net weight" for "university graduate." The net weight derived for each education level is then transformed into a specific score. For example, applicants with only a high school education would garner a higher score (e.g., 3) than university graduates (e.g., 1). Once again, today HR analytics systems do this work for us.

Note that there are a variety of outcomes in addition to absenteeism that are important to the employer and which might be used as the basis to separate employees into acceptable and unacceptable groups. Regardless of the specific outcome chosen, the variable used to form the groups is referred to as the criterion measure.

Because establishing weights and specific scores is complex, tables have been developed to facilitate the process for the vertical percentage method (exemplified above), as well as for other approaches such as the correlational method.

Benefits of WABs

Well-constructed WABs are good predictors of certain aspects of work, such as absen- teeism and accidents. They also have been used to reduce employee turnover in the hospitality industry12,13 and among clerical employees.14 Once developed, they are both easy and economical to use especially when applications are collected digitally, such that computer algorithms can quickly and efficiently score them at low cost. Importantly, well-constructed WABs are unlikely to be considered intrusive or threatening, as most job applicants expect to complete one.

BIOGRAPHICAL DATA

A typical application form requires job candidates to provide information about their knowledge, skills, and education, as well as a narrow range of other verifiable job-related information. Use of biographical data, in contrast, addresses a wider range of content, for example, hobbies, family relationships, leisure-time pursuits, personal accomplish- ments, and early work experiences.22 Thus, as we detail later, aspects of biographical data collection may run afoul of privacy and human rights legislation.

Biographical data are synonymous with, or frequently referred to as, "autobiograph- ical data," "personal or life history information," "background data," or more simply "biodata." Such data can be collected in a relatively unstructured manner using, for example, interviews and life history essays. However, use of the biographical informa- tion blank (BIB) is the most common, wherein candidates are required to answer a series of multiple-choice or short-answer essay questions.23,24 BIBs, also known as life history or personal history inventories, are based on the assumption that past behaviour is the best predictor of future behaviour. Thus, the intent of BIB content is to obtain job- related insights from the past that provide clues concerning applicants' future interests and capabilities. Recruitment and Selection Today 7.1 presents an example of a BIB devel- oped for applicants for a managerial position. As with the WAB, the scoring procedure developed for a BIB on an initial sample should be evaluated using a second independent group before it is used operationally. Relative to the WAB, a well-designed BIB provides greater insight into the type of individuals likely to experience success in the target job.

RESUMES

Resumes provide another source of biographical information. Of course, unlike with application forms and BIBs, here applicants typically decide what to provide and how to present it, as part of an effort to give a brief, written self-introduction to the employer. Not surprisingly, resume information often overlaps with that requested by the employer on application blanks or BIBs. Employers often presume that resume information is job related and will help them to determine if a candidate satisfies the MQs. However, applicants may inadvertently include information that the employer would rather not see (e.g., citizenship, national origin, age, and marital status); that, if used as part of selection, would violate employment laws. It is difficult for an employer to prove that prohibited information on a resume did not influence decision making. To safeguard against this, and in the interest of standardization, some organizations require candidates to complete preformatted resume templates. While this could be more time consuming for applicants, it could serve as a screen in itselfwith only those individuals especially motivated com- pleting a template specific to the organization.

REFERENCE CHECKS

Applicants are often asked to provide supporting references, including past or present colleagues and supervisors, who may be asked to verify information or comment on the candidate's traits, characteristics, and behaviours. A reference check can be distinguished from employment verification, wherein the focus is on the accuracy of the job history information provided by the applicant (in the application, resume, or verbally), including matters such as dates, salary, and job title.

Since reference checks are typically collected only for applicants who make it through earlier stages of screening, they tend to be conducted near the end of the screening pro- cess. This minimizes the time and costs and protects the confidentiality of candidates who prefer that their current employer is kept unaware of their job search. Although applicants implicitly grant their permission to contact those listed as references, the prospective employer should explicitly (in writing) secure such permission. Web-based tools are beginning to appear that make it easier for employers to obtain standardized references from multiple sources in a timely manner.94 Whether obtained on the phone or in writing, the credibility of the reference will, of course, likely vary with the length.

WORK EXPERIENCE

In screening applicants using resumes, preliminary interviews, or reference checks the emphasis is on formal credentials, including formal training (e.g., license, diploma, or degree) and work experience. As most jobs involve a given level of education and/or formal training, some applicants are easily and appropriately screened out on this basis. Unfortunately, judgments concerning work experience are typically less straightforward.

Work experience refers to the applicant's past employment, which can be evaluated for its relatedness to the target position using a wide variety of dimensions including its length; the number of employers and contexts involved; and, of course, the number and type of tasks performed.118-120

For many jobs, there are important quantitative indicators of work experience. In evaluating the past employment of a car salesperson, for example, length of time, types of dealerships worked for, number of vehicles sold, and annual dollar sales would be important considerations.

While the quantitative aspects noted above are important, they might be misleading without also considering a variety of qualitative factors concerning, for example, the level, diversity, and complexity of the job. Continuing with car sales, there can be variation in (a) the level of autonomy provided by agents in negotiating with customers; (b) the number and complexity of models for sale; (c) the level of staff assistance provided; and (d) the extent to which technology was available and used. Demographics of the target market (e.g., age, gender, ethnicity, and socio-economic status) are also important to evaluating the qualitative aspect of work experience. Qualitative assessments are typically made during a screening interview, though they can also be inferred to some degree from resume content.

Accurate evaluation of work experience becomes more complex, but even more crucial, as the level and responsibilities associated with the position increase. Research has shown that the nature of experience accumulated by executives across roles, respon- sibilities, and work activities, combined with measures of their cognitive ability, proved highly predictive of their competency in strategic thinking.121

Poor screening decisions can occur if the focus is on years of experience only. Two applicants with equal job and organizational tenure can differ greatly in the level of challenge and complexity they encountered in their task assignments.122 Accordingly, screening interviews and reference checks should include some qualitative probing, for example with behavioural questions (see Chapter 9). Evaluation of work experience should align not only with that aspect of performance you wish to predict, but also with the context of the new work environment within which the successful applicant will be placed. For example, a highly regarded long-tenured employee, working mostly alone and independently in a static environment with a high level of hierarchical control, may not perform as well under the same job title in a team-based, profit-sharing, dynamic envi- ronment where empowerment is emphasized. Likewise, having worked as a supervisor in a non-unionized work environment may not provide the relevant experience for success as a supervisor in a unionized workplace. Contextual elements such as these can be easily missed in standard job descriptions, though they should be accounted for in recruiting, screening, selection, and development.

SOCIAL MEDIA NETWORKS

As use of social networking (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, and LinkedIn) has grown, employers are accessing these sites, mostly during the screening process,135 for information concerning the social, political, and leisure activities of applicants.136 For example, 45 percent of hiring managers in the United States indicated that they searched social network sites (SNSs) for information on job applicants; moreover, 35 percent of this same group made a decision "not to hire" based on this information.137 Simi- larly, a 2013 CareerBuilder survey conducted online in Canada and the United States (involving polling 5518 job seekers and 2775 hiring managers) revealed that 44 percent of the respondents reviewed applicant profiles on Facebook, while 27 percent monitored Twitter accounts.138 Of the employers that screened applicants online, 65 percent were interested in the "professionalism" of the candidate; 51 percent were assessing cultural.

VIRTUAL CAREER FAIRS

Employers are increasingly turning to electronically administered career fairs to recruit and screen job candidates. Digital career fairs electronically match posi- tion openings to posted candidate profiles. Chat lines are often available to allow employers to share information about the hiring process and the company; any interested candidate can view the content and post follow-up questions. Within this infrastructure, separate and private one-to-one exchanges can be arranged online, to allow for further screening prior to any arranged in-person interviews. Indeed, many colleges and universities have adopted this relatively new technology-enabled plat- form as it efficiently and effectively services recruiter and applicant needs. You can read more about virtual career fairs at https://blogs.wsj.com/atwork/2014/04/03/ so-long-interview-suit-here-comes-the-virtual-career-fair

VIRTUAL JOB AUDITIONS

Another fairly recent development involving the application of technology to screening involves Select International (http://www.selectinternational.com) and Toyota Motor Engineering and Manufacturing of North America, which partnered to develop and use virtual job auditions.147 Specifically, applicants for assembly positions at the Toyota Tundra plant in San Antonio, Texas, must participate in an online work simulation requiring, for example, that candidates read dials and gauges, spot safety problems, and interactively engage in general problem-solving activities. Candidates passing this virtual simulation get invited to a hands-on tryout, involving the lifting of 23-kilogram car parts, bolting nuts with an air gun, and spray-painting vehicles. It is likely that the use of virtual reality technology in employee screening, selection, and development will grow exponen- tially over the next few years as the depth and richness of the software applications (e.g., virtual reality) continue to improve and the cost declines.