Hiring Experience Research Articles

Restructured frame‐of‐reference training improves rating accuracy

SummaryThe use of heuristic judgments is prevalent in organizations and negatively impacts accurate employee assessments. To minimize the negative impact of heuristic judgments (i.e., anchoring and adjustment), we aim to improve rating accuracy by restructuring frame‐of‐reference (FOR) training. We conducted five studies (N = 1,143) using different samples (three including participants with hiring experience), training environments (onsite and online), and rating contexts (evaluations of sales representatives, teachers, contract negotiation specialists, and retail store managers). Across the five studies, the average improvement in rating accuracy was at least twice as large for restructured FOR (vs. control) training as it was for typical FOR (vs. control) training; the difference in rating accuracy between restructured and typical FOR training was statistically significant. Furthermore, minimizing the anchoring effect rather than increasing opportunities for rating adjustments improved rating accuracy (Study 4). Finally, restructured FOR training achieved higher criterion validity (i.e., a higher strength of the association between ratings regarding a target and the target's objective performance) than did typical FOR training (Studies 3 and 5). We discuss implications for improving the effectiveness of diverse training programs and the accuracy of judgments in organizations.

Competency requirements of supply chain planners & analysts and personal preferences of hiring managers

PurposeThis study aims to enhance the understanding of competency requirements of supply chain planners and analysts (SCP&As) and identify different personal preferences of hiring managers toward job candidates’ competency profiles.Design/methodology/approachA total of 243 supply chain managers with hiring experience participated in an adaptive choice-based conjoint experiment to uncover the relative importance of six competency attributes, namely, analytical and problem-solving ability, interpersonal skills, general management skills, computer/IT skills, supply chain management (SCM) knowledge and industry experience.FindingsSCM knowledge and analytical and problem-solving ability were identified as the most important competencies and were considered three times more important than general management skills. Based on convergent cluster and ensemble analysis, two types of hiring managers were identified. The first group is characterized by a pronounced preference for job candidates with extensive SCM knowledge. In contrast, the second group’s members prefer candidates with a more balanced competency profile.Originality/valueThe authors’ findings help companies to facilitate a better person–job fit, a key determinant of employee performance and job satisfaction.

Dark Motives and Elective Use of Brainteaser Interview Questions

Brainteaser interview questions such as “Estimate how many windows are in New York” are just one example of aggressive interviewer behaviour that lacks evidence for validity and is unsettling to job applicants. This research attempts to shed light on the motives behind such behaviour by examining the relation between dark‐side traits and the perceived appropriateness of brainteaser interview questions. A representative sample of working adults (n = 736) was presented with a list of interview questions that were either traditional (e.g., “Are you a good listener?”), behavioural (e.g., “Tell me about a time when you failed”), or brainteaser in nature. Results of a multiple regression, controlling for interviewing experience and sex, showed that narcissism and sadism explained the likelihood of using brainteasers in an interview. A subsequent bifactor analysis showed that these dark traits shared a callousness general factor. A second longitudinal study of employed adults with hiring experience demonstrated that perspective‐taking partially mediated the relationship between this general factor and the perceived helpfulness and abusiveness of brainteaser interview questions. These results suggest that a callous indifference and a lack of perspective‐taking may underlie abusive behaviour in the employment interview.

Adding and Averaging in Organizational Decisions: The Impact of Evaluation Mode

When does adding mildly favorable information (e.g., job experience at the Railway Credit Union) alongside highly favorable (e.g., job experience at Goldman Sachs) increase versus decrease the impressiveness of one’s achievement? We posit that whether a package of information (e.g., a resume) is evaluated by itself–in separate evaluation–or side-by-side with another package–in joint evaluation–matters. Across a variety of organizational contexts, four studies show that people “average” in separate evaluation and “add” in joint evaluation. Consequently, mildly favorable information hurts in separate evaluation but helps in joint evaluation. Studies 1 and 2 demonstrated these effects among persons with expertise (e.g., law professors judging law faculty candidates) and hiring experience. Study 3 examined a linear pattern prediction and showed that each piece of mildly favorable information included in a package linearly added to the overall impression in joint evaluation but linearly detracted from judgments of the same target in separate evaluation. Finally, Study 4 traced these differences in evaluative judgments to a shift in reference points brought about by evaluation mode. Implications for the organization specifically and our understanding of judgment and decision making processes more generally are considered.

Does Athletic Participation Signal Employability?: An Experimental Analysis of Male and Female Athlete Job Applicants

College athletes face high expectations to compete on the field and in the classroom. However, the time demands associated with athletics and academics often limit their ability to engage in traditional college experiences. Internships or practical job trainings are one such opportunity unfortunately forgone due to the time constraints of the contemporary college athlete experience. This results in an issue when applying for jobs outside of sport, as direct internship experience positively impacts an individual’s likelihood to be hired into an entry-level position. Through the application of signaling theory, the current study explored the perceived value of intercollegiate athletic participation compared to and in addition to direct internship experience via four resume evaluation experiments. Two hundred and thirty five individuals with hiring experience participated; results suggested athletic participation was perceived as at least equally favorable to direct internship experience. However, male athletes without direct internship experience were more likely to receive an interview and received higher unobserved attribute ratings than female athletes with the exact same credentials.

An Exploratory Study of the Influence of Soft and Hard Skills on Entry Level Marketing Position Interviews

This exploratory study looks at the relative impact of student soft and hard skills on entry-level marketing job interview success. Marketing professionals with hiring experience conducted pre-course and post-course structured interviews with students in a Principles of Marketing course using behaviorally anchored rating scales to tap soft and hard skills. Results indicate a significant hierarchical effect of soft skills beyond hard skills on a candidate’s likelihood of being invited back for a second interview.

Bias in Hiring Applicants With Mental Illness and Criminal Justice Involvement: A Follow-Up Study With Employers

Negative employer perceptions of job candidates with psychiatric and criminal backgrounds is one factor contributing to high unemployment rates among these groups. The current study replicated and extended Batastini et al., which evaluated stigmatizing beliefs toward hypothetical job applicants who had a known psychiatric and/or criminal history or neither (i.e., healthy control), as well as the effectiveness of a brief training component to mitigate biased attitudes. However, the current study addressed two major limitations of the original study by (a) including participants ( N = 259) who reported current, past, or expected hiring experience and (b) including employer benefits in the training component. Results were generally consistent with prior research suggesting that people with psychiatric and criminal histories experience greater stigma from employers; however, the brief educational training component demonstrated minimal impact on reducing negative attitudes regardless of the applicant’s identified psychiatric or criminal background.

Smoking as a Job Killer: Reactions to Smokers in Personnel Selection

Decades of tobacco control initiatives have turned public opinion against cigarette smoking. Smokers, once considered glamorous, are now stigmatized in domains including the workplace. Extant literature lacks scrutiny of smoker stigmatization and devaluation within the job selection process, and mechanisms that lead to such outcomes. Using an experimental design, we empirically examine initial reactions to job applicants’ smoking behaviors within two samples (N = 122 Canadian business students, and N = 143 online U.S. respondents with hiring experience). We show that initial impressions are significantly worse when job applicants smoke versus do not in a store-based context. Moreover, this effect occurs indirectly through perceived likelihood of engaging in counterproductive work behaviors (and to some extent negative emotions experienced), and is conditional upon respondents’ own attitudes towards smoking (particularly within the U.S. sample). These relationships—similar for customer service and inventory management jobs—are indicative of potential biases within the hiring process. Implications of these findings, and the moral dilemmas they raise around the treatment of smokers, are discussed from the ethical perspective of human resource management.

Learning to Hire? Hiring as a Dynamic Experiential Process in an Online Market for Contract Labor

Can employers learn to hire? This article conceptualizes hiring as a dynamic experiential learning process. Instead of examining hiring as a point in time decision, I investigate whether and how employers’ past hiring experiences affect their future decisions. Drawing on evidence from a global online market for contract labor, I argue that employers revise their beliefs regarding job applicants from a particular social category following a negative hiring experience from that social category. I analyze over 16 Million applications from freelancers worldwide for over 2.2 Million jobs from 557,416 employers. I find that employers who have a negative hiring experience with a freelancer from a particular country are subsequently less likely to hire other freelancers from that country. This effect is stronger on hiring for identical subsequent jobs and weaker for other jobs. Most strikingly, evidence from the actual hiring switches following a negative experience and a simulation using data from the observed distribution of freelancers on the platform demonstrate that employers unnecessarily oversteer away from countries given the narrow distribution of observable ability among freelancers. Switches do not result in hiring from a “better” country.

Hiring for attitude and training for skill in the library

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to emphasize that hiring a library employee in possession of a positive and winning attitude can pay enormous benefits for the organization far into the future. Design/methodology/approach – Literature review and commentary on this topic has been addressed by professionals, researchers and practitioners. Findings – While it can be difficult to completely be certain that one has made the right choice with every hire, at least by developing a set of effective interview questions, listening closely to the candidate’s responses and appraising any negative bent in mood or language with the objective of assessing attitude at the outset of the interview can lead to a more successful hiring experience. Originality/value – The value in addressing this issue is to submit that hiring employees for their attitude and training them for their skills can result in a workplace where the positive benefits of such hires can be realized daily.

Hiring Preferences in Online Labor Markets: Evidence of a Female Hiring Bias

Online labor marketplaces facilitate the efficient matching of employers and workers across geographical boundaries. The exponential growth of this nascent online phenomenon holds important social and economic implications, as the hiring decisions made on these online platforms implicate the incomes of millions of workers worldwide. Despite this importance, limited effort has been devoted to understanding whether potential hiring biases exist in online labor platforms and how they may affect hiring outcomes. Using a novel proprietary data set from a leading online labor platform, we investigate the impact of gender-based stereotypes on hiring outcomes. After accounting for endogeneity via a holistic set of job and worker controls, a matched sample approach, and a quasi-experimental technique, we find evidence of a positive hiring bias in favor of female workers. An experiment was used to uncover the underlying gender-specific traits that could influence hiring outcomes. We find that the observed hiring bias diminishes as employers gain more hiring experience on the platform. In addition, the female hiring bias appears to stem solely from the consideration of applicants from developing countries, and not those from developed countries. Subanalyses show that women are preferred in feminine-typed occupations while men do not enjoy higher hiring likelihoods in masculine-typed occupations. We also find that female employers are more susceptible to the female hiring bias compared to male employers. Our findings provide key insights for several groups of stakeholders including policy makers, platform owners, hiring managers, and workers. Managerial and practical implications are discussed. The online appendix is available at https://doi.org/10.1287/mnsc.2017.2756 . This paper was accepted by Chris Forman, information systems.

Hiring Preferences in Online Labor Markets: Evidence of a Female Hiring Bias

Online labor marketplaces facilitate the efficient matching of employers and workers across geographical boundaries. The exponential growth of this nascent online phenomenon holds important social and economic implications, as the hiring decisions made on these online platforms implicate the incomes of millions of workers worldwide. Despite this importance, limited effort has been devoted to understanding whether potential hiring biases exist in online labor platforms and how they affect hiring outcomes. Using a novel proprietary dataset from a leading online labor platform, we investigate the impact of gender-based stereotypes on hiring outcomes. After accounting for endogeneity via a holistic set of job and worker controls, a matched sample approach, and a quasi-experimental technique, we find evidence of a positive hiring bias in favor of female workers. We find that the observed hiring bias diminishes as employers gain more hiring experience on the platform. In addition, the female hiring bias appears to stem solely from the consideration of applicants from developing countries, and not those from developed countries. Sub-analyses show that women are preferred in feminine-typed occupations while men do not enjoy higher hiring likelihoods in masculine-typed occupations. We also find that female employers are more susceptible to the female hiring bias compared to male employers. We further run an experiment to uncover the underlying gender-specific traits that could influence hiring outcomes. Our findings provide key insights for several groups of stakeholders including policymakers, platform owners, hiring managers, and workers. Managerial and practical implications are discussed.

Male clients' behaviours with and perspectives about their last male escort encounter: comparing repeat versus first-time hires

Research on men who have sex with men suggests that condomless anal intercourse occurs more frequently in established sexual relationships. While comparable data regarding male-for-male escorting is unavailable, research implies that many clients seek emotional as well as physical connections with the men they hire. In 2012, 495 male clients, recruited via daddysreviews.com completed an online survey about their last hiring experience. Most participants were from the USA (85.7%), the UK and Canada (3.2% each). In total, 75% of encounters involved an escort hired for the first time; 25% were with a previously hired escort (‘repeat encounter’). The client's age, lifetime number of escorts hired and number hired in the past year were positively associated with the last encounter being a repeat encounter. Cuddling, sharing a meal, drinking alcohol, taking a walk, watching a show and shopping were also positively associated with repeat encounters. Conversely, none of the sexual behaviours were significantly associated with repeat encounters. Repeat encounters were significantly more likely to include non-sexual behaviours alongside sexual activities, but no more likely to involve condomless anal intercourse. Moreover, clients' knowledge of escorts' HIV status was not significantly associated with engaging in condomless anal intercourse with repeat encounters.

Applicant, rater, and job factors related to weight-based bias

Purpose – The aim of this paper was to assess the main and interactive effects of job applicant conscientiousness, and nurturing job demands on ratings of overweight female applicants on job suitability and a hiring recommendation. It also examined relations between rater ethnicity and ratings of the job suitability of normal and overweight applicants. Design/methodology/approach – The study used a 2×2×2 experimental design and data from 400 individuals (201 Anglos and 199 Hispanics) with hiring experience to test the study's hypotheses. Participants were randomly assigned to conditions, and asked to review a resume and picture of a normal or overweight applicant. Then, they were asked to rate the applicant's job suitability and make a hiring recommendation. Findings – The results revealed that: overweight female applicants were rated as more suitable for jobs and more likely to be recommended for hire when they had high rather than low conscientiousness; Hispanics were more likely to recommend overweight applicants for hire than Anglos; and there was a three-way interaction among applicant weight, rater ethnicity, and nurturing job demands for the hiring recommendation criterion. Research limitations/implications – The study was conducted in a simulated hiring context. Thus, research is needed to determine if the results generalize to actual work settings. Practical implications – The results suggest that organizations should provide decision makers with detailed information about applicants' conscientiousness, and the nurturing demands of jobs. When these types of information are presented, raters are less likely to display weight-based bias. Originality/value – Previous research on weight-based bias was not based on a theoretical model, but the present study used a theoretical framework to guide the development of hypotheses (Stone and Colella, 1996; Stone et al., 1992). In addition, it is the first study to examine the effects of overweight applicant conscientiousness and stereotype-job fit on ratings of job suitability, and differences between Hispanic and Anglo views of overweight applicants.

When P-J fit and P-O fit meet guanxi in a Chinese selection context

Purpose – Human resource management may have great distinctions in different cultural contexts; past researches have increasingly discovered the differences between Eastern and Western perspectives. For employee selection, Chinese bosses usually employ acquaintances and relative bases on accumulated favors and relationship intensity in Chinese society. This study aims to investigate the relative importance of P-J fit, P-O fit and guanxi when Chinese recruiters judge the qualifications of job applicants. Design/methodology/approach – To test the hypotheses in this paper, the authors use a policy capturing methodology that is widely used for analyses of human judgment and decision making. This design enables the authors to infer the way managers integrate different indices of selection in making decisions. During the period of time, the study was running, 95 participants with hiring experience in Chinese regions completed the task, and they were from several industries for the generalization of this study. Findings – The results indicate that P-J fit, P-O fit and guanxi all have a unique impact on manager's hiring decisions in Chinese society, and P-J fit is weighted more heavily than P-O fit and guanxi. Originality/value – This is the first study that integrates the Eastern and the Western perspectives, supplements the gap between selection and fit theory in the West and proves that P-J fit, P-O fit and Chinese guanxi all have individual influence on hiring decisions. “Guanxi” is the key factor that has great impact on the process of hiring decisions in Chinese societies compared with Western organizations.

Searching for Excellence & Diversity: Increasing the Hiring of Women Faculty at One Academic Medical Center

One opportunity to realize the diversity goals of academic health centers comes at the time of hiring new faculty. To improve the effectiveness of search committees in increasing the gender diversity of faculty hires, the authors created and implemented a training workshop for faculty search committees designed to improve the hiring process and increase the diversity of faculty hires at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. They describe the workshops, which they presented in the School of Medicine and Public Health between 2004 and 2007, and they compare the subsequent hiring of women faculty in participating and nonparticipating departments and the self-reported experience of new faculty within the hiring process. Attendance at the workshop correlates with improved hiring of women faculty and with a better hiring experience for faculty recruits, especially women. The authors articulate successful elements of workshop implementation for other medical schools seeking to increase gender diversity on their faculties.

A Model for Internal Auditor Selection: The Case of a Trading Company in Hong Kong

Research on internal auditor selection has had limited exposure in the auditing literature. Recently Seol & Sarkis introduced a multi‐attribute decision model, an analytic hierarchy process (AHP), for the process of internal auditor selection. The purpose of this paper is to extend and validate the proposed model by Seol & Sarkis in an actual internal auditor selection process. Real case information from a trading company in Hong Kong that has gone through a recent experience in hiring entry level internal auditors was used for the study. Data were collected using an intensive survey of the importance of each attribute/skill provided by the Competency Framework for Internal Auditing (CFIA) and followed by an actual application of such skills in a recent hiring experience. Results show the effectiveness of AHP and the comprehensive characteristics of the factors involved in the decision. Further implications of the method are also discussed in the paper.

Employers' Expectations of Knowledge and Skills of Master's-Trained Industrial Hygienists

Certified industrial hygienists with recent hiring experience were surveyed about their expectations of competencies when hiring entry-level master's-trained industrial hygienists. Results were used to affirm educational objectives and program outcomes required by new program accreditation criteria. We received 129 completed surveys from 179 eligible participants agreeing to participate. Most of the respondents were employed in very large companies (> 500 employees) and were evenly distributed in manufacturing, services, and public administration. More than 70% of respondents identified essential knowledge and skills in 11 topic areas that fall entirely within the categories of recognition, evaluation, and control. Environmental and management topics were identified as essential by less than 25% of the respondents. Nineteen competencies identified as essential by 60% of the respondents were entirely in the categories of recognition, evaluation, control, and communication. Less than 50% of the respondents thought competencies in the management area were useful but not essential. Air sampling pumps, sound level meters, noise dosimeters, and direct-reading instruments were the most frequently listed equipment with which industrial hygienists should be familiar. These survey results represent the first systematic input from employers on their expectations for competencies of master's-trained industrial hygienists.

Tests for Office Occupations

past, selecting and promoting employes for clerical positions as well as for all other positions has been based on many factors other than ability and efficiency. This condition is, however, gradually changing and in more progressive companies scientific methods are at present used with a high percentage of success. In selecting clerical employes three sources of information are: (1) a carefully filled-out personal history blank; (2) an interview with the applicant; and (3) tests which will determine their ability and skill to handle the job for which they are applying and jobs in direct promotional line. This article deals only with the third of the three items, namely, tests. A person doing employing usually goes through a certain transition of feeling concerning the relative importance of these three items. At the beginning of his hiring experience he rates the interview as being by far the most valuable, the application blank is rated second and the tests come last as least important. Gradually these change places and after a few years' experience the tests are rated as the most valuable of the three. It is very common to have an experienced employment manager say that if he could know only one thing about a person applying for a clerical job, he would take the test scores rather than the other items. Taken as a whole, tests have been more successful in sorting out undesirable candidates for clerical work and in selecting desirable ones than for any other occupation of which we know. In order to evaluate tests properly and use them successfully, office work must be divided into classes or grades. As a rough division we have executive or planning work, supervising, individual work and machine operating. Several careful classifications have been worked out and are at present in force. Due to the fact that the higher grade jobs are fewer in number than those of the lower grade, and further, since in most companies these higher jobs are filled from the ranks of the older employes, the problem becomes that of selecting for the lower grade jobs the right type of material. In addition to the job classification there must also be found a measure of efficiency of the employe on the job. Since in almost all clerical work it is difficult to find a standard of production that will be wholly fair, it becomes necessary to depend for the rating of the individual on the opinion of his immediate superior or on the combined opinion of several superiors with whom he comes in contact. This, everyone clearly recognizes, is not an ideal criterion by which to judge efficiency, but to date it has proved the best we are able to obtain. Three types of tests have been used with considerable success for selection in clerical work: (1) the general ability test; (2) the aptitude test; and (3) the trade or proficiency test. It should be emphasized that the 1 We are indebted to Mr. E. G. Stoy' for assistance in working over much of the data presented and the elimination of much of the inconclusive material published in scattered papers.