Human Resources Management Commons^™

What Are Best Practices For Conducting Hiring Interviews?, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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When it comes to conducting hiring interviews, many managers rely more on their gut instincts regarding what questions to ask and how to evaluate candidates’ responses in order to decide who to hire. Given the importance of hiring for achieving agency outcomes, it makes sense to invest time and attention into planning how to conduct your interviews. The QIC-WD reviewed the research on hiring interviews and found evidence of a number of factors that can improve the effectiveness of your interview practice. • Plan ahead. As with many things in life, advance preparation will yield the best results when you …

The Role Of Situations In Situational Judgment Tests: Effects On Construct Saturation, Predictive Validity, And Applicant Perceptions, Philipp Schäpers, Patrick Mussel, Filip Lievens, Cornelius J. König, Jan-Philipp Freudenstein, Stefan Krumm

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

Recent theorizing and empirical evidence suggesting thatsituational judgment tests (SJTs) are more context-independent than previouslythought has sparked a debate about the role of situation descriptions in SJTs.To contribute to this debate and add to our understanding of how SJTs work,this paper conceptually embeds SJT performance in a situation construal modeland examines the effects of situation descriptions on the construct saturationand predictive validity of SJT scores, as well as on applicant perceptions.Across two studies (N = 1,092 and 578) and different SJTs, personality andcognitive ability were equally important determinants of SJT performance regardlessof whether situation descriptions were presented or omitted. The …

Does Your Agency Embrace Evidence -Based Management Practices?, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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Child welfare agencies are encouraged to use evidencebased practices in all aspects of their work to try to improve outcomes for children and families. The child welfare field has made improvements in using data, research, and evaluation to inform practice and decision-making, but still has a ways to go. The primary goal of the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) is to build the evidence base regarding strategies to strengthen the child welfare workforce. One means of practicing evidence-based management for improving workforce outcomes is using workforce analytics. As part of the Child Welfare Workforce Analytics Institute, the QIC-WD …

Louisiana Progress Update- Redesigning The Child Welfare Worker Position, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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When there is a high workload, there is often a lot of turnover and when there is a lot of turnover the remaining workforce has an even greater workload. The Louisiana Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) was all too familiar with this negative cycle and the impact it was having on its child welfare workforce. When DCFS became a Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD) site, they were ready to make a significant change to their workforce operations. After a thorough needs assessment, DCFS decided to work with the QIC-WD on a job redesign project to strengthen …

Informal Learning Behaviors, Megan Paul, Robert Blagg

Umbrella Summaries

What are informal learning behaviors?

Informal learning behaviors (ILBs) are self-directed, intentional activities to acquire knowledge and skill outside of formal learning environments (Cerasoli, Alliger, Donsbach, Mathieu, Tannenbaum, & Orvis, 2017). Informal learning is distinct from learning that is externally imposed or required, involves structured content or processes, or occurs accidentally (Cerasoli et al., 2017). It is the day-to-day, on-the-job learning that occurs in the workplace. ILBs include things like observing, asking questions, seeking information, and practicing (Cerasoli et al., 2017). A highly related behavior is seeking feedback, which is sometimes described as a form of informal learning but has …

Virginia Progress Update - The Timely Implementation Of A Technology Solution, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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The pandemic is pushing the U.S. workforce to adapt and seek mobile solutions to carry out key tasks. Virginia’s child welfare workforce strengthening effort, supported by the Quality Improvement Center for Workforce Development (QIC-WD), includes a transcription service and a mobile solution (an application or app) on iPads to help the workforce manage their administrative and family engagement tasks out of the office. The effort began in 2017 but demand has been heightened by the pandemic. This post summarizes what the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) has accomplished and learned as they roll out new technology to thousands of …

A Unifying Framework To Study Workplace Decision-Making Aptitude And Performance, Nikki Blacksmith, Maureen E. Mccusker, Theodore L. Hayes

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Employers are facing a skills shortage in the labor market: there are not enough workers who can perform the complex decision-making tasks that characterize 21st-century work. This manuscript aims to stimulate research investigating the relationship among individual differences, decision-making aptitude, and decision performance. We offer guidelines for future research by laying out a framework to unify disparate streams of research from organizational science, and judgment and decision-making research. We advocate for the use of pattern-oriented analytical approaches to capture the complexities of the predictor and criterion space.

The Impact Of Nondiagnostic Information On Selection Decision Making: A Cautionary Note And Mitigation Strategies, Dev K. Dalal, Levi Sassaman, Xiaoyuan (Susan) Zhu

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Selection decision makers are inundated with information from which to make decisions about the suitability of a job candidate for a position. Although some of this information is relevant for making a high-quality decision (i.e., diagnostic information), much of the information is actually unrelated to the decision (i.e., nondiagnostic information). Although the deleterious effects of nondiagnostic information on selection decision making have been demonstrated, the prevalence and impact of this type of information is increasing, especially with recent advances in new selection methods used by employers. The purpose of this paper, therefore, is to caution selection decision makers, and/or those …

Threat Of Technological Unemployment, Use Intentions, And The Promotion Of Structured Interviews In Personnel Selection, Kevin P. Nolan, Dev K. Dalal, Nathan Carter

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Meehl (1986) proposed that an important factor underlying professional decision makers’ resistance to standardized decision aids is threat of technological unemployment – fear that using the practices would reduce the perceived value of their employment. Nolan, Carter, and Dalal (2016) provided initial support for threat of technological unemployment being a factor that contributes to practitioners’ reluctance to adopt scientifically meritorious standardized hiring practices. This study serves to further develop the theory of threat of technological unemployment in personnel selection by (a) replicating the findings of our earlier research using a within-subjects methodology that is more generalizable to the cognitive processes …

Decoy Effects Improve Diversity Hiring, Nathan R. Kuncel, Jeffrey A. Dahlke

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

A growing literature demonstrates that when making choices among multiple options, decision makers are strongly influenced by the mere presence of additional options, even when those options are largely undesirable and are never actually selected. The effects of irrelevant options on decisions, often called decoy effects, have been observed in hiring and admissions decisions where the nature of a third candidate can radically shift preferences. In this study, we examine the influence of decoy effects on diversity hiring and extend research by examining choices with more than two organizational goals. Results indicate that the presence of a second candidate who …

Does Feedback Increase Decision Aid Use Among Hiring Professionals?, Aneeqa Thiele, Alexander T. Jackson, Stacey M. Stremic, Satoris S. Howes

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

We examined the influence of formative and outcome feedback on people’s reliance on decision aids. Decision aids are tools that managers can use to increase the accuracy of their hiring decisions. In our study, participants were asked to make 20 different hiring decisions and make predictions of a candidate’s performance on the job, with the option of using a decision aid formula. We manipulated whether participants received feedback on the accuracy of their predictions, the accuracy of the decision aid’s predictions, or both. The results demonstrated that feedback failed to have a significant impact on decision aid use for both …

Communicating Validity Information To Differentially Experienced Audiences: The Effects Of Numeracy And Nontraditional Metrics, Nathaniel M. Voss, Christopher J. Lake

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

One of the biggest challenges facing organizational researchers is convincing practitioners to adopt evidence-based personnel selection practices such as the structured interview. In this study, we examined the effects of nontraditional validity metrics and numeracy by presenting validity information about the structured interview to audiences with differing amounts of interview experience (students, working adults, and hiring managers). The results indicated that nontraditional metrics were associated with higher understanding, more positive attitudes, and greater perceptions of the usefulness of the structured interview. These effects were constant across differing levels of numeracy. Additionally, the results revealed that nontraditional metrics result in more …

Pushing The Limits For Judgmental Consistency: Comparing Random Weighting Schemes With Expert Judgments, Martin C. Yu, Nathan R. Kuncel

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

Consistent use of information has been identified as a critical issue that can undermine expert predictions. Using three personnel assessment datasets, we conduct Monte Carlo simulations to compare the accuracy of expert judgements for predicting the job performance of managers against four different weighting schemes: consistent random weights, completely random weights, unit weights, and optimal weights. Expert accuracy fell within the completely random weight distribution in two samples and at the low end of the consistent random weight distribution in one sample. In other words, consistent random weights reliably outperformed expert judgment for hiring decisions across three datasets with a …

Introduction To The Special Issue On Applications Of Judgment And Decision Making To Problems In Personnel Assessment, Edgar E. Kausel, Alexander T. Jackson

Personnel Assessment and Decisions

No abstract provided.

Workplace Supports For Lgbt Employees, Toby Burnham, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are workplace supports for LGBT employees?

Workplace supports for LGBT employees are organizational policies and practices that are thought to improve the work experiences of LGBT employees and foster diversity within an organization. Although there isn’t one set of specific workplace supports for LGBT employees, one way of summarizing the contextual supports in the workplace is to categorize them as (a) formal LGBT-supportive policies and practices, (b) LGBT-supportive climates, and (c) supportive workplace relationships (Webster, Adams, Maranto, Sawyer, & Thoroughgood, 2017). Formal policies and practices that are supportive of LGBT employees include things like same-sex benefits coverage, LGBT resource …

Perspectives From A Prevention Team, Jaqueta Taylor, Rynika Polk, Jackie Gooch

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Louisiana’s redesign includes the creation of prevention teams. The prevention teams include one supervisor, three child protective services (CPS) workers, two family services (FS) workers, and one child welfare team specialist. Over the course of the past year each team was established, trained, and worked together to build a cohesive unit. Team members expressed a mix of excitement and concern about their new roles. The redesign meant the supervisor was managing new team members, workers were delegating tasks they were previously responsible for, and team specialists were new to the team and had to establish trust with their coworkers. The …

My Experience With Cfs Strong, Lana Sayre

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I am a child and family services specialist supervisor with the Nebraska Department of Health and Human Services. A few years ago, I volunteered to take over for another member of the workforce retention team that was working with the QIC-WD to develop/select an intervention that Nebraska could implement to reduce employee turnover among child and family services specialists (CFSS), our frontline worker position. Employee retention is a constant, ongoing challenge. Our work is challenging and very stressful. You have to be an expert in child safety and have a broad understanding of all of the issues which affect the …

Presenteeism, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is presenteeism?

Presenteeism is not simply a matter of attending, or being physically present, at work. Rather, it refers to going to work while ill and, in some cases, also includes the concept of lost productivity as a result (Johns, 2010; McGregor, Sharma, Magee, Caputi, & Iverson, 2017). Unlike absenteeism, which can be measured through personnel records, presenteeism is measured by employee self-report via surveys or interviews. For the more limited definition (going to work ill), employees are asked whether or how often in the past they showed up to work when they were sick and should have taken …

Grit, Maggie Thompson, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is grit?

Grit is a personality trait that is defined as “perseverance and passion for long-term goals” (Duckworth, Peterson, Matthews, & Kelly, 2007, p. 1087) and as “… not just resilience in the face of failure, but also having deep commitments that you remain loyal to over many years” (Perkins-Gough, 2013, p. 14). It has been conceptualized as a higher-order trait comprised of two lower order facets: perseverance of effort (the tendency to work hard even in the face of setbacks) and consistency of interest (the tendency to not frequently change goals and interests). The two primary self-report measures …

Diversity Training, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is diversity training?

Diversity training refers to a “distinct set of instructional programs aimed at facilitating positive intergroup interactions, reducing prejudice and discrimination, and enhancing the skills, knowledge, and motivation of participants to interact with diverse others” (Bezrukova, Spell, Perry, & Jehn, 2016, p. 1,228). In the absence of a standard approach, there has been significant variation in the design and context of diversity training.

The following characteristics have been identified as differing across trainings reported in the research literature (Bezrukova et al., 2016):

► Content Focus: Group-specific training focuses on learning about one or more specific groups (e.g., …

What We Know About Pandemics And The Stress They Cause, Anita Barbee

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Pandemics are not new, but they significantly impact how we work, socialize, and manage our health. This can be especially difficult for those in the helping professions for whom face-to-face contact and travel are part of their daily routine. This blog post explains what a pandemic is and the stress that it causes. What is a Pandemic? When the spread of a disease escalates, it can become a pandemic, affecting a wide geographical area and a significant portion of the population. Pandemics are marked by uncertainty, confusion, and a sense of urgency which may be exacerbated by the inundation of …

Managing Stress While Working From Home During The Pandemic: Strategies For Self-Care, Andrew Winters

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Stress is often driven by feeling a lack of control over things you once had control over. This lack of control can create feelings of anxiety, depression, and even anger. This blog post highlights some elements of self-care that can help you stay present and regain a sense of control where you can. Manage your newsfeed How much information are you consuming about the pandemic? Too much news can add to your stress. Try to minimize your consumption of news about the outbreak to once a day, preferably in print format (e.g. magazines, newspapers) and limit your exposure to media …

Mindfulness, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is mindfulness?

Mindfulness is described as “paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment, and nonjudgmentally” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 22). Instead of being on autopilot and reacting in reflexive and mindless ways, perhaps with a focus on the past or the future, it is about being fully aware of and present in the moments of our lives. The nonjudgmental aspect is about not leaping to “likes and dislikes, opinions and prejudices, projections and expectations” (Kabat-Zinn, 1994, p. 23) and instead observing without evaluating. Mindfulness is considered both a trait and a state. Trait mindfulness refers …

Employment Interviews, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What are employment interviews?

Employment interviews are defined as “a personally interactive process of one or more people asking questions orally to another person and evaluating the answers for the purpose of determining the qualifications of that person in order to make employment decisions” (Levashina, Hartwell, Morgeson, & Campion, 2014, p. 243). Interviews are often loosely described as being either structured or unstructured, varying in the extent to which interviewers have freedom and flexibility in carrying out the interview (Huffcutt & Arthur, 1994). Within this broad dichotomy, there are many structural aspects on which interviews can differ (Campion, Palmer, & …

My Experience With Resilience Alliance In Ohio, Heather Murphy

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I am a caseworker at Summit County Children Services. I have been doing this work for 12 years and am currently part of the Family Preservation Unit. Our intent is to work with families on a voluntary, short-term, intensive basis. Our main goal is to ensure child safety while providing the family with services that can improve stability and enhance their overall functioning. My unit was developed in May 2018 to work with families on a voluntarily basis. Family Preservation consists of seven direct staff workers and one supervisor. Our unit is very supportive of one another and relies on …

Job Involvement, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is job involvement?

Job involvement refers to an individual’s psychological identification with their job (Kanungo, 1982). The preferred measure is the 10-item Job Involvement Questionnaire, which includes questions such as, “Most of my interests are centered around my job,” “I consider my job to be very central to my existence,” and “Most of my personal life goals are job oriented” (Kanungo, 1982).

Why is job involvement important?

Job involvement is important because it is associated with several important work outcomes. Specifically, it is strongly related to job satisfaction (Brown, 1996), organizational commitment, and career commitment (Cooper-Hakim & Viswesvaran, 2005). …

Psychological Capital, Megan Paul

Umbrella Summaries

What is psychological capital?

Psychological capital (PsyCap) is a composite of four positive psychological resources—efficacy, optimism, hope, and resilience. More specifically, PsyCap is an individual’s positive psychological state of development characterized by: (1) having confidence (efficacy) to take on and put in the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resilience) to attain success (Luthans, Youssef, …

Nebraska Progress Update– Addressing Secondary Traumatic Stress, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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In December 2017, 53% of Nebraska child welfare workforce respondents had recently experienced elevated levels of secondary traumatic stress (STS) symptoms, according to a survey of 40% of the workforce conducted by the QIC-WD. STS can mimic the symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) (Bride, 2007) such as nightmares, avoidance, sleep disruption, and irritability. A recent study, conducted in another jurisdiction, found that 37% of CPS workers reported at least moderate symptoms of STS (Baugerud, Vangbaek and Melinder, 2018), indicating Nebraska’s rate of STS was high relative to other child welfare workers. Since STS has been linked to low rates …

Learning Together: Strategies Used By Child Welfare Supervisors To Manage A Virtual Workforce, Quality Improvement Center For Workforce Development

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In April 2020, the QIC-WD and National Child Welfare Workforce Institute co-hosted a webinar, Supporting the Virtual Workforce: Virtual Supervision, to provide guidance on virtual supervision and provide opportunities for participants to exchange information about their experiences. More than 1,500 child welfare supervisors, workers, and managers from across the U.S. participated in this event. They shared examples of what they’re doing to care for each other, care for themselves, stay safe, and stay connected. This summary highlights the common challenges and opportunities identified during the webinar and presents a variety of strategies to cope and supervise in a virtual work …

Power And Negotiation: Review Of Current Evidence And Future Directions, Michael Schaerer, Laurel Teo, Nikhil Madan, Roderick I. Swaab

Research Collection Lee Kong Chian School Of Business

This review synthesizes the impact of power on individual and joint negotiation performance. Although power generally has positive effects on negotiators’ individual performance (value claiming), recent work suggests that more power is not always beneficial. Taking a dyadic perspective, we also find mixed evidence for how power affects joint performance (value creation); some studies show that equal-power dyads create more value than unequal-power dyads, but others find the opposite. We identify the source of power, power distribution, and competitiveness as critical moderators of this relationship. Finally, we suggest that future research should move beyond studying alternatives in dyadic deal-making, identify …