I R E 3 4 8 R E C R U I T M E N T A N D
S E L E C T I O N
Lecture 5: Job Performance
Dr. Brad Seward
A G E N D A
1. Final project groups
2. Midterm discussion
3. Part I: What is job
performance?
4. Part II: Performance
measure strategy
F I N A L P R O J E C T G R O U P S I G N U P
• Live—under “Course Info” module on Quercus
• 3 members per group
• Please sign up and color code your group. Please use the name corresponding to your
course registration on quercus and ensure your email is correct!
• We’ll discuss the final project when we return from reading week
A “ T I N D E R M A T C H ” M A D E I N H E A V E N
• Last week we discussed
job analysis to identify
the KSAOs related to the
jobs we’re hiring for.
• Now we need to assess
the KSAOs of applicants
to ensure a good match.
JOB KSAOs (job
analysis)
Employee KSAOS
(performance
assessment)
S O C I A L M E D I A A N D J O B S C R E E N I N G
• What could social media tell you about a potential
applicant?
• Would social media predict job counterproductive
behaviors? What about potential performance?
• Should employers use social media to screen applicants?
J O B P E R F O R M A N C E : A C O U P L E O F T E R M S T O K N O W
• Job performance
behaviour (the observable things people do) that is relevant to
accomplishing the goals of an organization
• Criteria
measures of job performance that attempt to capture individual
differences among employees with respect to job-related
behaviours
T H E G O A L I S T O I D E N T I F Y P E R F O R M E R S
Job Performance
Selection
Recruitment
• The goal here is to identify reliable
and valid ways of identifying KSAOs
linked to performance
• Sounds easy right?
• The trick is determining a defensible
system that will effectively
accomplish this.
• Best accomplished in a feedback
loop to better inform the process.
A N E X A M P L E
• You’re in charge of selecting officers in the military—people who
will have to perform in intense international conflict situations.
What criteria do you focus on?
o Do you recruit and select based on job-related technical
skills?
o What about core competencies like leadership, courage, self-
discipline, selflessness?
o What if these things are at odds? Do some of these criteria
matter more than others?
• Job performance “domains”—a multidimensional concept
• the set of job performance dimensions (i.e., behaviours) that
are relevant to the goals of the organization, or the unit, in
which a person works
T H I S S T U F F I S C O M P L E X . . S O L E T S B R E A K I T D O W N
1. Task Performance
• duties related
to the direct
contribution
to the org that
form part of a
job
• these duties
are part of the
worker’s
formal job
description
2. Contextual
Performance
• activities or
behaviours
that are not
part of a
worker’s
formal job
description
• but are
important for
effectiveness
3. Adaptive
Performance
• a worker’s
behavioural
reactions to
changes in a
work system
or work role
4. Counterproductive
Performance
• Voluntary
behaviours
that violate
significant org
norms
• threaten
the well-being
of an
organization,
its members,
or both
C O M P O N E N T S
O F I N D I V I D U A L
W O R K
P E R F O R M A N C E
W H Y D O S O M E P E R F O R M , A N D O T H E R S D O N ’ T :
C A M P B E L L ’ S T H E O R Y O F P E R F O R M A N C E
ü Declarative knowledge
ü Procedural knowledge and skill
ü Motivation
P U L L I N G I T A L L T O G E T H E R : M E A S U R I N G
P E R F O R M A N C E
• The usefulness of selection measures is assessed by how well they
predict performance.
• Performance measurement defines what is meant by performance.
• Translation: Choose a measure or set of measures that best captures the
essence of the complexities of job-related performance.
• Performance measurement plays an important role in developing
strategies for effective recruitment and selection.
P A R T I I : J O B P E R F O R M A N C E
M E A S U R E M E N T S T R A T E G I E S

W E T E N D T O F I N D T H A T F U N N Y B E C A U S E I T ’ S A L L O F U S .
Everyone’s performance dips over time… the
question is, how much?
W H E N T O M E A S U R E ?
• Early in an employees’ tenure, or several months later?
• frequent measurements during training is popular
• Typical performance, or maximal performance?
• Taking both short and long term measures have their uses
W H A T D A T A S H O U L D W E U S E ?
A broader question is how we intend to measure each dimension in an
empirical sense. In other words, what type of data should we use?
• Objective performance measures
• Subjective performance measures
L E T ' S S T A R T W I T H
O B J E C T I V E J O B
P E R F O R M A N C E
M E A S U R E S
T W O C L A S S E S O F S U B J E C T I V E M E A S U R E S :
Relative rating systems (or comparative ranking systems)
• Comparing employees against one another to create a rank order
Absolute rating systems
• Compares the performance (either within dimensions or overall) of
each employee against an absolute standard
T Y P E S O F R E L A T I V E R A T I N G S Y S T E M S
1. Rank Order
• the rater arranges the
employees in order of
their perceived
overall performance
level
2. Paired
Comparisons
• the rater compares
the overall
performance of each
worker with that of
every other worker
who must be
evaluated
3. Forced
Distribution
• system sets up a
limited number of
categories that are
tied to performance
standards
• Example: a certain
percentage gets an A, a
certain percentage a B,
etc.
A B S O L U T E R A T I N G S Y S T E M S
• Compares the performance of one worker with an absolute standard of
performance
• Provides either an overall evaluation of performance or evaluation of
each of the job dimensions
• Examples:
o I: Graphic Rating Scales
o II: Behaviourally Anchored Rating Scales
o III: Behaviour Observation Scales
I : G R A P H I C R A T I N G S C A L E S
• Qualities:
• presents raters with the name and
description of job dimension,
• a scale showing equal numeric
intervals to reflect gradients of low to
high performance
• Verbal labels or “anchors” attached
to each numeric scale point
• Provides the rater with instructions
I I : B E H A V I O U R A L L Y A N C H O R E D R A T I N G
S C A L E S ( B A R S )
• Remember Critical Incident Technique (CIT)
from our job analysis discussion?
oBARS use CIT statements to derive job
behaviours at varying levels of effectiveness
oThen uses these statements to anchor
performance as a measure of values placed
along a rating scale
Harder than it looks—you have to sort through and
create a composite of CITs that have been assigned
similarly high ratings by subject matter experts
I I I : B E H A V I O U R O B S E R V A T I O N S C A L E S ( B O S )
•An attempt to improve upon
BARS
•Behavioural statements focus on
examples of positive behaviours
for each job
•Using a numeric scale, the
employee is rated on the
frequency of the positive
behaviour
•Individual scores then summed
for an overall rating
Multisource
360 Degree
Feedback
Third Parties
Customers
Self-
Appraisals
Subordinates
Peers
By Superiors
Subjective appraisals: the 360
R A T E R T R A I N I N G
• With subjective performance assessments, it is vital that raters receive
rater training
• Frame-of-reference (FOR) training:
• calibrate raters so they agree on the level of effectiveness for
individual employee behaviours
• Although rater training has been shown to lead to significant improvements
in rating quality, we’ll never be perfect—even with the best training
approaches!
A C C U R A C Y I S E Q U A L L Y E S S E N T I A L
• Overall distance accuracy
o The average discrepancy between an individual rater’s ratings and a set of
expert ratings that serves as the standard for comparison
Criterion relevance vs criterion deficiency
• if we have measures that are unimportant or irrelevant to the performance
dimension, we can say we have not maximized criterion relevance
• If we’ve left out important dimensions necessary to comprehensively
understand employee performance, we are criterion deficient
Range restriction Occurs when raters use only a portion of the performance rating
scale
Halo/Horn error Occurs when appraisers rate an individual either high (halo) or
low (horn) on all characteristics because one characteristic is
either high or low
Leniency/Harshness
effect
Tendency of many appraisers to provide unduly high or low
performance appraisals
Contrast effect Tendency for a set of performance appraisals to be influenced
upward by the presence of a very low performer or downward by
the presence of a very high performer
Similarity effect Tendency of appraisers to inflate the appraisals of appraisees
they see as similar to themselves
Central tendency error Occurs when appraisers rate all employees as “average” in
everything
Recency effect Tendency of appraisers to overweight recent events when
appraising employee performance
Beauty effect Tendency for the physical attractiveness of a ratee to affect their
performance appraisal
T H E “ F A I R ” F A C T O R
• Remember that subjective element of “fairness”
ØAre manager and employees:
a. satisfied with the performance
assessments?
b. do they perceive the assessments to be
both fair and accurate?; and
c. do they perceive the assessments to be
useful or practical?
Fair
H U M A N R I G H T S A N D P E R F O R M A N C E A P P R A I S A L
• Remember: Whatever method your org chooses, the
defensibility of selection systems and performance
measures rests on the ability to demonstrate that they are
job related
M O D E R N P R O B L E M S … R E Q U I R E M O D E R N S O L U T I O N S
• You may have heard it already: “this call may be monitored for employee training
purposes"
• Technology has changed the performance measurement landscape
• Employee Performance Monitoring
the earliest sign that technology would infiltrate performance measurement was
through the introduction of Electronic Performance Monitoring (EPM).
for example:
• audiotaping conversations, videotaping employee activities, and computer tracking.