Analytics Stories

CHAPTER 24Will My New Hires Be Good Employees?

The quality of an organization's employees is critical to the success of the organization. In this chapter, we will examine how various attributes of potential hires can be used to help predict an employee's job performance. Our discussion is primarily based on Frank L. Schmidt's 2016 paper, The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 100 Years of Research Findings (https://testingtalent.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/04/2016-100-Yrs-Working-Paper-on-Selection-Methods-Schmit-Mar-17.pdf ). This paper is a meta-analysis that combines the results from many studies on the subject. The reader who is interested in exploring the details of meta-analysis should read Introduction to Meta-Analysis, by Michael Borenstein, Larry V. Hedges, Julian P. T. Higgins, and Hannah R. Rothstein (Wiley, 2009).

For a simple example of meta-analysis, suppose previous treatments for a cancer have resulted in a 10% survival rate. Five hospitals gave a new treatment to 100 patients, and at each hospital, 13 of 100 patients survive. Is the new treatment significantly better than previous treatments? If we look at any one hospital, you can show that if the new treatment had a 10% survival rate, then there would be a 19% chance that 13 or more patients would survive at a single hospital (see the “Excel Calculations” section and workbook MetaAnalysis.xlsx). We combine the results from all five ...