Methods of Selection:

Biographical Information
Prepared By: Raymart C. Betonio
BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION
The collection of biographical information on the
background of the job applicants IS a common method of
selection. Biographical information has been shown to be of
great value 111 predicting performance in a variety of jobs.

The rationale for this selection technique is 'simple --

a person’s past experiences can be used to predict his or her
future directions. Because many of our behaviors, values and
attitudes r 1 min consistent throughout our lives, it is not
unreasonable to predict a person’ s future behavior on the
basis of how he or she behaved in the past.
STANDARD APPLICATION BLANKS
Rarely is anyone hired by an organization at any level of
employment without being asked to complete an application
blank. Indeed, this is one of the most popular techniques in
personal selection and hiring. Even when other methods of
assessment are used, the application blank is usually the initial step
for the applicant to take. Not only does it provide useful information
but it can also provide leads for subsequent interview questions.
The information solicited on an application blank includes
routine biographical data. For higher positions, applicants might be
asked to describe their interests and hobbies and their career .
goals.
 The most crucial problem in constructing an application blank involves
deciding what information to ask of an applicant. Beyond the routine
biographical data, it is important that the company ascertain those-facts
about the candidate that may correlate with subsequent success on the
job.
Much valuable predictive information can be obtained from
application forms.
An application form should be limited to questions that provide useful
guides for selection. Some companies use excessively long application
blanks in an attempt to gather information on every conceivable facet
of an applicant’s life, whether or not .the data are known to be useful,
A It may appear to be a simple matter for an organization to check
on the accuracy of the information supplied on an application form by
contacting colleges and former employers.
Weighted Application Blanks
Once the correlation between each item of information and
subsequent job success has been determined, it is possible to score
an application blank with specific weight for each item.
Research on each item of an application blank must be
repeated periodically to check on the continuing predictive value
of the information particularly if there has been a change in job
procedure or the overall labor supply.
Weighted application blanks have been very successful in
reducing turnover. The items that are usually of the greatest
predictive value are age, marital status, level of education, and
prior occupations.
Biographical Inventories

Closely related to the Weighted application blanks is the

biographical inventories or biographical information blanks. The
approach has been shown to be a valid predictor of success in a
variety of jobs. Biographical inventories have a greater predictive
value than any other selection technique except for tests of
cognitive or mental ability.
Biographical inventories are typically much longer than
application blanks and cover information on an applicant’s life in
greater detail. The rationale for this extensive probing is that on-
the-job. behavior is related to past behavior in a variety of
situations as well as to attitudes, preferences and values.
 A great deal of research has been conducted on biographical
inventories. The findings have generally supported the underlying
theory that past behavior can be used to predict future behavior.
There appears to be a stability _over time in the different ways in
which people with different early life experiences behave.
Biographical inventories usually are developed for a specific
job and considerable research is necessary to determine the
background experiences that correlate with success on the job,
The process of item validation is essentially the same as for
the weighted application blank each item is correlated with some
measure of job performance.
Although noted biographical inventories have become
popular, there are some problems inherent in this technique. First,
there is the obvious problem of invasion of privacy.
 Some items on biographical inventories are of a most personal
nature and some people object to being asked to reveal
intimacies. Of course, not all people are bothered by being asked
to reveal personal information.
Invasion of privacy is a sensitive and important issue and has an
obvious bearing on the selection process wherein an organization
is trying to learn as much as possible about an individual.
Another problem with biographical inventories relates to equal
employment opportunities. Many biographical inventory items deal
with social and economic variables.
Despite these problems, however, biographical inventories have
been successful as a selection device and are being used
frequently and with enthusiasm.
INTERVIEWS
The personal interview is the single most frequently used election
technique. Regardless of what other selection techniques are used,
every prospective employer seems to want to meet a job candidate in
person.
The primary purpose of an interview is to provide a face-to-face
meeting for evaluating an applicant’s suitability for employment. A
frequently overlooked point about the interview is a at it can provide a
two-way flow of information allowing each party to assess the other. Not
only do employers gain additional information about the candidates
but applicants can learn about it 9 organization and the job under
consideration.
The predictive validity of the interview is embarrassingly low, a
conclusion first demonstrated by Walter Dill Scott.
 Two traditional kinds of interview are the
standard or instructural interview. and the patterned
or structural interview.
The unstructured interview is characterized by a
lack of structural or advance planning. So loose is this
method that it is sometimes considered to be
haphazard. The format and approach to questioning
as well as the questions asked are left entirely to the
discretion of the individual interviewer.
 A basic weakness of the unstructured interview is its lack of
consistency in assessing candidates. Interviewers may be
interested in different aspects of a candidate’s background,
experience, or attitudes, thus, the results of an interview may
reflect more of the characteristic biases and prejudices of the
interviewer than the objective abilities of the applicant.
The opposite of the loose and haphazard unstructured interview
is the patterned or structural interview. This approach uses a
predetermined list of interview questions that are asked of every
applicant in a particular job category. Thus, the entire procedure is
standardized so that the resulting assessment of candidates is less
open to interviewer’s bias. Although subjective and personal
factors can still influence the interviewer’s judgment, this is less of a
problem in the structured interview.
 Structured interviews represent a considerable
improvement over unstructured interviews and have
the potential for higher predictive validity. A number
of studies verify this. In one investigation, three
interviewing strategies were compared: (1) a
structured interview in which the interviewer followed
explicitly the questions on an interview guide; (2) a
semistructured interview in which the guide was
followed, but the interviewer was free to interject
additional questions; and (3) an unstructured
interview in which no guides was used.
 Combining the judgments about a prospective
employee seems to improve reliability and validity and
to temper the possible biasing effects of employee
characteristics that are not job related.
A relatively recent innovation in interviewing is the
use of video-tape. This does not involve the traditional
face-to-face, question-and-answer interview.
 It is fortunate that at least in some organizations, the
interview is not the sole selection technique because it is
notoriously inaccurate by itself. There are a number of
additional problems that must be overcome.

1) Failure of interviewers to agree. A major problem with the

interview is the difficulty of getting several interviewers to
agree in their assessments of the same applicants,
particularly with the unstructured interview technique. A
classic study in the area involved having 12 interviewers
independently rate 57 app1icants on their suitability for a
sales job.
2) Failure to predict job success. Even if the problem of
interviewer’s consistency were solved, there remains difficulty of
the predictive accuracy of validity of the interview technique.
Research has demonstrated a disappointingly low correlation
between interview judgments and subsequent job success. As
noted, the major cause for the lack of predictive utility is that
the interview is a subjective interpersonal process. The
interviewer’s assessment of a candidate can be distorted by
personal prejudices as well as by the nature of the interview
situation.
Another factor that may account for the failure of most
interviews to predict job success is that inter~ viewers tend to be
affected much more by negative information about an
applicant than they are by positive information.
3) Stress of the interview situation. A trained and experienced
interviewer can do much to prevent or reduce applicants’
nervousness by trying to establish a rapport early in the
interview. How sympathetic, understanding, and friendly
the interviewer appears can influence the applicants
behavior, which, in turn, influences the interviewers
assessments.
Stress in the interview situation can also operate on
interviewers, particularly if they are behind in their quotas
and are being pressured by the home office.
4) Interviewers standard comparison: The Contrast Effect. The
way interviewers see many job applicants, often one after
another, and how they evaluate a particular applicant
may depend on the characteristics of those persons whom
they had interviewed previously. The average candidate
would be viewed less favorably by the interviewer if the
previous applicants had-all been highly qualified for the
job.
Applicants are not evaluated on an absolute basis, but
rather judged relative to the other applicants on the
particular day or week. How favorable an applicant appears
depends on how good or poor the others are; the standard
for the suitable employee is constantly changing.
5) Interviewers prejudice. Another characteristic of
interviewers that can influence their judgments is their own
likes and dislikes. Biases can Operate both ways. Just as
interviewers may dislike people with certain characteristics
and disqualify them for a job regardless of their
qualification, they may also hire others simply because
they exhibit some characteristics the interviewers like.
This phenomenon of generalizing from one trait or
characteristics of the entire person in either a positive or
negative direction, is called halo effect, and it is present
whenever we fallible human beings make personal
judgments about others.
Thank you for listening!