Personnel Selection: Methods: Biographical Inventories
Biographical Data in Selection:
Techniques for scoring application forms or biographical questionnaires to be used for selection of applicants.
| useful for jobs where a large number of employees are performing the same or similar job
useful for jobs where there are a large number of applicants relative to the number of openings |
|
Tips
Summary of Biographical Data Selection Procedures
Types of Biographical Data Selection Procedures
- Background Information/Application Blanks Paper-and-pencil questionnaires, interviews, and communications with past employers in order to assess an individual's behavioral reliability, integrity, and personal adjustment. In order to implement this technique a validation study would have to be conducted.
- Empirically-keyed Biodata Applicants are presented with a list of questions pertaining to such things as one's economic stability, work ethic orientation, and educational achievement. Applicants' scores are determined by weighting each item according to the item's empirically derived relationship to the criterion of interest. This technique requires a validation study to be carried out in order to obtain the empirically derived weights for the biodata.
- Rationally-keyed Biodata
Applicants are presented with a list of questions pertaining to such things as one's economic stability, work ethic orientation and educational achievement. Applicants' scores are determined by weighting each item according to the item's rationally derived relationship to the criterion of interest. Research indicates the predictive validity of this technique may be lower than other available techniques with no evidence for reduced adverse impact against minorities.