How Blind Spots in Performance Ratings Lead to Blind Spots in Talent Acquisition
We select applicants to perform well, but how certain are we about what we are actually predicting?
Talent Acquisition has access to an ever-growing range of assessments, tests and tools designed to help us identify the right candidate, the one that will show the best job performance. A ton of knowledge exists on the relationship between these instruments and later job performance. Importantly, this knowledge typically relies on the supervisor’s take on an employee’s performance, although a range of relevant behaviors will happen under their radar. From this one-sided focus arises a simple question: What do we mean by future job performance, and are we missing something?
In this research-based webinar, we invite Assistant Professor Valerie Sophie Schröder from the University of Copenhagen to challenge some of the assumptions behind personnel selection and explore the blind spots that can arise when we try to predict who will perform well at work.
Valerie will take us into her recent study, Blind Spots in Assessing and Predicting Key Dimensions of Job Performance, which examines how we measure job performance when validating selection methods. The research compares employees’ and supervisors’ perspectives across different dimensions of performance and finds considerably more unique information in each perspective than agreement between them.
That matters for Talent Acquisition. Because if our understanding of performance depends partly on who is assessing it, what does that mean for the tools we use to predict it?
Together, we will explore:
- How differently can employees and supervisors perceive the same employee’s performance? What might we miss when we rely on one perspective of performance?
- Which of these perspectives do we target, when we select for “job performance”?
- What can research tell us about two commonly used selection predictors: conscientiousness and general mental ability?
- Beyond TA, the study also holds important implications for performance evaluation.
A research-focused conversation
This webinar is an invitation to engage with the research rather than look for a fixed recipe for better selection. We will stay close to what the study can actually tell us, including its limitations, and distinguish carefully between relationships, interpretations and causal conclusions.
We hope to create space for curiosity, critical reflection and a deeper understanding of the science behind the methods we use in Talent Acquisition.
Towards the end of the webinar, we will open the microphones and invite participants to bring in their own experiences: What are you currently assessing in your organisation, why, and what might your selection process be overlooking?
Valeria Sophie Schröder, Assistant Professor, University of Copenhagen
Valerie Sophie Schröder is a researcher in work- and organizational psychology with a strong focus on personnel selection. In her dissertation at the University of Zurich, she has focused on the question of how personality assessment can be improved for selection to reduce social desirability and applicant reactions. In her research, she usually applies rigorous method comparisons, for example, comparing different interview formats such as asynchronous video interviews.
With a highly applied research topic, Valerie seeks exchange with practice to ensure that she is addressing the questions that matter. She has practical experience in selection and trainings in personnel development and, alongside her role in academia, has worked as an independent consultant and as an auditor for Assessment Centers in Switzerland.
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