Hiring methods: ranked by predictive validity and potential for bias

If you want to drive change in your team/organisation's hiring practices, you need to be aware of the quality of the hiring methods you have in place; creating a strategy to shift towards methods that will lead to better outcomes.

This article will help you understand the value of different hiring methods in terms of:

1) How well they predict performance on the job

2) How well different sociodemographic groups perform on those methods

Hiring methods ranked by how well they predict performance on the job

This ranking is based on Schmidt, F.L & Hunter, J.E. (1998) "The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings"

Candidates who perform well on the top-ranking hiring methods in the chart below will tend to perform well on the job. The low-ranking methods are not as good at predicting performance on the job. If you go for the less predictive methods, it's more likely that you and your teams will waste time (and we all know what time is equal to).

Ranking of hiring methods according to how different sociodemographic groups perform

The three charts/rankings below are based on Ryan, A.M & Tippins, N. (2004) "Attracting and Selecting: what psychological research tells us" 

The first chart ranks hiring methods according to the overall differences in scores between women and men. The methods at the top indicate that women tend to perform better than men according to the available research summarised by Ryan, A.M & Tippins, N. (2004). 

The second chart ranks hiring methods according to the overall differences in scores between black and white candidates. The methods at the top indicate that black candidates tend to perform better than white candidates, according to the available research summarised by Ryan, A.M & Tippins, N. (2004). 

The third chart ranks hiring methods according to the overall differences in scores between Hispanic and white candidates. The methods at the top indicate that Hispanic candidates tend to perform better than white candidates, according to the available research summarised by Ryan, A.M & Tippins, N. (2004).