Questions: Employee Recruitment

Question 1

Realistic job previews (RJPs) provide candidates with honest information about both the attractive and unattractive aspects of a job. Research consistently shows that RJPs reduce early turnover. What is the primary psychological mechanism?

• A. RJPs scare away all but the most motivated candidates, ensuring only high performers remain
• B. RJPs lower initial expectations, reducing the expectation-reality gap that causes 'reality shock' after starting the job. Candidates who receive accurate information can make informed decisions about fit, and those who accept the job experience fewer unpleasant surprises, increasing commitment and reducing voluntary turnover
• C. RJPs increase salary expectations, and higher-paid employees are less likely to quit
• D. RJPs function as a cognitive ability test — only smart candidates understand and process the information

Answer: (B)

The met-expectations hypothesis and the self-selection mechanism are the two main explanations for RJP effectiveness. The met-expectations account holds that new hires whose pre-entry expectations match post-entry reality experience less disillusionment and are more likely to stay. The self-selection account holds that RJPs enable candidates to opt out before hiring if the job is a poor fit, improving the average fit of those who accept. Meta-analytic evidence suggests both mechanisms operate, with effect sizes that are modest but consistent (d = .06-.12 for turnover reduction). The effect is strongest for RJPs delivered early in the recruitment process (before the candidate has psychologically committed) and for entry-level jobs (where candidates have less prior knowledge of the work).

Question 2

Employee referrals consistently produce hires with lower turnover and slightly higher performance ratings than hires from job boards or career websites. This is because referral hires are always more skilled than external applicants.

• T. True
• F. False

Answer: False

Referral hires do not necessarily have higher skill levels — the performance advantage is modest and the primary benefit is lower turnover. The mechanisms are informational, not ability-based. Referring employees provide realistic information about the job and organization to the candidate (functioning as an informal RJP), and they pre-screen candidates based on their knowledge of both the person and the job requirements. This improves person-job and person-organization fit, reducing the mismatch that drives early turnover. Additionally, referral hires have a built-in social connection at the organization, which aids onboarding and social integration. However, over-reliance on referrals can reduce applicant diversity because social networks tend to be demographically homogeneous — employees disproportionately refer people who resemble themselves in race, gender, education, and socioeconomic background.

Question 3

What is employer branding, and how does it relate to the concept of person-organization fit in recruitment?

Model answer: Employer branding is the process of promoting an organization's identity, culture, values, and employee value proposition to attract applicants who align with the organization. It draws on marketing principles — the organization is the 'product' and potential employees are the 'consumers.' Employer branding connects to person-organization (P-O) fit through a signaling and attraction mechanism: when an organization communicates its values and culture clearly (through career websites, social media, employee testimonials, corporate social responsibility initiatives), candidates self-select based on perceived value congruence. Schneider's attraction-selection-attrition (ASA) framework predicts that people are attracted to organizations whose characteristics match their own personalities and values, and employer branding provides the informational substrate for this matching process.

Effective employer branding differentiates the organization from competitors in the labor market. Google's emphasis on innovation and intellectual challenge attracts different candidates than Procter & Gamble's emphasis on structured career development. Research shows that employer brand perceptions predict application intentions above and beyond objective job attributes (salary, location, benefits), suggesting that organizational image and values play an independent role in applicant attraction. However, employer branding has a dark side: if the projected image is inaccurate, it functions as the opposite of an RJP — attracting candidates based on false premises and increasing post-hire disillusionment.