PSY02.1UCx Course Syllabus
Title: Recruiting and Selecting the Right Person
Programme: MicroMasters in Organizational Psychology
Teachers: Fleur Pawsey, Katharina Näswall
Institution: UCx (University of Canterbury, Christchurch, New Zealand)
Course Overview
Recruiting and Selecting the Right Person is part of the MicroMasters in Organizational Psychology, a five part certificate.
Ensuring that the right people are in the right jobs creates a platform for employee wellbeing and performance, and for organizational success. Understanding this is important for anyone working, but especially those in roles that can involve employee recruitment and selection, for example team leaders, managers, and human resource professionals.
In this course we will cover topics relating to:
- Recruitment and selection processes, including conducting a job analysis, developing recruitment and selection strategies, and welcoming new employees to an organization.
- The history of employee selection, which also serves as a brief introduction to the background of industrial/organizational psychology.
- The steps that should be taken when preparing to hire new employees. Students will be able to explain the importance of job analysis and of forecasting staffing needs, including diversity considerations.
- The purpose of recruitment. Students will be able to differentiate recruitment from selection processes. Students will learn how to develop effective and efficient recruitment strategies that reach target audiences without excluding potential candidates.
- A close look at selection processes. Students will be able to explain the concepts of reliability and validity as they pertain to selection methods. Students will also be able to describe the different biases that can impact selection decisions, and how to prevent these from occurring
- The importance of onboarding. Students will be able to describe the impact that an employee’s initial experience of their new organization has on early success and performance in their new role.
Learning Outcomes
The formal learning outcomes for this course are:
Industrial and Organizational Psychology (Section 2)
- Provided with material on the History of Industrial and Organisational Psychology, learners will demonstrate what they have learned
- With guidance, learners will identify key moments in Industrial and Organisational Psychology emergence throughout history
- Provided with background information, learners will explain why selection matters for organisational and individual performance (fit, role clarity etc)
- Explain why it is important to take a scientific approach to selection
What is the job and who do we need? (Section 3)
- Provided with guidance on preparing for selection, learners will provide a convincing argument on the need to prepare for the selection processes
- With relevant background information provided, learners will design an approach to prepare for the selection process
- Given examples and information, learners will describe the process you use to conduct a job analysis
- Given a range of ideas and discussion points, learners will demonstrate why diversity is important in workforce planning
- With some provided examples, learners will discuss how planning for the selection process can incorporate diversity considerations
Attracting High Quality Applicants (Section 4)
- Given a range of content on recruitment, learners will construct an approach that is more likely to produce a successful recruitment (i.e. recruitment that results in pool of candidates to have high-quality people to select from)
- With a discussion on the subject, learners will recommend a recruitment approach that incorporates equity and diversity considerations
Choosing the Right Person (Section 5)
- Given a thorough description of the topics, learners will differentiate between reliability and validity, explain their relevance and their importance in the context of selection
- With a range of information provided, learners will recognise potential sources of bias and describe mitigation strategies
- Provided guidance on the subject, learners will describe the purpose and summarize the relative strengths of different selection methods
Getting off to a Good Start (Section 6)
- With background ideas provided, learners will point out the potential impacts on the candidate of both positive and negative experiences during the selection processes
- Provided with relevant information, learners will explain the importance of socialisation prior to the job beginning
- Given an overview of the topic, learners will create an orientation process the follows good practice and explains the importance of each part
- Provided with a range of ideas on the subject, learners will assess the value of early goal setting and establishing role clarity and purpose for new employees
Pre-requisites
There are no formal pre-requisites, although the MicroMasters is aimed at graduate level.
Time Commitment and Pacing
Depending on your ability and background in this subject we estimate that between 6 - 8 hours of work per week over 6 weeks is required to complete this course.
This is a self-paced course, so there are no specific deadlines for any items in the course, although towards the end of the course run there are due dates to allow time for grading before the course run ends.
Forum participation and quality discussions
There are multiple forums in the course. It is expected that you will engage in these forums to some degree. One of these is a general forum to introduce yourself and to ask general questions. All discussion forums can be found in the Discussion tab. Note that Verified learners must indicate their participation in the forum, underneath each form to gain a 1 point grade.
In this course, you will discuss topics with your peers. Quality discussions should be:
- Thoughtful responses to guiding questions.
- Reading others' responses before adding your own.
- Avoiding repeating others' responses.
- Personal experiences that are supported with facts, theories, or statistics.
- Personal experiences that contrast or disagree with positions stated.
- Using additional information from sources that extends required readings and videos.
- Use a person's name when you comment to a posting. It helps to keep all of us oriented, and it helps us maintain a clearer sense of who is speaking and who is being spoken to. As we begin to associate names with tone and ideas, we come to know each other better.
- Being respectful of other students with netiquette.
- Using correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and avoiding abbreviations.
- When responding to someone with whom you disagree, you should:
o State the person’s name to create some intimacy,
o Paraphrase the other person’s point to demonstrate understanding the post, and then
o Provide an alternative perspective or constructive criticism. (Collins, Weber & Zambrano, 2014)
Grading Policy
In order to obtain a passing grade you must complete 70% of the course correctly. A grade of 70-79.9 will give you a 'C', 80-89.9 will give you a 'B' and 90-100 will give you an 'A'.
Each of the 5 sections are of an equal value towards the final grade for the course as shown:
| Section # | Section Name | Weighing |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Introduction | 0% |
| 2 | Intro to I/O and History of Selection | 20% |
| 3 | What is the job and who do we need? | 20% |
| 4 | Recruitment | 20% |
| 5 | Selection | 20% |
| 6 | Setting new employees up for success | 20% |
| TOTAL | 100% |
Throughout each section there are a range of different assessments:
- Self-grading, discussion forum contribution questions, worth 1 point each
- Multi-choice type questions, worth 1 point each
- Video and Essay questions worth between 12 and 20 points depending on the work required.
Each of the video and essay questions include a visible Rubric to help you in attaining a high grade if you meet the criteria. Grading for these staff graded assessments will be completed within two weeks of your submission.