How can you spot people who will be excellent in their job?

Take a look at the following list and try to assess which of the factors are most important:

– School grades

– Handwriting

– Extroversion

– Conscientiousness

– Integrity

– Intelligence

– Openness to new experiences

– References

The search for the “perfect employee” has occupied personnel selection research for more than 100 years. One of the most influential and largest meta-analyses (Schmidt et al, 2016) provides remarkable insights (see video). Nevertheless, many companies unfortunately still do not sufficiently take these findings into account. The consequences can be devastating….

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Studies (small selection only):

Dazzi, C., & Pedrabissi, L. (2009). Graphology and personality: an empirical study on validity of handwriting analysis. Psychological reports, 105(3_suppl), 1255-1268.

Huffcutt, A. I., Culbertson, S. S., & Weyhrauch, W. S. (2014). Moving forward indirectly: Reanalyzing the validity of employment interviews with indirect range restriction methodology. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 22(3), 297-309.

Hurtz, G. M., & Donovan, J. J. (2000). Personality and job performance: the Big Five revisited. Journal of applied psychology, 85(6), 869.

Kausel, E. E., Culbertson, S. S., & Madrid, H. P. (2016). Overconfidence in personnel selection: When and why unstructured interview information can hurt hiring decisions. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 137, 27-44.

Neter, E., & Ben-Shakhar, G. (1989). The predictive validity of graphological inferences: A meta-analytic approach. Personality and Individual differences, 10(7), 737-745.

Schmidt, Frank L. and Oh, In-Sue and Shaffer, Jonathan A., The Validity and Utility of Selection Methods in Personnel Psychology: Practical and Theoretical Implications of 100 Years of Research Findings (October 17, 2016). Fox School of Business Research Paper. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2853669

Zell, E., & Lesick, T. L. (2022). Big five personality traits and performance: A quantitative synthesis of 50+ meta-analyses. Journal of Personality, 90(4), 559-573.