Banding-Selection

You are working for a company that is currently very popular and positions within the company are incredibly competitive. Since the organization is able to select the best employee for the job, your boss tells you to implement a top-down selection procedure on your tests. What is top-down selection? How would you go about doing this? Do you agree with this decision? Why or why not? Explain what is happening psychometrically when you implement a top-down selection procedure. If you do not agree with your boss’ decision, please outline how you would change the company’s approach to banding? Why is your method better?

The organization is currently experiencing issues with their selection process and needs help finding employees to fit in the competitive position. Ideally, any work environment tries hiring the most qualified and well-performing applicants while also developing and maintaining a diverse workforce. There are several ways to implement a selection procedure on the tests that are being given out to applicants. While this is often extremely difficult because the most valid selection procedures (such as mental ability tests) tend to have adverse impact, Ployhart and Holtz (2008) refer to this selection process as the diversity-validity dilemma, claiming that it is “a dilemma requiring organizations to choose between diversity and optimal performance” (Polyhart & Holtz, 2008). Taking this into consideration, the following text will discuss the implications of working for an employer who suggests top-down (rank order) selection and address its limitations by offering a more effective selection method: banding using sliding bands.

Top-down selection is somewhat similar to banding, but it is justified in a different way. With the top-down selection approach, applicants’ scores are rank-ordered from highest to lowest. Beginning with the applicant at the top of the list (the one who has the highest and best score on the selection procedure) and moving...