Discussion: Annotations and Writing Plan Workshop

I need support with this English question so I can learn better.

A key to a successful business is having good performing employees. My role in Human Resources is to help guide leaders to make the right decisions for their organization. Part of ensuring we have good performing employees is making the right hiring decision. To do so, leaders should put into place a hiring process that ensures higher success. The value of using pre-employment skills assessments, specific to sales roles, has been something that has been researched and debated for decades. Having an unbiased, well-validated, data-driven tool to assist in making a better hiring decision would greatly benefit any organization. My viewpoint for the persuasive essay will focus on the advantages of using pre-employment skills testing as part of the hiring process. Assessments create a level playing field for candidates and provide objective, legally defensible part in hiring. Additionally, they are a great predictor of whether a candidate will be a good sales performer and are fit for the company. I will debate the opposition to have an assessment by providing counter-arguments for the added expense, lengthening the time-to-hire, legal liability, and the integrity of the information. I will provide benefits and relevant information to confirm they are a valid tool and step our organization’s hiring process for Mortgage Loan Officers. A decent salesperson can sell their way through an interview. Without assessments, you have little objective information on making your decision.

Key Points:

There will be several points I will integrate into my essay to ensure I provide adequate information to overcome the objections. The first key point I will discuss is how the assessments provide an objective, data-driven step to the hiring process. Having an objective interview process decreases the chances of unfair treatment when used for hiring decisions. Secondly, I will share data that confirms assessments are predictors of success in specific roles and the organization. For my essay, I will focus on Sales Organization roles as this is pertinent in my company. Vendors who offer the service of assessments, offer customized solutions that fit your organization and your positions. Every business has a different culture and different needs for each of their jobs. What works for one organization may not work in another; a customizable hiring assessment will help measure how a candidate will fit for the role and your company. The third key point is assessment predicts the behaviors and traits of a good performer and increases retention. Recruiting and hiring is a substantial investment for any company; hiring the right candidate reduces ensures there is a return on that investment.

Audience:

My audience for this topic would be the hiring managers and the executive team to oversee the sales positions within the bank. The relevancy to them is based on the great need to find colleagues who are great at sales within a niche role. Profitability is essential to success and starts with having a great sales team. Their opposition to adding an assessment to the process first and foremost is the cost. Additionally, they feel it would increase the time-to-fill for a role that represents the center of their business. Lastly, they think they would not be a valid tool based on the fact a person could “fake” their way through assessment.

Goal:

My goal is to implement a skills assessment for Mortgage Loan Officers. Prove to the hiring managers and Executive Leadership, despite oppositions, having an additional tool to help select the right talent is hugely beneficial. Assessments increase our ability to hire the right candidates into these highly profitable roles. Success will be measured when they accept my counter-argument, and we can build the tool with our current vendor. Future success will be measured by productivity and increased retention. I will provide a clear and crisp essay, with the appropriate level of details and evidence to support my position.

Potential Resources:

To ensure success, I will need to provide strong counter-arguments and resources to confirm my key points. There are five possible resources I will use to articulate and give backing to my position. For this assignment, I will use the resources to support my argument on the main topic and key points. My first is an article written by Richard Sheig, “Pre-Employment Testing Done Right”; my second article is, “Using Psychological Science to Hire People Who Can Sell.” written by Michael Klein. The additional three resources I will reference are “The Definitive Guide to Hiring Right.”, written by Jeffrey R. Mueller, and Bernadette Baum, “What is the true cost of attrition? Strategic HR Review, written by T. Marsden, and lastly, “Eliminate Hiring Delays Forever: Why Faster Hiring Results in Higher-Quality Hires,” written by Scott Wintrip.

As discussed, my key points are how assessments provide an objective, legal data-driven step to the hiring process, assessments are predictors of success in specific roles and organizations and predict behaviors and traits of good performers. It also increases retention when used as part of the hiring process. I will align my resources with the critical points throughout the essay, correlating each topic with a specific key point. I will reference an article in the U.S. Distribution Journal, “the proper preparation and use of pre-employment or promotional tests reduce the number of poor hiring’s and minimize the risks of a company from being sued” (Sheig 1997). Also, In a newspaper article written by Michael Klein, President MK Insights2, shared while using psychological testing to predict performance has a controversial, and some would say problematic, history, work being done over the past 15 years has led to a clear conclusion: we can predict work-related behaviors with great accuracy legally, quickly, and easily through the use of reputable assessment tools,”(Klein 2013). For my last key point, I could reference an article from researched CEB, a leading advisory company, that indicates organizations that select and develop employees based on assessment science achieve 16% higher performance, and suggest nearly 50% more retention rate. (Benzing.com 2012) Additionally, to help counter the argument of the integrity of the results, the same article shared psychological self-assessments have developed ways of identifying faked results — again, because of developers doing their homework during test construction. So, for many tests, we receive a report that tells us the likelihood that someone has attempted to present himself or herself less honestly than hoped, (Klein 2013).

Based on my argument, I think it will be important to integrate evidence with each key point. To ensure success, I will need to provide strong counter-arguments to their point of view. As discussed, my key points are how assessments provide an objective legal data-driven step to the hiring process, and assessments are predictors of success in specific roles and organizations and predict behaviors and traits of a good performer. It also increases retention when used as part of the hiring process. Ton= support my key points, I will reference various sources and articles such as the one in the U.S. Distribution Journal, stating “the proper preparation and use of pre-employment or promotional tests reduce the number of poor hiring’s and minimize the risks of a company from being sued,” (Sheig 1997). A newspaper article was written by Michael Klein, President MK Insights2, shared “while using psychological testing to predict performance has a controversial, and some would say problematic, history, work being done over the past 15 years has led to a clear conclusion: we can predict work-related behaviors with great accuracy legally, quickly, and easily through the use of reputable assessment tools,”(Klein 2013).

Additionally, to help counter the argument of the integrity of the results, the same article shared “psychological self-assessments have developed ways of identifying faked results — again, because of developers doing their homework during test construction. So, for many tests, we receive a report that tells us the likelihood that someone has attempted to present himself or herself less honestly than hoped” (Klein 2013). Lastly, I will link the source I located on eliminating hiring delay by Scott Wintrip to counter the argument of the assessment lengthening the hiring process. My unique twist will focus on changing the mindset of recruiting from reactive to proactive will mitigate any added time to the recruitment process by adding a pre-employment assessment.

Strategy for Revision:

I feel the most effective way to outline my strategy would be to ensure it is organized appropriately, key points and opposing views are stated, the tone is appropriate, and the paragraphs flow. Secondly, I would review for grammar and spelling. I would plan on utilizing the course materials and the resources provided by the professor and the school to finalize the revisions. Also, peer editing would be towards the end of my revisions to receive feedback, and other recommendations to make the essay complete. It would be useful because it would give me a process to organize the revisions, so I focus on one piece at a time. At times, I have spent more time revising and organizing items than it took for me to get the information.

Work Cited

Sheig, Richard F. “Pre-Employment Testing Has to Be Done Right.” U.S. Distribution Journal, no. n2, 1997. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbig&AN=edsbig.A19459165&site=eds-live&scope=site.

KLEIN, MICHAEL A. “Using Psychological Science to Hire People Who Can Sell.” BusinessWest, vol. 30, no. 3, June 2013, p. 14. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=88427205&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Mueller, Jeffrey R., and Bernadette Baum. “The Definitive Guide to Hiring Right.” The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, vol. 12, no. 3, 2011, pp. 140-153. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F885179591%3Faccount

Marsden, T. (2016). What is the true cost of attrition? Strategic HR Review, 15(4), 189-190. doi: http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1108/SHR-05-…

Wintrip, Scott. “Eliminate Hiring Delays Forever: Why Faster Hiring Results in Higher-Quality Hires.” Journal for Quality & Participation, vol. 40, no. 2, July 2017, pp. 26–29. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=124641842&site=eds-live&scope=site.

Elizabeth Juckett

05/23/2020 – Annotating Your Sources

Source 1

1. Identify your source including author, title, and the database information or website. Key Point Support: legally defensible assessment process

Source: Sheig, Richard F. “Pre-Employment Testing Has to Be Done Right.” U.S. Distribution Journal, no. n2, 1997. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=edsbig&AN=edsbig.A19459165&site=eds-live&scope=site.

1. Summarize your Source
   • It seems this source is arguing: This sources argument is proper preparation and the use of pre-employment tests for performance and organizational fit, reduce the number of poor hiring decisions and minimize risk of legal issues.
   • This source is using this evidence to support the argument: The author uses his experience of teaching and research; additionally, develops and markets assessments.
2. Credibility and Relevance
   • Explain the rationale for the credibility of the source by providing supporting evidence.
     • Personally, I believe the source is a doing a good job of supporting its arguments because: reference cases related to the Civil Rights Act of 1964 where employers deployed requirements or assessment whether for promotional and or pre-employment must be a valid measure of job performance. Additionally, the Uniform Guidelines on Employee Selection Procedures were formed to help protect candidates and employers.
   • Explain the relevance of the source to your argument.
     • I think this source will be helpful in supporting my argument because: With these guidelines set, we have standards for test construction and use, which provide defensible case if properly built with reputable company.

Source 2

1. Identify your source, including author, title, and the database information or website. Main Topic Support: legally defensible assessment process is beneficial to hiring and integrity of results

Source: KLEIN, MICHAEL A. “Using Psychological Science to Hire People Who Can Sell.” BusinessWest, vol. 30, no. 3, June 2013, p. 14. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=f5h&AN=88427205&site=eds-live&scope=site.

1. Summarize your Source
   • It seems this source is arguing in support of my main topic providing details that specific personality traits can predict the ability to be successful in a role, specifically for this article sales.
   • This source is using this evidence to support the argument: Supports, and share while a test cannot fully determine on its own, if a person is a good candidate, having this tool as part of the selection it will enhance the overall process by providing stronger insight.
2. Credibility and Relevance
   • Explain the rationale for the credibility of the source by providing supporting evidence.
     • Personally, I believe the source is a doing a good job of supporting the argument because: It shares while using psychological testing to predict performance has a controversial, and some would say problematic, history, work being done over the past 15 years has led to a clear conclusion: we can predict work-related behaviors with great accuracy legally, quickly, and easily through the use of reputable assessment tools. (Klein 2013)
     • I will also use to counter the argument of the integrity of the results; within the article is shares psychological self-assessments have developed ways of identifying faked results — again, because of developers doing their homework during test construction. So, for many tests, we receive a report that tells us the likelihood that someone has attempted to present himself or herself less honestly than hoped. (Klein 2013)
   • Explain the relevance of the source to your argument.
     • I think this source will be helpful in supporting my argument because it will support my main topic by providing details how that we can predict work-related behaviors with great accuracy with reputable tools.

Sources 3/4

1. Identify your source, including author, title, and the database information or website. Opposition of Integrity and Receive negative Reactions from Candidates. Will use the age of the material (2011) to support the they would play a vital role in the future with the right science to validate. This article also shared data to support the cost of hiring.

Source: Mueller, Jeffrey R., and Bernadette Baum. “The Definitive Guide to Hiring Right.” The Journal of Applied Business and Economics, vol. 12, no. 3, 2011, pp. 140-153. ProQuest, https://ezproxy.snhu.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fsearch.proquest.com%2Fdocview%2F885179591%3Faccount

Source: Marsden, T. (2016). What is the true cost of attrition? Strategic HR Review, 15(4), 189-190. doi:http://dx.doi.org.ezproxy.snhu.edu/10.1108/SHR-05-…

1. Summarize your Sources
   • It seems this source is arguing against the recommendation of aptitude tests because they are easily “faked”. However, it does help validate our human resources are important and hiring the right talent for the role is key. The “cost” when a colleague leaves is substantial and hiring the right talent mitigates that exposure.
   • This source is using this evidence to support the argument with the
2. Credibility and Relevance
   • Explain the rationale for the credibility of the source by providing supporting evidence.
     • Personally, I believe the source is a doing a good job at the time, of supporting its arguments because: The authors don’t recommend the use of assessment, including ones for sales and customer service due to reliability, liability and expense.
   • Explain the relevance of the source to your argument.
     • I think this source will be helpful in supporting my argument because: I can use the date of publication to my advantage, knowing my audience and their tenure in the business, I will use it in conjunction with other resources to restate with the proper validation and science they are a great predictor of performance and can assist reduce the cost overall human expense to the business.
     • Hiring the wrong candidate costs included: lost productivity, accrued vacation, continued benefits, advertising, recruiting time, recruiting fee, interviewing time, assessment cost and time, reference check, etc…

Source 5

1. Identify your source, including author, title, and the database information or website. Counter argument to adding to the length of hiring process. I will use this to share changing our mindset on recruiting from reactive to proactive will mitigate any added time to the recruitment process by adding a pre-employment assessment.

Source: Wintrip, Scott. “Eliminate Hiring Delays Forever: Why Faster Hiring Results in Higher-Quality Hires.” Journal for Quality & Participation, vol. 40, no. 2, July 2017, pp. 26–29. EBSCOhost, search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=bsu&AN=124641842&site=eds-live&scope=site.

1. Summarize your Source
   • It seems this source is arguing: the cost of an open role and the need to maintain and active pipeline reduces the time-to-fill and opening.
   • This source is using this evidence to support the argument: Scott Wintrip is an expert in the field and has articles that have been in published in various prominent publications.
2. Credibility and Relevance
   • Explain the rationale for the credibility of the source by providing supporting evidence.
     • Personally, I believe the source is a doing a good job of supporting its arguments because: Instead of waiting for the right person for a job, we are waiting for the right job to show up. Plan and look for candidates will fit the role vs. waiting for an opening. Create a more efficient process and it will help reduce loss of productivity when someone resigns.
   • Explain the relevance of the source to your argument.
     • I think this source will be helpful in supporting my argument because: It provides a solution to increasing the time of the hiring process by rethinking the way we think of recruiting now.

Read and answer these questions below

In your own words, identify the argument of your peer’s persuasive essay. What are they aiming to prove?

Has your peer adequately addressed opposing viewpoints?

Which of the summaries (or which sections of the summaries) could use more clarification? How could your peer’s summaries be improved? Please paste an example and, if appropriate, offer your own edits.

Has your peer provided adequate credentialing information? If so, how can you tell the source is credible? If not, what could your peer add to note the reliability of the source?

Do the sources your peer describes in the annotated bibliography connect to their argument in a clear and easy-to-understand manner? If so, how so? If not, what are some ways in which your peer could strengthen those connections?

Does your peer acknowledge a counter-argument in one of the annotations? If a counterargument is presented, do they provide a persuasive rebuttal? If no counterargument is presented, can you anticipate some of the objections your peer should take into consideration?

Evaluate the sources your peer has selected. Which sources do you find to be the strongest? Why do you think they are strong, and how do they support your peer’s key points? Are there ways the sources could support those key points that your peer has overlooked? Be specific.