Realistic Job Preview

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Realistic Job Previews (RJPs) are devices used in early stages of personnel selection to provide potential applicants with information on both positive and negative aspects of the job. The employee exchange or psychological contract between employer and employee is at the heart of the RJP concept. With an RJP, the employee enters into the contract with their eyes open, aware of what the organization will provide to them (pay, hours, schedule flexibility, culture, etc.) and also with their eyes open to what will be expected from them (late hours, stress, customer interaction, high urgency, degree of physical risk, etc.). High turnover of new hires can occur when they are unpleasantly surprised by an aspect of their job, especially if that aspect is especially important to them. For example, if they take the job with an understanding that they won't have to work weekends, then get immediately schedule for Saturday night, it undermines trust and the psychological contract is breached. Better informed candidates who continue the application process are more likely to be a good fit with the position, and the ones who choose not to continue save themselves time pursuing a job or company that wasn't right for them. The hiring organization saves time on testing and interviewing candidates with a poor chance of success.

RJPs can take the form of videos (e.g., Home Depot; PetSmart), testimonials (www.retailology.com) or short tests (e.g., sheetz.com). Regardless of format, effective RJPs accurately foreshadow the culture that the candidate is signing up for, warts and all. Other critical components include: Candor and openness; specificity (while avoiding a deluge of information); representative visual depictions of the work environment, preferably with the employee actually performing common tasks; testimonials from real employees, not actors. Ideally, RJP information should be focused on the things that matter most to the candidate demographic, parts of the job or culture that correlate with engagement and turnover.

Empirical research suggests a fairly small effect size, even for properly designed RJPs (d = .12), with estimates that they can improve job survival rates ranging from 3% to 10%. For large organizations in retail or transportion that do mass hiring and experience new hire turnover above 200% in a large population, a 3-10% difference can translate to significant dollar savings. Some experts (e.g., Roth; Martin, 1996) estimate that RJPs screen out between 15% and 36% of applicants.

[edit] References

  • Breaugh, J.A. (1983). Realistic Job Previews: A Critical Appraisal and Future Research
  • Directions. The Academy of Management Review. October, 8 (4): 612-619.
  • Breaugh, J.A. and J.A. Billings (1988). “The Realistic Job Preview: Five Key Elements and

their Importance for Research and Practice. Journal of Business and Psychology. Summer, 24:291-305.

  • Meglino, B.M., A.S. DeNisi, S.A. Youngblood, and K.J. Williams (1988). “Effects of Realistic

Job Previews: A Comparison Using an Enhancement and a Reduction Preview.” Journal of Applied Psychology. 73 (2): 259-266.

  • Premack, S.L. and J.P. Wanous (1985). A Meta-Analysis of Realistic Job Preview Experiments. Journal of Applied Psychology. 70 (4): 706-719.
  • Roth and Roth (1995). Reduce turnover with realistic job previews. The CPA Journal.