Abstract
Rethinking Personnel Selection: Hiring Employees Who Will Stay
Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol.2026(1)
07/2026
DOI: 10.5465/AMPROC.2026.13707symposium
Abstract
For over 100 years, selection researchers have focused on predicting job performance. Indeed, the traditional selection paradigm is to design selection procedures that measure attributes relevant to job performance and select applicants with the highest scores. However, practitioners often are as or more concerned about whether they can retain the people they select. Concerns about retention are understandable given the considerable costs employee turnover can create. Nevertheless, research on selection and retention have proceeded on separate paths. Whereas retention research has focused primarily on post-hire variables that affect turnover, very little is known concerning whether and how organizations can predict retention using pre-hire variables. Unfortunately, this leads to a substantial gap between personnel selection research and the needs of organizations. This symposium features three papers that highlight the value organizations can capture by predicting retention in addition to job performance during the selection process. The first paper compares the return on investment (ROI) of selecting employees based on a retention predictor, a performance predictor, or both, and uncovers conditions that influence ROI. The second paper develops a framework categorizing selection procedures that may predict turnover and provides updated or completely new meta-analytic estimates within this framework. The third paper examines the prevalence and organizational cost of new hire ghosting—when a candidate formally accepts a job offer but fails to appear on the first day of work without providing notice. The symposium concludes with a discussion around the benefits and risks of predicting retention at the point of selection.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Rethinking Personnel Selection: Hiring Employees Who Will Stay
- Creators
- Jake T. Harrison - University of IowaChad Van Iddekinge - University of IowaJohn D. Arnold - University of MissouriQurie Hong - Indiana University BloomingtonJohn Kammeyer-Mueller - University of Minnesota System
- Resource Type
- Abstract
- Publication Details
- Academy of Management Annual Meeting Proceedings, Vol.2026(1)
- DOI
- 10.5465/AMPROC.2026.13707symposium
- eISSN
- 2151-6561
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 07/2026
- Academic Unit
- Management and Entrepreneurship
- Record Identifier
- 9985183640002771
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