SELECT3: A BASIC program for determining the consequences of using a selection procedure

SELECT3 is a BASIC program that allows the user to examine the results of using a particular selection proce­ dure. A pair of programs (SELECTl and SELECT2, Mullen, 1984) previously were developed to illustrate basic bivariate selection principles. SELECT3 comple­ ments these two programs: it calculates the mean criterion score obtained by selected job applicants as a function of the selection ratio (or predictor cutoff) and the selection procedure's validity coefficient, This program reproduces the results obtained through the use of the Naylor-Shine table (Naylor & Shine, 1965). In addition, SELECT3 cal­ culates a conservative estimate of the dollars saved per year per applicant hired. This approach to examining the consequences of using a selection procedure provides a means of translating the utility of a selection procedure into a dollars-and-cents metric (cf. Brogden & Taylor, 1950; Cronbach & Glesser, 1965; Schmidt, Hunter, McKenzie, & Muldrow, 1979). The techniques im­ plemented by this program could be useful to academi­ cians teaching industrial/organizational psychology courses, as well as to practitioners in applied settings. Input. After being prompted to enter names for the predictor and the criterion, the user is asked whether he/she knows the mean and standard deviation (SO) for the criterion; if so, the user is prompted to enter these statistics. Similar prompts then occur for the mean and SO of the predictor. While these values are not essential for the operation of this program, the inclusion of these means and SOs results in a more detailed output. Next, the user is prompted to enter the average yearly salary for entry-level applicants, and then to enter the va­ lidity coefficient for prediction. Finally, the user must enter either the selection ratio (i.e., the number of job openings divided by the number of applicants), or the predictor cutoff score (in Z score units). After one of these two numbers is input, the program will derive the other. Most of these input variables are generated by SELECTl