Assessing New Employee Experience

Assessing a job applicant s experience by examining their work history in their CV, or their entry on work history in an application blank, is likely to provide a very poor predictor of the applicant s experience-related risk potential. As noted above, cumulative work tenure does not equate to experience. Experience-related risk potential is defined as the degree to which the applicant s lack of relevant previous experience exposes the applicant to risk in the new job (should they be hired). Table 3.1 outiines how this varies across the four types of new employee (type of 

The employee selection literature is well developed in the area of structured employment interview development (see Hufifcutt 2011 Levashina et al. 2014 for useful reviews and guidelines). The addition of a set of experience-related questions into a stmctured employment interview will provide a much more comprehensive profile of an applicant s experience and also allow for vastly more accurate predictions of their experience-related risk potential. Furthermore, it will give an indication of how long it may take for the individual, if employed, to become an experienced operator an indicator of the extent of supervision and training which might be needed to ensure the new employee s safety. 

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