While it is well known that an employee’s level of education and work experience influences career success, the reason behind this relationship is less clear. New research (Ng & Feldman, 2010) aims to determine why a high level of education and work experience signal to employers that a job candidate possesses valued competencies and will likely succeed on the job.
THE RESEARCH STUDY
After conducting a meta-analysis (statistical combination of many past studies), the researchers argue that education can actually increase employees’ cognitive ability, which in turn enhances job performance. They argue further that work experience and attaining a high level of formal education leads employees to develop better work habits (i.e., become more conscientious), which is also a well known predictor of job performance.
The results suggest that these indicators of human capital have a positive influence on objective indicators of employee career success (salaries and promotions). However, investments in human capital development also appear to increase employee cognitive ability and conscientiousness and thus affect career success in a more indirect manner as well.
Still, these findings come with a word of caution. While the authors argue that education and work experience lead to cognitive ability and conscientiousness, the opposite could also be the case. This would suggest that smarter and more conscientious people seek out more education and tend to stay with their organizations longer, which is also quite plausible and probably true to some degree.
PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS
Overall, these results lend support to the common practice of screening job applicants based on their education and work experiences prior to testing and/or interviewing. This initial step can save significant time and money and can effectively screen out applicants who do not possess the human capital necessary for successful job performance.
The researchers also suggest that organizations make “tradeoffs” between work experience and education since applicants who attend school longer have fewer opportunities to gain work experience. Weeding out applicants with high levels of education because they do not possess certain work experiences may be cutting out applicants who do possess the necessary human capital for good performance.
Ng, T. W. H., & Feldman, D. C. (2010). human capital and objective indicators of career success: the mediating effects of cognitive ability and conscientiousness. Journal of Occupation and Organizational Psychology, 83, 207-235.
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