Teamwork and the effect of social and digital skills on hiring decisions

Last registered on March 30, 2023
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Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title
Teamwork and the effect of social and digital skills on hiring decisions
RCT ID
AEARCTR-0011097
Initial registration date
March 15, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published
March 30, 2023, 4:08 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Locations

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Primary Investigator

Name
Uschi Backes-Gellner
Affiliation
University of Zurich, Department for Business Administration
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Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name
Harald Pfeifer
PI Affiliation
 BiBB (Federal Institute of Vocational Education and Training) & University of Maastricht
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PI Name
Kerstin Pull
PI Affiliation
University of Tubingen
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PI Name
Fabienne Kiener
PI Affiliation
University of Zurich
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Additional Trial Information

Status
In development
Start date
2023-04-01
End date
2024-12-31
Keywords
Education, Firms & Productivity, Labor
Additional Keywords
Team composition, digital skills, social skills, occupational skills, recruitment, vignette study
JEL code(s)
M5, M2, J24
Secondary IDs
Prior work
This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.
Abstract
The project examines the effect of digital and social skills on the likelihood that workers will be hired. For these hiring decisions, we particularly investigate for which work contexts (workplace characteristics, team member characteristics) workers with different types of social, digital and occupational skills are recruited. For example, firms differ in their IT investments or teams differ in terms of their work situation (e.g., division of tasks) and team composition (e.g., age, gender, qualification of team members). HR decision-makers in real firms are the respondents of our project. A vignette module is anchored in the BIBB Establishment Panel on Qualification and Competence Development, Wave 2023.
External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation
Backes-Gellner, Uschi et al. 2023. "Teamwork and the effect of social and digital skills on hiring decisions." AEA RCT Registry. March 30. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11097-1.0
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Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)
Vignette Study
Intervention Start Date
2023-04-01
Intervention End Date
2023-12-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)
Our primary outcome of interest is a hypothetical hiring decision of applicants in the context of a vignette with different digital and social skills.
Primary Outcomes (explanation)
Hiring decision depending on digital skills and social skills in workplace teams

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)
Hiring decisions depending on team characteristics
Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

Experimental Design
Within the BIBB Establishment Panel on Qualification and Competence Development, Wave 2023, we implement a module with survey questions and an experimental design (vignette/discrete choice). The BIBB establishment panel has ample information on the firm, on training and on industry and work characteristics. We add questions on the composition and type of work of small teams. The respondent are HR specialists and have to take hypothetical hiring decision on two hypothetical applicants with different characteristics. We randomly vary applicants’ social and digital skills acquired through further education. Gender and age of the applicants also randomly vary. Given eight sets of two applicants, the HR decision maker has to decide which applicant they would prefer to hire.
Experimental Design Details
Not available
Randomization Method
Randomization is carried out by a computer-based randomization.
Randomization Unit
individual
Was the treatment clustered?
No

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters
1
Sample size: planned number of observations
approx. 3,000 firms
Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms
-
Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)
-
Supporting Documents and Materials
IRB

Institutional Review Boards (IRBs)

IRB Name
Human Subjects Committee of the Faculty of Business, Economics and Informatics (OEC Human Subjects Committee), University of Zurich
IRB Approval Date
2023-03-06
IRB Approval Number
OEC IRB # 2023-018
Analysis Plan