PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY zyxwvutsrq 1989. 42 THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN RECRUITING SOURCE, APPLICANT QUALITY, AND HIRE PERFORMANCE: AN ANALYSIS BY SEX, ETHNICITY, AND AGE zyxw JEAN POWELL KIRNAN Trenton State College JOHN A. FARLEY Prudential Insurance Company KURT F. GEISINGER Fordham University This study investigated both an applicant pool and its resulting class of new hires in an attempt to clarify a number of empirical questions con- cerning recruiting source effectiveness. A pre-established database of ap- plicants and hires for the job of life insurance agent in a large insurance company was analyzed for recruiting activity. Differences in applicant quality and new hire survival were found in favor of the informal recruit- ing sources. A second measure of hire success, new business commission credits, failed to show differences across recruiting sources. The infor- mal recruiting sources yielded significantly higher selection ratios than did formal sources for all groups. Examination of recruiting source use showed significant group differences, with females and blacks using the formal recruiting sources more frequently than males, non-minorities, and Hispanics. While the informal recruiting sources yielded higher quality applicants and more successful hires for all groups, this research cautions that the implementation of revised recruiting policies must be carefully monitored for adverse effects on protected groups. The primary goal of the employee selection process is the successful matching of individuals to jobs within organizations. To this end, organi- zations are involved in an ongoing process of updating existing selection tools and searching for better techniques. One variable that has been dis- cussed sporadically in the literature as a possible predictor of success is “recruiting source.” Prior research has divided recruiting source into two This article is based on research conducted by the first author for the doctoral dissertation at Fordham University. The authors gratefully acknowledge the assistance of John R. Murray Ill and the staff of the Marketing Services and Selection Research Division of the Prudential Insurance Company in accessing company databases. The authors also wish to thank the editor and reviewers for their comments on zyxwvut an earlier draft of this article. Correspondence and requests for reprints should be addressed to Jean Powell Kiman, Department of Psychology, Trenton State College, Hillwood Lakes CN4700, Trenton, NJ 08650-4700. COPYRIGHT zyxwvutsrqpo @ zyxwvu 1989 PERSONNEL PSYCHOLOGY, INC. 293