Letters of recommendation: What information captures hr professionals' attention?

HR professionals evaluated the credentials of job candidates based upon actual letters of recommendation (LORs). The LORs contained both relevant and irrelevant information about the job candidate. Policy capturing revealed that professionals differed in both their consistency in evaluating candidates and in the relative weights they gave various forms of information. Some sex differences in decision policies also were discovered. Results are discussed in terms of how to strengthen the LOR as a selection tool.