Employee Selection Process

• It is important to understand the strategic significance of selection, various steps in the selection process, and the types/usefulness of applicant screening tools.
• It is also important to be able to explain the role of employment tests, discuss the major approaches to test validation, conduct employment interviews, and evaluate the effectiveness of the selection process.

Selection Process Defined

• The selection process is a series of specific steps used to decide which recruits should be hired.
• The selection process begins when recruits apply for employment and ends with the hiring decision.
• The steps involve matching the employment needs of the organization and the applicant.

Strategic Significance of Selection

• Successful execution of an organization’s strategy depends on the calibre of its employees.
• An organization’s selection decisions must reflect job requirements.
• The selection strategy must be well integrated with organizational priorities.
• The selection strategy must recognize organizational constraints and labour market realities, including the selection ratio.
• Selection practices must be ethical.

Steps in the Selection Process

• Step 1: Preliminary Reception of Applicants
  • This involves initial contact with applicants, with walk-ins potentially receiving a preliminary interview and write-ins receiving a letter or email of acknowledgment.
  • This step has diminished due to increased Internet recruitment.
• Step 2: Applicant Screening
• It removes applicants who do not meet the qualifications.
• Screening tools include weighted application blanks (WAB) and biographical information blanks (BIB).
• The application should be useful and meet legal requirements.
• Step 3: Administration of Employment Tests
  • This includes personality tests, ability and knowledge tests, performance tests (situational judgment, assessment centers, computer-interactive tests), and integrity tests.
• Step 3: Reliability and Validity
  • Reliability and validity are key considerations, with empirical approaches (predictive, concurrent validity) and rational approaches (content, construct, differential validity) used.
• Step 4: Employment Interviews
  • Supervisors should have input into the final hiring decision.
  • Interviews are common and expected as part of the selection process.
• Step 5: Realistic Job Previews
  • These show candidates the type of work, equipment, and working conditions.
  • Realistic job previews highlight both positive and negative aspects, to reduce employee turnover.
• Step 6: Verification of References
  • This includes discussing the applicant’s work history.
  • Former supervisors may not be candid, especially with negative information; reference letters and background checks are also used.
• Step 7: Contingent Assessments
  • Assessment of health, medical, and driving information may be scheduled after the hiring decision.
  • Drug tests are increasingly used but may be found to violate employee rights.
• Step 8: Hiring Decision
  • This marks the end of the selection process.
  • The process involves updating HRIS and retaining applications for future use.
  • Tradeoffs among predictors include subjective, multiple cutoff, and compensatory approaches.

After Selection

• When drawing up the employment contract, pay attention to specifying the probationary period if applicable, clarify the start date and terms of employment, specify reasonable restrictive covenants, and ensure that termination procedures are legally enforceable.

Dispositioning of Applicants

• Throughout the selection process, the organization communicates decisions to applicants.
• Applicants who are hired should have their applications stored.

Employment Interviews

• A formal, in-depth conversation is conducted to evaluate the applicant’s acceptability.
• It is the most widely used selection technique.
• Interviews allow for a personal impression, selling the job to a candidate, answering candidate’s questions, and acting as an effective public relations tool due to flexibility and two-way exchange.
• A flaw relates to varying reliability and validity.

Types of Interviews

• Interviews may be conducted one-on-one, as a panel, or as a group.
• Unstructured interviews:
  • They involve very few or no planned questions and lack the reliability of a structured interview.
• Structured interviews:
  • They use a pre-determined set of questions which lead to improved reliability and validity over traditional unstructured interviews.

Types of Structured Interviews

• Behavioural Description Interviews: Based on the principle that the best predictor of future behaviour is past behaviour.
• Situational Interviews: Focus on situations likely to arise on the job where applicants must respond to situational questions.
• Stress-Producing Interviews: Rapid questioning to assess how applicants handle stressful situations.

Employment Interview Stages

• Interview Preparation: Develop specific questions/answers.
• Creation of Rapport: The interviewer is responsible for establishing rapport.
• Information Exchange: This is the heart of the interview.
• Termination: Drawing the session to a close.
• Evaluation: For example, using a checklist.

Interviewer Errors

• Common errors include halo effect, leading questions, stereotypes, interviewer domination, and contrast errors.

Interviewee Errors

• Interviewees may try to cover job-related weaknesses or nervousness, including playing games, talking too much, boasting, not listening, and being unprepared.

Evaluating the Selection

• Measurements include quality and productivity of the workforce, satisfaction of supervisors/peers with hires, if training costs are increasing, whether managers are spending too much time managing new hires, and if grievances, absences, and turnover are too high.
• Costs incurred should be at a level appropriate to the organization.