Employee Testing and Interviewing

Employee Testing, Interviewing, and Selection

• Employee recruitment and selection is a process involving decisions on who will join an organization.
• Selection starts with identifying candidates through recruitment, reducing the candidate pool to best-qualified individuals, and finally placing chosen candidates in their jobs.
• Organizations should develop selection procedures based on job analysis to ensure qualified candidates.
• The selection process should identify individuals whose skills and knowledge fit the job and the organization.

Why Careful Selection is Important

• Employee performance relies on the quality of their subordinates.
• Recruiting and hiring employees is costly, and productive employees save the organization money.
• Person-job fit involves identifying the necessary knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies required for a job.
• Person-organization fit is the compatibility between the candidate's characteristics and the organization's characteristics.

Steps in the Selection Process

• The selection process typically includes: screening applications and resumes, testing and reviewing work samples, interviewing candidates, checking references and backgrounds, and making a selection decision.

Selection Devices

• Application forms, employment tests, interviews, background investigations, medical exams, and physical exams are effective in predicting work behavior.

Application Forms

• Application forms gather verifiable and accurate historical data from job candidates.
• Forms typically include contact information, work experience, education, technical experience, and memberships in professional organizations.
• Application forms help to assess an applicant's education and experience, progress, employment stability, and likelihood of success.

Tests for Employee Selection

• Employment tests, work samples, job performance tests, physical ability tests, cognitive ability tests, drug tests, honest tests, and personality inventories assess candidates for various qualities.
• Cognitive abilities include general reasoning, intelligence, memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, and numerical skills.
• Motor abilities include finger dexterity, manual dexterity, and reaction time.
• Interest inventories assess interests and match them with job requirements.
• Achievement tests measure knowledge and skills already acquired.

Personality Tests

• Personality tests assess basic personality traits, such as introversion, stability, and motivation.
• Some tests are projective, using ambiguous stimuli for reactions.
• Other tests are self-reported, where candidates complete the tests themselves.

Big Five Personality Characteristics

• The Big Five personality characteristics include conscientiousness, agreeableness, extroversion, openness to experience, and emotional stability (or neuroticism).

Work-Sample Tests

• These tests require candidates to perform tasks reflecting job situations to predict job performance accuracy.
• Advantages include high reliability, representing actual work, and potentially reduced adverse impact.
• Disadvantages are cost, limited ability to predict tasks taking days or weeks, and the challenge to measure aptitudes.

Work Samples and Simulations

• Work samples require candidates to respond to situations similar to those encountered on the job.
• Management assessment centers use realistic simulations, like presentations, to assess leadership potential.

Background Investigations

• Investigations aim to verify and uncover misleading information in applicant applications.
• Employing internal investigations, checking with former employers and degrees, as well as using external investigations, such as contacting authorities for relevant details and verifying candidate information through social media or credit reports, enhance scrutiny of applicants.

Medical Examinations

• Medical examinations are used to verify that applicants meet job physical requirements, to identify potential medical limitations, to create a baseline for future compensation claims, and to reduce absenteeism and accidents.

Realistic Job Previews (RJP)

• RJPs provide prospective employees with both positive and negative aspects of the job.
• This approach reduces employee turnover by providing accurate information about the job.

This quiz explores the critical elements of employee recruitment, selection, and the importance of careful hiring processes. It emphasizes the need for job analysis, person-job fit, and person-organization fit in choosing the right candidates for an organization. Understand how effective selection can lead to improved employee performance and overall organizational success.