Employee Selection

Selection is the process of interviewing and evaluating candidates for a specific job and selecting the most suitable individual for employment based on certain criteria. Employee selection can range from a very simple process to a very complicated process depending on the firm hiring and the position and nature of the job. Certain employment laws such as anti-discrimination laws must be obeyed during employee selection.

Selection Methods

Once the applicant pool has been narrowed and candidates have been assessed, it’s time to make a selection decision. It’s is important for employees to consider long term appointments. Organizations need to look for a candidate with solid experience and new ideas and a fresh perspective, weighing his or her willingness to learn.

Also, no matter the industry, market conditions inevitably will change; organizations need to ensure that they select someone who not only can adapt, but also can flourish under those conditions. Also employers must be sure to consider other needs such as diversity, and to follow the guidelines of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Finding good employees is very difficult. Employment and discrimination laws can make it even tougher. Ultimately, a company’s best bet is to rely upon resumes, an initial phone interview, and a face-to-face interview to determine a potential employee’s suitability.

Resume Screening

The first step in the employee selection process is to solicit resumes. A person’s resume will provide a recruiter with the initial insight necessary to determine whether a candidate should be taken to the next step. A resume should show academic achievements, experience, and leadership or community involvement. Applicants need to ensure the resume is free of typos, and if employers have lots of candidates to choose from, they should focus on resumes tailored to the job for which you are recruiting.

Phone Interviews

Respective employers will contact the people with resumes that show the most achievement and contain the most relevant experience for the job. Phone interviews will be scheduled with these applicants. Phone interviews can further narrow the pool of applicants. However most employers tend to skip this stage and go in straight for face-to-face interviews.

Face-to-Face Interviews

The face-to-face interview is the final step in the employee selection process. A face-to-face interview allows an employer to get the best feel for whether a candidate is right for the job. An interview provides further insight as to professionalism, people skills and expertise.

Types of Interviews

• Unstructured Interviews Involves a procedure where different questions may be asked of different applicants.

• Situational Interview Candidates are interviewed about what actions they would take in various job-related situations. The job-related situations are usually identified using the critical incidents job analysis technique. The interviews are then scored using a scoring guide constructed by job experts.

• Behavior Description Interviews Candidates are asked what actions they have taken in prior job situations that are similar to situations they may encounter on the job. The interviews are then scored using a scoring guide constructed by job experts.

• Comprehensive Structured Interviews Candidates are asked questions pertaining to how they would handle job-related situations, job knowledge, worker requirements, and how the candidate would perform various job simulations. Interviews tapping job knowledge offer a way to assess a candidate’s current level of knowledge related to relevant implicit dimensions of job performance (i.e., “tacit knowledge” or “practical intelligence” related to a specific job position)

• Structured Behavioral Interview This technique involves asking all interviewees standardized questions about how they handled past situations that were similar to situations they may encounter on the job. The interviewer may also ask discretionary probing questions for details of the situations, the interviewee’s behavior in the situation and the outcome. The interviewee’s responses are then scored with behaviorally anchored rating scales.

• Oral Interview Boards This technique entails the job candidate giving oral responses to job-related questions asked by a panel of interviewers. Each member of the panel then rates each interviewee on such dimensions as work history, motivation, creative thinking, and presentation. The scoring procedure for oral interview boards has typically been subjective; thus, it would be subject to personal biases of those individuals sitting on the board. This technique may not be feasible for jobs in which there are a large number of applicants that must be interviewed.

Tagged HRM, Human Resource Management