The
selection procedure is concerned with securing relevant information about an
applicant. This information is secured in a number of steps or stages. The
objective of selection process is to determine whether an applicant meets the
qualification for a specific job and to choose the applicant who is most likely
to perform well in that job. Selection is a long process, commencing from the
preliminary interview of the applicants and ending with the contract of
employment (sometimes).
The
selection procedure consists of a series of steps. Each step must be
successfully cleared before the applicant proceeds to the next. The selection
process is a series of successive hurdles or barriers which an applicant must
cross. These hurdles are designed to eliminate an unqualified candidate at any
point in the selection
process. Thus, this technique is called “Successive Hurdles Technique”. In
practice, the process differs among organizations and between two different
jobs within the same organization. Selection procedure for the senior managers
will be long drawn and rigorous, but it is simple and short while hiring lower
level employees.
The
major factors which determine the steps involved in a selection process are as
follows:
1. Selection process depends on the number of candidates that are
available for selection.
2. Selection process depends on the sources of recruitment and the
method that is adopted for making contact with the prospective candidates.
3. Various steps involved in as selection process depend on the type
of personnel to be selected.
All
the above factors are not mutually exclusive, rather these operate
simultaneously. In any case, the basic objective
of a selection process is to collect as much relevant information about the
candidates as is
possible
so that the most suitable candidates are selected.
1.
Application Pool:
Application pool built-up
through recruitment process is the base for selection process. The basic
objective at the recruitment level is to attract as much worthwhile
applications as possible so that there are more options available at the
selection stage.
2.
Preliminary Screening and Interview:
It is
highly noneconomic to administer and handle all the applicants. It is
advantageous to sort out unsuitable applicants before using the further selection
steps. For this purpose, usually, preliminary interviews, application blank
lists and short test can be used. All applications received
are scrutinized by the personnel department in order to eliminate those
applicants who do not fulfill required qualifications or work experience or
technical skill, his application will not be entertained.
Such
candidate will be informed of his rejection. Preliminary interview is a sorting
process in which the prospective candidates are given the necessary
information
about the nature of the job and the organization. Necessary information is
obtained from the candidates about their education, skills, experience,
expected salary etc. If the candidate is found suitable, he is elected for
further screening. This courtesy interview; as it is often called helps the
department screen out obvious misfits. Preliminary interview saves time and
efforts of both the company and the candidate. It avoids unnecessary waiting
for the rejected candidates and waste of money on further processing of an unsuitable
candidate. Since rejection rate is high at preliminary interview, the
interviewer should be kind, courteous, receptive and informal.
3.
Application Blank or Application Form:
An
application blank is a traditional widely accepted device for getting
information from a prospective applicant which will enable the management to
make a proper selection. The blank provides preliminary information as well as
aid in the interview by indicating areas of interest
and discussion. It is a good means of quickly collecting verifiable (and
therefore fairly accurate) basic historical data from the candidate. It also
serves as a convenient device for circulating information about the applicant
to appropriate members of management and as a useful device for storing
information for, later reference. Many types of application forms, sometimes
very long and comprehensive and sometimes
brief, are used. Information is generally taken on the following items:
(a)
Biographical Data: Name, father’s name, data and
place of birth, age, sex, nationality, height, weight, identification marks,
physical disability, if any, marital status, and number of dependants.
(b)
Educational Attainment: Education (subjects
offered and grades secured), training acquired in special fields and knowledge
gained from professional/technical institutes or through correspondence
courses.
(c)
Work Experience: Previous experience, the
number of jobs held with the same or other employers, including the nature of
duties, and responsibilities and the duration of various assignments, salary
received, grades, and reasons for leaving the present employer.
(d)
Salary and Benefits: Present and expected.
(e)
Other Items: Names and addresses of
previous employers, references, etc. An application blank is a brief history
sheet of an employee’s background and can be used for future reference, in case
needed.
The
application blank must be designed from the viewpoint of the applicant as well
as with the company’s purpose in mind. It should be relatively easy to handle
in the employment office.
Application
form helps to serve many functions like:
1. Its main usefulness is to provide information for reference
checking, good interviewing, and correlation with testing data.
2. It helps to weed out candidates who are lacking in education,
experience or some other eligibility traits.
3. It helps in formulating questions to be asked in the interview.
4. Data contained in application form can be stored for future
reference.
5. It also tests the candidate’s ability to write, to organize his
thoughts, and to present facts clearly and succinctly.
6. It indicates further whether the applicant has consistently
progressed to better jobs. It provides factual information.
Weighted
Application Blanks
Some
organizations assign numeric values or weights to the responses provided by the
applicants. This makes the application form more job related. Generally, the
items that have a strong relationship to job performance are given higher
scores. For example, for a sales representative’s position, items such as previous
selling experience, area of specialization, commission earned, religion,
language etc. The total score of each applicant is then obtained by adding the
weights of the individual item responses. The resulting scores are then used in
the final selection. WAB is best suited for jobs where there are many employees
especially for sales and technical jobs. It can help in reducing the employee
turnover later on.
However,
there are several problems associated with WAB e.g.
1. It takes time to develop such a form.
2. The WAB would have to be updated every few years to ensure that
the factors previously identified are still valid products of job success.
3. The organization should be careful not to depend on weights of a
few items while finally selecting the employee.
4.
Selection Tests:
Many organizations hold
different kinds of selection tests to know more about the candidates or to
reject the candidates who cannot be called for interview etc. Selection tests
normally supplement the information provided in the application forms. Such
forms may contain factual information about candidates. Selection tests may
give information about their aptitude, interest, personality, which cannot be
known by application forms. Types of tests and rules of good of testing have
been discussed in brief below:
A.
Aptitude Tests: These measure whether an
individual has the capacity or talent ability to learn a given job if given
adequate training. These are more useful for clerical and trade positions.
B.
Personality Tests: At times, personality
affects job performance. These determine personality traits of the candidate
such as cooperativeness, emotional balance etc. These seek to assess an individual’s
motivation, adjustment to the stresses of everyday life, capacity for
interpersonal relations and self-image.
C.
Interest Tests: These determine the
applicant’s interests. The applicant is asked whether he likes, dislikes, or is
indifferent to many examples of school subjects, occupations, amusements, peculiarities
of people, and particular activities.
D.
Performance Tests: In this test the applicant
is asked to demonstrate his ability to do the job.
For example,
prospective typists are asked to type several pages with speed and accuracy.
E.
Intelligence Tests: This aim at testing the
mental capacity of a person with respect to reasoning, word fluency, numbers,
memory, comprehension, picture arrangement, etc. It measures the ability to
grasp, understand and to make judgment.
F.
Knowledge Tests: These are devised to measure
the depth of the knowledge and proficiency in certain skills already achieved
by the applicants such as engineering, accounting etc.
G.
Achievement Tests: Whereas aptitude is a
capacity to learn in the future, achievement is concerned with what one has
accomplished. When applicants claim to know something, an achievement test is
given to measure how well they know it.
H.
Projective Tests: In these tests the applicant
projects his personality into free responses about pictures shown to him which
are ambiguous.
Rules
of Good Testing
1. Norms should be developed for each test. Their validity and
reliability for a given purpose should be established before they are used.
2. Adequate time and resources must be provided to design, validate,
and check tests.
3. Tests should be designed and administered only by trained and
competent persons.
4. The user of tests must be extremely sensitive to the feelings of
people about tests.
5. Tests are to be uses as a screening device.
6. Reliance should not be placed solely upon tests in reaching
decisions.
7. Tests should minimize the probabilities of getting distorted
results. They must be ‘race-free’.
8. Tests scores are not precise measures. They must be assigned a
proper weightage.
5.
Interview:
An interview is a procedure
designed to get information from a person and to assess his potential for the
job he is being considered on the basis of oral responses by the applicant to
oral inquiries by the interviewer. Interviewer does a formal in-depth
conversation with the applicant, to evaluate his suitability. It is one of the
most important tools in the selection process. This tool is used when
interviewing skilled, technical, professional and even managerial employees. It
involves two-way exchange of information. The interviewer learns about the
applicant and the candidate learns about the employer.
Objectives
of Interviews: Interview helps:
§ To obtain additional information from the candidate.
§ Facilitates giving to the candidate information about the job,
company, its policies, products etc.
§ To assess the basic suitability of the candidate.
The
selection interview can be:
1. One to one between the candidate and the interviewer:
2. Two or more interviewers by employers representatives-sequential;
3. By a panel of selections, i.e., by more than representative of the
employer.
4. The sequential interview involves a series of interviews; each
interviewer meeting the candidate separately. The panel interview consists of
two or more interviews meeting the candidate together.
Types
of interviews: Interviews can be classified in various ways according to:
(A)
Degree of Structure
(B)
Purpose of Interview
(C)
Content of Interview
(A) Degree of Structure:
(1)
Unstructured or non directive: in which
you ask questions as they come to mind. There is no set format to follow.
(2)
Structured or directive: in which the questions
and acceptable responses are specified in advance. The responses are rated for
appropriateness of content.
Structured
and non-structured interviews have their pros and cons. In structured
interviews all applicants are generally asked all required questions by all
interviewers. Structured interviews are generally more valid. However
structured interviews do not allow the flexibility to pursue points of
interests as they develop.
(B)
Purpose of Interview: A selection interview
is a type of interview designed to predict future job performance, on the basis
of applicant’s responses to the oral questions asked to him.
A
stress interview is a special type of
selection interview in which the applicant is made uncomfortable by series of
awkward and rude questions. The aim of stress interview is supposedly to
identify applicant’s low or high stress tolerance. In such an interview the
applicant is made uncomfortable by throwing him on the defensive by series of
frank and often discourteous questions by the interviewer.
(C)
Content of Interview: The content of
interview can be of a type in which individual’s ability to project a situation
is tested. This is a situation type interview. In job-related interview, interviewer
attempts to assess the applicant’s past behaviors for job related information,
but most questions are not considered situational. In a behavior interview a
situation in described and candidates are asked how they behaved in the past in
such a situation. While in situational interviews candidates are asked
to describe how they would react to situation today or tomorrow. In the behavioral
interview they are asked to describe how they did react to the situation in the
past.
Principles
of Interviewing
To
make it effective, an interview should be properly planned and conducted on
certain principles; Edwin B. Flippo has described certain rules and principles
of good interviewing to this end:
a. Provide proper surroundings. The physical setting for the
interview should be both private and comfortable.
b. The mental setting should be one of rapport. The interviewer must
be aware of non-verbal behavior.
c. Plan for the interview by thoroughly reviewing job specifications
and job descriptions.
d. Determine the specific objectives and the method of the
interviewing.
e. Inform yourself as much as possible concerning the known
information about the interviewee.
f. The interviewer should possess and demonstrate a basic liking and
respect for people.
g. Questions should be asked in a manner that encourages the
interviewee to talk. Put the applicant at ease.
h. Make a decision only when all the data and information are
available. Avoid decisions that are based on first impressions.
i. Conclude the interview tactfully, making sure that the candidate
leaves feeling neither too elated nor frustrated.
j. Maintain some written record of the interview during or
immediately after it.
k. Listen attentively and, if possible, protectively.
l. Questions must be stated clearly to avoid confusion and ambiguity.
Maintain a balance between open and overtly structured questions.
m. ‘Body language’ must not be ignored.
n. The interviewer should make some overt sign to indicate the end of
the interview. Interviewing is largely an art, the application of which can be
improved through practice.
6.
Background Investigation:
The next step in the
selection process is to undertake an investigation of those applicants who
appear to offer potential as employees. This may include contacting former
employers to confirm the candidate’s work record and to obtain their appraisal
of his or her performance/ contacting other job-related and personal
references, and verifying the educational accomplishments shown on the application.
The
background investigation has major implications. Every personnel administrator
has the responsibility to investigate each potential applicant. In some
organization, failure to do so could result in the loss of his or her job. But
many managers consider the background investigation data highly biased. Who
would actually
list a reference that would not give anything but the best possible
recommendation? The seasoned personnel administrator expects this and delves
deeper into the candidate’s background, but that, too, may not prove to be
beneficial. Many past employers are reluctant to give any information to
another company
other than factual information (e.g., date of employment).
Even
though there is some reluctance to give this information, there are ways in
which personnel administrators can obtain it. Sometimes, for instance
information can be obtained from references once removed. For example, the
personnel administrator can ask a reference whose name has been provided on the
application form to give another reference, someone who has knowledge of the
candidate’s work experience. By doing
this, the administrator can eliminate the possibility of accepting an
individual based on the employee’s current employer’s glowing recommendation
when the motivation for such a positive recommendation was to get rid of the
employee.
7.
Physical Examination:
After the selection
decision and before the job offer is made, the candidate is required to undergo
physical fitness test. Candidates are sent for physical examination either to
the company’s physician or to a medical officer approved for the purpose. Such
physical examination provides the following information.
a. Whether the candidate’s physical measurements are in accordance
with job requirements or not?
b. Whether the candidate suffers from bad health which should be
corrected?
c. Whether the candidate has health problems or psychological
attitudes likely to interfere with work efficiency or future attendance?
d. Whether the candidate is physically fit for the specific job or
not?
Policy on these physical exams has changed today. Dale Yoder
writes, “Modem policy used the physical examination not to eliminate
applicants, but to discover what jobs they are qualified to fill. The
examination should disclose the physical characteristics of the individual that
are significant from the standpoint of his efficient performance of the job he
may enter or of those jobs to which he may reasonably expect to be transferred
or promoted. It should note deficiencies, not as a basis for rejection, but as
indicating restrictions on his transfer to various positions also.”
8.
Approval by Appropriate Authority:
On the
basis of the above steps, suitable candidates are recommended for selection by
the selection committee or personnel department. Though such a committee or
personnel department may have authority to select the candidates finally, often
it has staff authority to recommend the candidates for selection to the
appropriate authority. Organizations may designate the various authorities for
approval of final selection of candidates for different categories of
candidates. Thus, for top level managers, board of directors may be approving
authority; for lower levels, even functional heads concerned may be approving
authority.
9.
Final Employment Decision:
After a candidate is
finally selected, the human resource department recommends his name for
employment. The management or board of the company offers employment in the
form of an appointment letter mentioning the post, the rank, the salary grade,
the date by which the candidate should join and other terms and conditions of
employment. Some firms make a contract of service on judicial paper. Usually an
appointment is made on probation in the beginning. The probation period may
range from three months to two years. When the work and conduct of the employee
is found satisfactory, he may be confirmed. The personnel department prepare a
waiting list and informs the candidates.
In case a person does not join after being selected, the company calls next
person on the waiting list.
10.
Evaluation:
The selection process, if
properly performed, will ensure availability of competent and committed
personnel. A period audit, conducted by people who work independently of the
human resource department, will evaluate the effectiveness of the selection
process. The auditors will do a thorough and the
intensive analysis and evaluate the employment programme.
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