Employee Selection

Selection

There is no more important topic in HRM than Selection. The success, growth or failure of an organization depends on the talent absorbed in to the organization.

“Selection is the process of picking individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an organization. Selection is much more than just choosing the best candidate. It is an attempt to strike a happy balance between what the applicant can and wants to do and what the organization requires” (Kumari, 2012).

Selection is defined as the “process of choosing individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill existing or projected job openings” (Bohlander & Snell, 2004).

Employee Selection Methods

An effective selection process can be carried out by a variety of techniques and steps. However it depends on the type of organization and the level of the position being considered.  

Application Forms

Application form is a quick and systematic way of getting information on minimum requirements. It provides guidance for a potential interview and reference check.

Employment Tests

Employment tests are used by employers to gauge aptitude and achievement of candidates. The type of test usually depends on the type of position. Some of the tests include Cognitive ability tests, personality and interest inventories, physical ability tests, job knowledge tests, and work sample tests.

Interviews

Interviews play a central role in the selection process. “Despite decades of research questioning the validity of the interview and the reliability of interviewers, most organizations still include some type of interview in their selection process” (Judge, Cable and Higgins, 2000). In Nondirective interviews the applicant is given full freedom of speech by providing open ended questions and follow-up questions. A structured interview uses a predetermined set of questions. A situational interview comprises of questions arising from a hypothetical event given to the candidate whereas a panel interview generally involves a panel of interviewers that questions and observes a single candidate.

Group Case Study

Group case study assesses a candidates’ critical thinking, analytical skills and provides great insights in to candidates thought processes. “More importantly, group case interviews show us how each candidate responds to a task involving team work, leadership and communication skills” (Yang, 2015).

Medical Examinations

Medical Examination is being done to find out physical suitability of a candidate and also as a way to decrease absenteeism.

Reference Checks

This is a good indicator to how the candidate has performed his job at the previous workplace. Hence the employer is able to gain insights in to experience, qualifications, skills and abilities.

References

Bohlander, G. and Snell, S. (2004). Managing Human Resources. 13th ed. Thompson, pp.180-186.

Judge, T., Cable, D. and Higgins, C. (2000). The Employment Interview: A Review of Recent Research and Recommendations for Future Research. Human Resource Management Review, 10(4), pp.383-406.

Kumari, N. (2012). A Study of the Recruitment and Selection process: SMC Global. Industrial Engineering Letters, 2(1), pp.1-2.

Yang, N. (2015). Acing the Case: How to Succeed during a Group case Interview. [online] at https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/acing-case-how-succeed-during-group-interview-neil-yang [Accessed 10 Jun. 2019].