2. Selection Approaches

Lecture 5a

Selection Approaches / methods

Recruitment is the process of generating a pool of capable people to apply for

employment to an organization.

Selection is the process by which managers and others use specific instruments to choose from a pool of applicants a person or

persons ‘most likely to succeed’ in the job(s), given management goals and legal requirements.

Recruitment and Selection

• Recruitment and selection are vital to the formation of a positive psychological contract, which provides the basis of organizational commitment and motivation.

• The attraction and retention of employees is part of the evolving employment relationship, based on a mutual and reciprocal understanding of expectations.


• There are wide variations in recruitment and selection practices, reflecting an organization’s strategy and its philosophy towards the management of people.

• Progressive HR practices are crucial to a positive psychological contract – this includes attention to effective recruitment and selection practices.


Various recruitment and selection practices are bound by the law of the land.

In general there are following few forms of discrimination that are against the law:

Direct / Indirect

Victimization / Harassment

Discrimination by Perception / Association

The Legal Context

• Sex Discrimination Act 1975 (amended 1986)

• Race Relations Act 1976 (amended 2000)

• Equal Pay Act 1970 (amended 1983 to include work ‘of equal value’)

• Disability Discrimination Act 1996

• Equality Act 2010

• Directives from the EU such as the 1998 Data Protection Act

• Many others

Key Legal Provisions in the UK

• A key role for HR is to align performance within roles with the strategy, so recruiting for the ‘right’ people for a role depends on how it is defined in terms relating to performance to achieve the strategy.

• Criterion-related behaviours or standards of performance are referred to as competencies.

• Competencies can be used to provide the behaviours needed at work to achieve the business strategy, and enable organizations to form a model of the kinds of employee it wishes to attract through recruitment.

Recruitment and Attraction

Organizations have become increasingly aware of making good selection decisions, since it involves a number of costs:

• The cost of the selection process itself, including the use of various selection instruments

• The future costs of inducting and training new staff

• The cost of labour turnover if the selected staff are not retained

Selection: Costs

Underlying the process of selection and the choice of techniques are two key principles:

1. Individual differences: Attracting a wide choice of applicants will be of little use unless there is a way of measuring how people differ, i.e. intelligence, attitudes, social skills, psychological and physical characteristics, experience etc.

2. Prediction: A recognition of the way in which people differ must be extended to a prediction of performance in the workplace.

Selection: Principles

• Information elicited – interviews have a specific focus, i.e. facts, subjective information, underlying attitudes.

• Structure – ranging from the completely structured to the unstructured. A compromise between the two enables the interviewer to maintain control yet allowing the interviewee free expression.

• Order and involvement – the need to obtain different kinds of information may mean the involvement of more than one interviewer. Applicants may be interviewed serially or in a panel.

Selection Interviews

Selection

Advantages of Interviews-

• Provide opportunities for interviewers to ask probing (inquiring) questions about the candidate’s experience and to explore the extent to which the candidate’s competences match those specified for the job;

• Enable interviewers to describe the job (a ‘realistic job preview’) and the organization in more details.

Advantages of Interviews-

• Provide opportunities for candidates to ask questions about the job and to clarify issues concerning training, career prospects, the organization and terms and conditions of employment.

• Because of the face-to-face encounter, interviewer can make an assessment of how the candidate would fit into the organization and what he or she would be like to work with;

• Give the candidate the same opportunity to assess the organization, the interviewer and the job.

Disadvantages of Interviews-

• Can lack validity as a means of making sound predictions of performance, and lack reliability in the sense of measuring the same things for different candidates;

• Rely on the skill of the interviewer; but many people are poor at interviewing, although most think that they are good at it;

• Reliability refers to the extent to which a selection technique achieves consistency in what it is measuring over repeated use.

• Validity refers to the extent to which a selection technique actually measures what it sets out to measure.

Reliability and Validity Issues


• Do not necessarily assess competence in meeting the demands of the particular job

• Can lead to biased and subjective judgments by interviewers;

• Halo or horns effect; a single good or bad characteristic is given disproportionate weight


• Interviewer treats candidates better/worse on basis of similarity/dissimilarity to themselves

• Positive or negative expectancy; if interviewer has prior access to personal information regarding candidate

• Stereotypical or prejudice assumptions


• Risk aversion; interviewer guards against making the wrong decision and places more emphasis on negative indicators at expense of positive.

• Companies rely on interviewer’s skills however some people are not good at interviewing and some candidates are not good at interviews either.

• There are chances for selection could be biased on the basis of being subjective and may also benefit to the people from same social or gender groups.

Personality research has lent support to the use of sophisticated selection techniques such as psychometric tests that have a good record of reliability and validity.

• Ability tests: these focus on mental abilities (verbal/numerical) and physical skills testing. Right/wrong answers allow applicants to be placed in ranked order.

• Inventories: self-report questionnaires indicating traits, intelligence, values, interests, attitudes and preferences. No right/wrong answers but a range of choices between possible answers.

Psychometric Testing

‘The branch of psychology that deals with the design, administration, and interpretation of quantitative tests for the measurement of psychological variables such as intelligence, aptitude, and personality traits.’

Dictionary: Psychometrics (n)

Psychometric Tests

1. Ability or Aptitude Tests• Verbal

• Numerical• Logical

2. Personality or Interest Inventories

Why do employers use tests?

• To identify key abilities or personalities

• To support other selection tools

Selection Tools

Tests are usually part of the selection process together with:

• application forms and CVs

• interviews

• group exercises

• presentations

Selection Methods - Advantages

• Application FormsGood for checking facts, demonstrating written communication skills

• InterviewsGood for oral communication skills, quickness of thought, personality

• Psychometric TestsGood for measuring candidates’ abilities/personality against objective criteria (and other candidates)

Selection Methods – Disadvantages

• Application Forms....measures ability to fill in form - not to do the job

• Interviews...intensely subjective, they might not like the look

of you• Psychometric Tests

no good for seeing how an individual works with others

Characteristics of Tests

Ability or Aptitude Tests• Under exam conditions

• Usually timed

• Right and wrong answers

• Unusual to finish all questions

• Results compared with norm group

On-line testing, or e-assessment, is also used for selection and other HR purposes.

Benefits: Online testing enables organizations to test at any time and anywhere in the world.It enables the quick processing of applicants.

Drawback:Loss of control over the administration of the tests – anyone can be called on to help

E-assessment

• Assessment centres are designed to yield information that can be used to make decisions concerning suitability for a job.

• They provide a fuller picture by combining a range of techniques.

• General methods used include group discussions, role plays and simulations, interviews and tests.

• Candidates attending assessment centres are observed by assessors who are trained to judge candidates’ performance against criteria contained within the competency framework.

Assessment Centres

Applicants have expectations about how the organization will treat them. Recruitment and selection represent an opportunity to clarify these.

Realistic job previews (RJPs) provide a means of achieving this.

RJPs can take the form of case studies, shadowing, job sampling and videos – this enables the expectations of applicants to become more realistic.

RJPs: lower initial expectations, cause some applicants to de-select themselves, increase levels of organization commitment, job satisfaction, performance and job survival.

Realistic Job Previews

Documents

2. Selection Approaches