ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

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ROLE OF HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT IN RECRUITMENT
AND SELECTION

• Construction of Selection Procedures
• recommend the most effective selection methods
  for particular jobs
• encourage the development and use of personnel
  specifications as an aid to selection
• normally the organisations expert on test use -
  may be qualified to administer tests
• advice centre on selection methods for other
  managers
• usually involved in the training in selection
  skills
• Administrative Control
• HR department normally responsible for the smooth
  running of the administrative procedures used in
  connection with the selection of staff.
• Shortlisting For Interview
• in conjunction with line managers or alone (?)
• Interviewing
• Validation Procedures

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MAIN STAGES IN THE RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION
PROCESS

• THREE MAIN STAGES
• 1. Defining Requirements - preparing job
  descriptions and specifications deciding terms
  and conditions of employment.
• 2. Attracting Candidates - reviewing and
  evaluating alternative sources of applicants,
  inside and outside the company, advertising,
  using agencies and consultants.
• 3. Selecting Candidates -
• sifting applications
• selection methods - interviewing, testing,
  assessing candidates, assessment centre
• offering employment, obtaining references
• preparing contracts of employment.

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1. DEFINING REQUIREMENTS

• Is it necessary to fill the post? - check on the
  need for, and level and type of employee
  specified in job requisition (Notification of
  Vacancy).
• Carry out a Job Analysis
• Overall purpose - why job exists, contribution of
  postholder
• Content - tasks and duties
• Accountabilities - results or output for which
  accountable
• Performance criteria - criteria, measures or
  indicators to assess satisfactory performance
• Responsibilities - level of responsibility
  exercised by job-holder
• Organisational factors - reporting relationships
• Motivating factors - particular features that are
  likely to motivate or demotivate job holder
• Developmental factors - promotion and career
  prospects and opportunities to acquire new skills
• Environmental factors - working conditions,
  health and safety considerations, unsocial hours,
  mobility

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1. DEFINING REQUIREMENTS

• Prepare a Job Description - a summary report of
  information relating to a particular job.
  Includes
• Job Title
• Context of Job
• Job Summary
• Job Content
• Working Conditions
• Other Information
• Performance Standards
• Prepare a Person Specification (also known as
  recruitment, personnel or job specification)
• Define the qualifications, experience and
  competences required by the job holder
• Any other necessary information such as special
  demands of the job e.g. physical conditions,
  unsocial hours, travel away from home.
• Set out or refer to terms and conditions of
  service e.g. pay, hours of work, benefits,
  holidays.
• Requirements should be agreed and analysed under
  specified headings e.g. the seven-point plan
  (Rodger 1952) or the five-fold grading system
  (Munro-Fraser 1954)

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1. DEFINING REQUIREMENTS

• Seven Point Plan
• Physical Make-up - health, physique, appearance,
  speech
• Attainments - education, qualifications,
  experience
• General Intelligence - fundamental intellectual
  capacity
• Interests - intellectual, practical,
  constructional, physically active, social,
  artistic
• Disposition - acceptability, influence over
  others, steadiness, dependability, self-reliance
• Circumstances - domestic
• Five-Fold Grading System
• Impact on others - physical make-up, appearance,
  speech
• Acquired qualifications - education, vocational
  training, work experience
• Innate abilities - natural quickness of
  comprehension and aptitude for learning
• Motivation - kinds of goals set by the
  individual, consistency and determination in
  following them up and success in achieving them
• Adjustment - emotional stability, ability to
  stand up to stress, ability to get on with
  people.

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1. DEFINING REQUIREMENTS

• NEW APPROACH - COMPETENCES AS A BASIS FOR THE
  PERSON SPECIFICATION AND FOR A STRUCTURED
  INTERVIEW
• Work-based competences - refer to expectations of
  what people have to be able to do to achieve the
  results required in the job. These are the areas
  of competence which are expressed in terms of
  outputs and the standards of performance to be
  reached in all of the elements of the job.
• Behavioural competences - refer to the personal
  characteristics and behaviour required for
  successful performance in areas such as
  interpersonal skills, leadership, personal drive,
  communication skills, team membership and
  analytical ability.

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2. ATTRACTING CANDIDATES

• advertising
• recruitment agencies
• recruitment consultants
• executive search consultants (head-hunting)
• educational and training establishments -
  graduate recruitment

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3. SELECTING CANDIDATES

• Short-list by comparing applications with the key
  criteria in the person specification.
• Implement selection methods chosen previously.
• Unusual for one selection method to be used
  alone. Generally a combination of two or more -
  dependent on various factors
• selection criteria for the post to be filled
• acceptability and appropriateness of the methods
• abilities of the staff involved in the selection
  process
• administrative ease
• time factors
• accuracy
• cost.

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CHOOSING SELECTION METHODS

• Application forms
• Self-assessment
• Telephone screening
• Testing
• Interviewing
• Group methods
• Assessment centres
• Work sampling
• References
• The factual check
• The character reference

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SELECTION METHODS

• APPLICATION FORMS
• Originally a personal details form to provide
  basis of personnel record
• Reservations about the validity of interviews led
  to the more productive use of applications forms
• Useful preliminary to employment interview
• Enables easier shortlisting and can be used as
  the basis of the interview itself
• More recently has been extended by some
  organisations to take a more significant part in
  the employment process.
• SELF-ASSESSMENT
• Providing more information to applicants
  concerning the job - video, informal discussion
  or information pack.
• Gives the prospective candidate a realistic job
  preview - can assess own suitability.
• Asking questions about previous work experiences
  which would relate to the job for which they are
  applying.

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SELECTION METHODS

• TELEPHONE SCREENING
• Useful if speed is important, as interviews can
  be arranged immediately.
• Prepared checklist of critical questions so that
  each candidate is asked for standardised
  information.
• Problems
• decisions can be haphazard due to immediate
  response therefore clear need for agreed pre-set
  standards
• difficulty with setting standards in advance as
  they may select too many or too few candidates to
  interview.
• TESTS
• FOR
• Interview is unreliable as a predictor of
  performance
• Greater potential accuracy and objectivity of
  test data
• Can be seen as giving greater credibility to
  selection decisions.
• AGAINST
• Those against dislike the objectivity that
  testing implies
• Difficulty in incorporating test evidence into
  the rest of the evidence that is collected.
• Strongest objections from candidates.
• Tests are chosen on the basis that scores relate,
  or correlate, with

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SELECTION METHODS

• CRITICAL FEATURES OF TEST USE
• Validity - predictive validity is the extent to
  which the test can predict subsequent job
  performance.
• Reliability - the degree to which the test
  measures consistently whatever it does measure.
• Use and Interpretation - tests need to be used
  and interpreted by trained or qualified users.
• Context of Tests - test scores need to be
  evaluated in the context of other information
  about individuals. Selection decisions need to
  be made up of a number of different pieces of
  information.
• PROBLEMS WITH USING TESTS
• Tests are not outstanding predictors of future
  performance.
• Validation procedures are essential but
  time-consuming.
• Criteria used to define good job performance in
  developing the test are often inadequate.
• Tests are job-specific.
• Tests may be unfair due to social, sexual or
  racial bias in the questions.

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SELECTION METHODS

• TYPES OF TEST FOR OCCUPATIONAL USE
• Aptitude tests - measure an individuals
  potential to develop in either specific or
  general terms. Aptitude and ability often used
  interchangeably. Two categories
• General intelligence tests - sometimes called
  mental ability. High score correlates with the
  capacity to retain new knowledge, to pass exams
  and to succeed at work. Needs to be validated in
  terms of the particular job.
• Special aptitude tests - spatial abilities,
  perceptual abilities, verbal and numerical
  ability, manual dexterity.
• Trainability tests - measure a potential
  employees ability to be trained, usually for
  craft-type work.
• Attainment tests - (achievement tests) measure
  skills that have already been acquired e.g.
  typing tests.
• Personality tests - dependent on general policy
  decision to incorporate this feature into the
  recruitment and selection process and whether
  qualified personnel are available to operate the
  procedures.
• Interest tests - not usually recommended for
  occupational use. May be useful for selecting
  school-leavers.

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SELECTION METHODS

• INTERVIEWING - An interview is a controlled
  conversation with a
• purpose. (Torrington and Hall, 1991307)
• Purposes
• to collect information in order to predict job
  performance of candidates by measuring against
  predetermined criteria
• to provide candidate with details of the job and
  the organisation
• to conduct interview so that candidates feel that
  they have had a fair hearing.
• Criticisms
• unreliable, generally lack validity as a means of
  predicting performance and can lead to biased
  and subjective judgements.
• Webster (1964) found
• interviewers made decision within 3-4 minutes of
  the interview and spent remainder of time seeking
  evidence to confirm first impression.
• interviews seldom altered tentative opinion
  formed by the interviewer on seeing the
  application form and the candidate.
• when interviewers make their minds up early on,
  their behaviour betrays their decision to the
  candidate.
• Lopez (1975) suggests that it is the interviewer
  and not the interview that is the problem.
  Interviews rely on the skill of the interviewer.

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SELECTION METHODS

• Importance of the interview
• collecting and giving out of information, human
  aspects (potential compatibility of two people
  who have to work together) and ritual aspects
  (need for the outsider to present himself to the
  organisation - initiation ceremony).
• Interview is crucial. Criticisms do not mean do
  away with it, but instead conduct it properly.
  Training can help, as can a structured approach
  to interviewing.

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SELECTION METHODS

• GROUP METHODS
• Purpose of group selection methods is to provide
  evidence about the candidates ability to
• get on with others
• influence others and the way in which they do
  this
• express themselves verbally
• think clearly and logically
• argue from past experience and apply themselves
  to a new problem
• also identifies the type of role they play in
  group situations.
• Advantage of these selection methods is that they
  provide the selector with examples of behaviour
  on which to select.
• Uses group tasks, business games and case
  studies.
• Most suitable for management and sometimes
  supervisory posts.
• Difficult to assess an individuals contribution
  and some individuals may be unwilling to take
  part.

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SELECTION METHODS

• ASSESSMENT CENTRES
• Multiple method group selection - uses techniques
  outlined above plus other work simulation
  exercises such as in-tray exercises,
  psychological tests and a variety of interviews.
• At the end of the procedure, the judges have to
  come to agreement on a cumulative rating for each
  individual, related to job requirements, and
  taking account of all the selection activities.
• Predictive validities not consistent, but high
  face validity - a feeling that this is a fairer
  way of selecting people.
• Disadvantages-
• costly and time-consuming procedure
• need to give feedback to candidates
• development requires high time commitment.

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SELECTION METHODS

• WORK SAMPLING
• assessing candidates work in temporary post or
  YTS in the same organisation
• portfolio of work e.g. artists or photographers.
• REFERENCES - Two types
• The Factual Check - confirmation of facts
  presented by candidate. Candidates less likely to
  embroider their story.
• The Character Reference - prospective employer
  asks for an opinion about the candidate prior to
  the interview - information can be used in the
  decision making process.
• Advantage - previous employer will know the
  working performance of the candidate.
• Disadvantages - are referees excellent judges of
  work performance, faultless communicators and
  disinterested?
• OTHER METHODS - e.g. palmistry, graphology,
  astrology.
• Little evidence to suggest that they could be
  used effectively.

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VALIDATION OF SELECTION METHODS

• SELECTION METHODS SHOULD BE VALIDATED
• Critical information for determining validity of
  selection methods
• the selection criteria used
• derived from job description, and departmental/
  organisational requirements from personnel
  specification.
• the selection processes used
• selection methods chosen and any weightings that
  were applied to these methods. Depends on the
  requirements of the personnel specification -
  decided in advance of the selection procedures
  taking place.

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VALIDATION OF SELECTION METHODS

• Evaluation of the individual at the time of
  selection
• useful for validation if selected individuals are
  rated according to interview performance e.g. A
  exceeds all selection criteria, B meets all
  selection criteria and exceeds some, C meets all
  selection criteria, etc.
• method of grading depends on the nature of the
  job, the selection criteria and the selection
  methods.
• Evaluation of the individuals performance in the
  post
• measures from the job description e.g. sales,
  accuracy, complaints
• other measures e.g. appraisal results, problems
  identified, absence data and termination
• often assessed in intuitive, subjective way
  which, although sometimes useful, is no
  substitute for objective assessment.
• Subsequent validation
• selection ratings for each individual can be
  compared with eventual performance over a variety
  of time-periods.
• discrepancies highlight need to investigate the
  selection methods used, the weightings given, and
  the appropriateness of the selection criteria.
• comparison of selection rating and performance
  rating enables comparison of different selection
  criteria.