Staff Selection Flashcards
Define SELECTION
Selection is the process of choosing the individual best suited for a particular position within an organisation. It is based on personality, skills, attitude and qualifications.
Why is selection a two way process?
- information is provided for all involved. You provide information about yourself in the form of a CV and the company provides information about the job.
- applicant eventually makes final decision between companies applied to
- applicants are influenced by the way their applications are managed - e.g. if the recruitment manager is rude, the applicant is less likely to accept a job
How should managers interact with applicants?
- reply meaningfully and fast
- correspondence should contain useful information - the manager should be helpful
- interviewers need to have the relevant skills and knowledge about the job
What is selection criteria based on?
How the employee would fit into the organisation, how they would fit into a team/department, how they would suit the role.
The organisation will design questions to determine this
What is the selection process?
There are 3 stages:
- Preliminary screening - may be an online questionnaire or a phone call. This immediately removes obviously unqualified candidates.
- Review of application and CV, matched to the job description
- Interviews (may be in person or phone/skype)
What is an applicant tracking system?
A software application that helps companies sift through CVs electronically - matches words in the CV to those in the job advert and person specification
What are the types of selection tests?
- cognitive aptitude tests
- psychomotor abilities test
- job knowledge test
- work sample test
- vocational interest test
- personality test
- honesty test
- online assessment
- assessment centres
What is a cognitive aptitude test?
A selection test. This measures the individual’s ability to learn as well as to perform a job, by identifying candidates with large knowledge bases.
What is a psychomotor abilities test?
A selection test. It tests strength, coordination and dexterity. Only used for jobs that require them, such as surgeons.
What is a job knowledge test?
A selection test. It measures the applicants knowledge of the role for which they are applying.
What is a work sample test?
A selection test. Candidates perform a set of tasks that are representative of the job
What is a vocational interest test?
A selection test. Indicates occupations that the applicant is most interested in.
What is a personality test?
A selection test. A self reported measure of traits, temperaments and dispositions.
What is honesty testing?
A selection test. Examples include graphology (the study of a person’s handwriting) and polygraph (lie detector test).
What are online assessments?
A selection test. Makes the selection process easier and faster and requiring less labour and also tests the applicants alleged technical abilities.
What are assessment centres?
A selection test. They require candidates to perform activities similar to the job. Examples:
- in basket exercises, which test time management
- management games, that test delegation
- leaderless discussion groups
- mock interviews
What is the employer responsible for in the selection process?
They are responsible for making sure there is a burden of proof, making sure tests are related to success or failure and there is no discrimination against apllicants
What are some types of interviews?
- unstructured
- structured
- behavioural
- situational
What is involved in an unstructured interview?
- asks probing, open ended questions
- encourages applicant to do most of the talking
- often time consuming
- the fact it is ‘off script’ may cause issues if there is a dispute, as there is no record of what was said
What is involved in a structured interview?
- series of job related questions
- increased reliability and accuracy and reduced subjectivity/inconsistency (compared with unstructured)
What is involved in a behavioural interview?
- prompts applicants to relate actual incidents relevant to the target job
What is involved in a situational interview?
- creates hypothetical situations that candidates may encounter and asks how the applicant would deal with them
How can an interview be planned?
- physical location should be pleasant and private
- job profile should be developed based on person specification/description
- questions should be prepared that relate to required qualities
What is the general content of an interview?
- seek additional job related information (e.g. experience academic achievement, personal skills)
- ask about past job related behaviour
- provide information about the job, the company and expectations
What are some methods of interviews?
- one on one interview
- group interview
- board interview (popular in UK)
- multiple interview (several interviews in 1 day)
- video interviews
0 stress interview (deliberate anxiety is created and the employees response is looked at)
What are some potential interview problems?
- inappropriate questions
- non job related information given
- interview bias/discrimination
- interviewer domination
- lack of training of interviewer
- non verbal communication (body language)
How can a selection method be evaluated?
Reliability - is it consistent? Validity - is it related to performance? Utility - is it cost effective? Legality - is it legal and fair? Acceptability - how will applicants react?
What are some recent trends in the selection process?
- online social networks for professionals e.g. Linked In
- free online profiles about candidates
- moving more applicant screening online
