Selecting Human Resources

1

• Selecting Human Resources

2
The Selection Process

• Is concerned with identifying the best candidate
  or candidates for jobs from among the pool of
  qualified applicants developed during the
  recruiting process

3
Steps in the Selection Process
4
Selection Errors

• False positives
• Applicants who are predicted to be successful and
  are hired but who ultimately fail
• False negatives
• Applicants who are predicted to fail and are not
  hired, but if they had been hired, they would
  have been successful

5
Basic Selection Criteria

• Education
• The formal classroom training an individual has
  received in public or private schools and in a
  college, university, and/or technical school
• Experience
• The amount of time the individual has spent
  working, either in a general capacity or in a
  particular field of study

6
Basic Selection Criteria (contd)

• Skills and abilities
• The specific qualifications and capabilities of
  an individual to perform a specific job

7
Basic Selection Criteria (contd)

• Personal characteristics
• Big five personality traits
• More behavioral than cognitive or emotional
• Likely to be more important for job performance
  than are more traditional personality traits
• Neuroticism
• Extraversion
• Openness to experience
• Agreeableness
• Conscientiousness

8
Basic Selection Criteria (contd)

• Hiring for fit
• Rather than hiring someone who is a good fit for
  a specific job, an organization might hire
  someone who is a good fit for the larger
  organization
• Skills and abilities can be taught on the job
  hiring someone based on personal characteristics,
  values, etc., may be more important

9
A Sample Selection System
10
Popular Selection Techniques

• Employment application
• Asks individuals for various bits of information
  pertaining to their personal background
• Questions must relate to an individuals ability
  to do the job

11
Popular Selection Techniques (contd)

• Employment test
• Device for measuring the characteristics of an
  individual
• Personality
• Intelligence
• Aptitude

12
Popular Selection Techniques (contd)

• Work simulations (or work samples)
• Asking the prospective employee to perform tasks
  that simulate the work for which the person is
  being considered
• In-baskets
• Special forms of work simulations for prospective
  managers that consist of collections of
  hypothetical memos, letters, and notes that
  require responses

13
Popular Selection Techniques (contd)

• Personal interviews
• Face-to face conversations between prospective
  job applicants and representatives of the
  organization.

14
Kinds of interviews
15
Interview Errors

• First impression error
• Making a decision early in the interview process
• Contrast error
• The interviewer is unduly influenced by other
  people who have been interviewed
• Similarity error
• The interviewer is unduly influenced because the
  interviewee is similar to the interviewer in one
  or more important ways

16
Interview Errors (contd)

• Nonrelevancy error
• The interviewer may be inappropriately influenced
  by an applicants posture, dress, or appearance
• Inappropriate interviewer
• The interviewer may know little about the job so
  is unable to appropriately assess the applicant

17
Popular Selection Techniques (contd)

• References and recommendations
• The applicant provides letters of recommendation
  or the names and addresses of individuals who may
  be contacted
• Are often of little value
• Growing concern about legal liability in the
  preparation of recommendation letters

18
Popular Selection Techniques (contd)

• Physical examinations
• Few organizations require physical exams of all
  applicants they may ask only those finalists who
  are most likely to receive a job offer
• A related type of physical examination is drug
  testing

19
Popular Selection Techniques (contd)

• Assessment center
• An approach to selecting managers based on
  measuring and evaluating their ability to perform
  critical work behaviors
• Are costly

20
Legal Issues in Selection

• An organization faces the greatest legal
  liability in discrimination in selection.
• It is critical that the HR manager understand the
  process of validating a selection instrument and
  carrying out the process in all cases.