Important Factors to Be Considered in Job Selection Process - Assignment Example

Running head: Important Factors to Be Considered in Job Selection Process Important Factors to Be Considered in Job Selection Process [Writers name] [University/ college] Important Factors to Be Considered In Job Selection Process While designing the selection tests few criteria's are to be considered. That includes STANDARIZATION, OBJECTIVITY, NORMS, RELIABILITY and VALIDITY. I am going to discuss the two important characteristics of the standardized test that are VALIDITY AND RELIABILITY. (Book: HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT, NINTH EDITION. Writer: Robert M. NOE. Year 2006) Validity and reliability is not just a fixed perception. Different authors around the globe have different views on both of these. It is a very argumentative topic in the fields of educational and social research. So, we need to ponder on the different meanings regarding "validity". One renowned and cited one is: "An account is valid or true if it represents accurately those features of the phenomena, that it is intended to describe, explain or theories" (Hamersley in 1987) (1) Another one states: "Are we measuring what we think we are" (Kerlinger in page 444-445 in 1964). (2) It means that what we are trying to measure is accurate or not. And the other is that whether the means of assessment is actually measuring what it needs to measure. Face validity, part of validity, is seeing to it that a particular test really measuring the criteria and phenomena. For the selection of an employee, there is a process which includes Job Analysis, Recruitment and Selection. Job analysis is the analysis of the job and to see what the job needs, Ability, skills, work experience that a job needs and the nature of the job. The job analysis is there to make job description list and job specification list so that a perfect employee could be found for the organization. So the question is how to find a good employee. Well, there are different procedures and ways to test the ability of the person regarding the job. Now these tests are very important but we don't know that do these tests really give you of what you looking for So to check the test's ability to measure is done by validity. We will discuss this more after discussing reliability so that both are clear in your mind. Now coming to the definition of the "Reliability", we talk in our every day life that this is reliable and that is reliable. Isn't it We say that is this source of the news is reliable or not We say that my friend is a reliable person or that thing is reliable, meaning that some thing is dependable, reliable or trustworthy. But this meaning can not fit into the research meaning of reliability. So in research the word reliability means to be consistent and repeated like if you are giving a test than you would get same answer again and again. Let's take an example of a non reliable measuring device. The measuring of the characteristics of the people is needed in the personnel selection to determine that who will be accepted for the job openings and who will be not. For instance we might be interested in knowing the physical characteristics of the applicant. For example we want to measure the height of the applicant; we might start of with a 12 inch ruler. The first applicant turns out to be 6feet and 1 inch tall. It would not be shocking to see that another person who measures the same applicant's height gives the result of 6 feet 1 and 12/16 inches an hour later. Than the same candidate when measured the other day comes out to be 6 feet 1 and 14/16 inches tall. Now although the person's height is stable but we are getting different answers. Why This is because the measurement device is not perfectly reliable. And there are slight errors in the results. (Writer: William M.K. Trochim. Last revised on: 10/20/2006) We can now achieve a formal definition: "the variance of the measure" (William M.K. Trochim, last revised on 20th October 2006). (3) Here we can also look at different definition cited by different writes around the world. For instance Black and Champion states on page 234 to 236 in year 1976 that reliability is: "Ability to measure consistently". Another state that, reliability is "Accuracy or precision of a measuring instrument" Taken from Kerlinger in 1964 (page 430, 444 to 445). (4) In Johnston and Pennypaker cites that reliability is: "Capacity to yield the same measurementstability" (in 1980 page 190 to 191). (5) Now lets see that which is the more important either validity or reliability Well it is quiet difficult to answer as both of these are confused with each other. Some think that both validity and reliability are two different ideas but actually both are interlinked to each other or you can say that both are related with each another. I would like to discuss 4 different situations that may simplify the relation ship in front of you. (6) Measuring the perfect concept of a particular person means that your aim is right, meaning that you are hitting the center which is the red spot in the above shown pictures. But if u you have a bad concept of a person than it means that you are away from your target, away from the red dot. Now looking at the first picture, it shows that you are aiming for the dot but you are far away from the dot. This means that you are consistently and repeatedly measuring the wrong value of the person. The second picture shows that you are hitting the target randomly. You hardly ever hit the target but when you add it altogether you are getting the right answers for the group but not well for individuals. It means that you have a valid estimate about the group but you are not consistent through out. The third one shows that you are totally missing the target every time. It means that your test is nor valid nor reliable. And the last one is the perfect example of both valid as well as reliable. Looking it in this way it means that both validity and reliability are in the same scale rather than being dissimilar. At one end of the scale we have validity and on the other we have reliability. On the validity end of the scale the concepts and capacity of the test are different. Where as on the reliability end the concepts and capacity is the same. So both are important and have different important level at different times. Here moving on we would discuss that how validity can be achieved and how it can not be achieved in the light of some examples. As we have discussed earlier that job analysis makes it easier for you to select. Now we would discuss that how we select the people who are applying for the job. Selection is the process to find a candidate that is best for the organization and its needs. This process should determine lot of factors which includes: Ability, Skills, and Knowledge. (7). Organization usually carry out studies to see to it that is the assortment method is VALID or not For example a selection method can have an unsympathetic upshot on the minority group. For instance a company asks for masters' degree in engineering. Now this selection requirement has an adverse effect on the marginal group. As they are less in number and wouldn't come up with as many degrees as the majority group would come with. So these minority people would not get as much share in the company employment as would have been if they have been in majority group. If the firm goes on with this selection method than it means that they need to show that this selection way or requirement is VALID and giving the required results and not having any negative impact. There are lots of different selection methods that differ from firms to firms and organizations to organizations. The common ways to select a candidate are: interviews, tests, application forms, and reference checks. The application form is searching for the candidate's educational background, pervious job know-how, physical state and other information to judge individual's ability to accomplish an assignment. If a firm hires a candidate because of its grand educational back ground than this selection method may not appear to be a VALID one. Because you are forgoing the candidates other inquires too. For case in point his job experience or his physical health. Later it did prove that the candidate is not coming up to the firm's requirement because of his/her low work experience. (Book: HRM, 10th Edition. Writer: NOE, HOLLENBECK and GERHART. Year: 2000) Now looking into another job assortment method, which is interview. Mostly it is seen that the interviewer constitutes an unstructured interview and they can not get the required information they needed. So it has low validity. On the other hand there is a proper and structured interview which is help full to get the information that the interviewer is trying to get. So this would be known as valid selection method. So to achieve the validity in the interview the interviewer needs to plan a well structured interview to get the necessary fallout. As we have discussed earlier that a reliability of a job is when it gives the same result again and again when it is applied by different Human Resource Managers at different time with unlike model of jobs. Here it is to be noted that "validity" of a job can not be achieved by the "reliability" of the job study method. Reliability asks you to plan out the test properly. Either it's a questioner, check lists or job inventories. But the usage and the sense of the lingo should also be looked into as it is also crucial for a high level of reliability. Now we should look into that what is the difference between VALIDITY and RELIABILITY. The major difference is in the definition of the two. Reliability looks into that is the test giving the same result under the same issue and with the same environment. On the other hand VALIDITY looks for the accuracy for the measurement. To me Validity has a more important role than reliability because if the test is not measuring which it was supposed to measure than what's the use if it gives a consistent answer again and again. There are other factors too other than VALIDITY and RELIABILITY that affect the selection process. This includes work experience; see to it that how much your type of industry meets to the type of trade the candidate is applying from, than you have to look into the salary package you are offering and the candidate is asking for, other than this you also need to see that the candidate's education is of which type, the job selection rate for the protected group (government policy), the geographical location, the criminal record check. And last factor is of BFOQ. (Bona fide occupational qualification)(government policy) (8). Starting from the criminal record check, most of the companies around the globe check that the applicant does not have a criminal record in the past. It is not necessary that if it proves to be true, you would not be selected. The selection committee would call you and will discuss your case till the final decision is made. Suppose that a person has a criminal record, than the company would contact the police to send them the information and the whole case why that particular person has a name in the criminal list. A commercial bank in Uk while hiring a security guard for the bank contacted the local police station to find out his criminal records. Now we would discuss the job selection for the protected group, here if some one is from the protected group than that person would be given a priority for the selection. Coming on to demographic shifts, this is emphasizing on hiring women and minorities. The Bureau of the Labor Statistics' indicates that the work force has slowed down a lot because the baby boomers wishing to work have already been absorbed into the market. Only 47% of the women out of the necessity and 27% immigrants are in the market. So now firms are trying to manage this diversity. BFOQ, this is a justifiable qualification which allows the selector to select a person who is from a particular community, sex, religion or may be age. For example in modeling of woman the woman modeling company has to limit its self only to women to model for a particular brand for the women clothing.( Book: Management. Writer: David C. Martin. Published in 1998.) Now coming to the industry types I think that the industry makes a lot of difference, if you are coming from another industry than you would have been molded to that particular industry's ways. You adopt your self to the values of that particular industry. So it's not that easy to adjust to some other industry. Ok, it is right that you may be an expert in a field, but it would take some time to get used to the other industry's norms, timings, values and atmosphere. Here I would like to put an example in front of you so that you can understand it more easily. For instance you work in a pharmaceutical company as a manager marketing department. You worked in the pharmaceutical company for around 5 years. After that you shift to bank, suppose CITY BANK, as a manager marketing in credit cards department. It would not be an easy task to get going in another atmosphere, coming from a different atmosphere where you followed different values and norms. Its not that one can not move from a particular industry to another but it means that it would be better for both the industry and the candidate to remain in the same field as were before. Like if one is an engineer at a local car shop than and he applies at and airline engineering department than he wont be able to get a job there most likely. Now let's talk on the factor of SALARY. Let's say a firm is ready to give around thirty five hundred (3500) pounds for a job. Don't you think that your previous salary should be at least between twenty two hundred to three thousand (2200 to 3000) pounds Now if you come up for the interview and firm gets to know that your salary was 1800 pounds, than they most probably might not acknowledge you for the job as this would disturb the inner justice and balance regarding the pays. Some of the people might say that it's good for the firm that they got a employee for a low salary. But here it is to remember that we are not looking into salary. It's about the companies' internal and external balance that should be maintained. One day an employee might turn up to you saying that a person from another organization is getting more than I am getting having a same amount of work experience. Now we come to the factor of related experience. It would be easy to explain this with the example. Let's say a firm wants to hire a HR manager (loan department) with a 3 years experience in this department only. Now you turn up for this vacancy and you have a four years experience. An HR manager can take care of any sphere in recruiting the employees and selecting them, but you can not take any risk, because the firm wants some one who has just been working in loan department and no where else. Now we jump on the factor of hiring people from the local market. Companies often try to hire some one who has been in the local market rather than some one who has come from other city or area. There are several reasons for it. One is that it saves training and time. Secondly it is also easy for that person to adjust to the new firm. There are several advantages and disadvantages for internal recruitment and external recruitment. If a firm recruits internally than there are several advantages for it. When we say internal recruitment it means hiring some one on some other post within the firm. Advantages are that the candidate knows the values of the firm and is well aware of the norms. Secondly the firm knows what kind of person the employee is. Thirdly the cost of recruitment is not that much. Looking at the disadvantages first one is that as the employee belongs to the same firm newer ideas do not come up. Then there may be politics involved in selecting the candidate. Thirdly a costly training would be required and would be given to the candidate. Coming now to external recruitment, the first advantage is that the firm would get may be able to get newer thoughts. Secondly the new candidate who is from some other firm may have a wider experience in that field. Thirdly as the candidate is coming from a firm who is like us and is our competitor the firm would be able to get the information about that firm and trying to overcome and improve them in the area that is needed to be covered. Amongst the disadvantages first one we have is that there is a higher chance to make mistake by the new comer. As he is new to the firm and the job he/she might make a mistake. Secondly the new comer may start slowly with the work and may not be able to come up to the required expectations of the firm by starting slowly. Thirdly the amount to recruit that person would be higher than the cost required for the internal recruitment. Reference checks are also an important factor for the hiring of a new employee. Here personal relationship counts a lot. In some firms personal relationship alter our decision for hiring some one. For instance a person who is relative of mine would be given more importance than others. Although this is not to be called as hiring on merit, but this is one of the dominant factors in job selection process. The last thing which really matters with the selection of the employee is the required education with a good CGPA. A firm would look for some one who have a Masters degree from a reputed institute and have done it as full time, and than he/she also have the required experience. If this not available than some one who has taken his/her masters degree from not so reputed institution but should have more work familiarity and should have a stupendous CGPA. Other than this a selector is looking for leadership traits, your vow to the work assigned, you abilities to tackle to different kinds of troubles, and ways in would you would try to drive your firm to more profits and higher performances. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1) A Comparative Discussion of the Notion of 'Validity' in Qualitative and Quantitative Research. Writer: Glyn Winter. Year: March, 2000. Volume 4. 2) A Comparative Discussion of the Notion of 'Validity'. Writer: Glyn Winter. Year: March, 2000. Volume 4. 3) 4) And 5) taken from the above cited research paper. 6) Writer: William M.K. Trochim. Last revised on: 10/20/2006 7) Book: Management. Writer: David C. Martin. Published in 1998. 8) Book: Management. Writer: David C. Martin. Published in 1998. 9) Writer: Sanjeev Himachali. Article source: Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/expert=Sanjeev_Himachali Read More