Trends in Selection Methods - Assignment Example

?Review of Past, Existing and Emerging Trends in Selection Techniques: Introduction: The process in which information is retrieved from the individuals willing to occupy a position and evaluated with respect to the job requirements is called as “selection” (Gatewood et al, 2008, p. 3). Selection plays a fundamental role in the rational functionality and development of an organization. Employees are selected from amongst a large pool of interested candidates so that their abilities may be assessed for suitability to the organizational tasks, prior to approving their job application. Also, the process of selection creates a base for practicing adequate employee motivational strategies. When the abilities and personal traits of the candidates for a job are assessed, the goal is not just to identify the individuals that can rightly do the job, but it is actually about choosing candidates that would actually accept to work when offered to and would tend to develop a long term relationship with the company, beneficial both for the employee and the organization. Thus, selection should ensure retention which means “the existence of an ongoing employee relationship” (Huang, Lin and Chuang, 2005). There is a certain cost associated with the process of selection, which goes into the training of the very personnel that are given the responsibility if recruiting employees for an organization, so that they may perform their duty adequately. However, the added cost is balanced by the increased retention that surfaces as a result of right selection of employees. “It is widely acknowledged that traditional selection interviews are unreliable predictors of which candidates are likely to be successful performers.” Rational practices: “Best practice” and “best fit” are two of the most fundamental and rational employee selection practices. The “best practice” is a perspective that emphasizes that many HR policies that also include the system of reward motivate the employees to work hard, while the “best fit” requires the managers to align the rewards with the strategic goals of the organization so that it may gain competitive advantage in the market (Morris and Maloney, n.d., p. 2). Many organizations do not make use of these practices and hence the performance of employees declines. There is dire need to take care of these matters along with making the selection procedure more reliable so that the difference between the expected and observed performance of the employees can be minimized. Analysis of interview as a selection tool: Although use of interview as a selection tool has been subjected to a lot of controversies in conventional recruitment practices, yet its efficiency as an assessment tool can not be denied. Particularly for the jobs in which assessment of an individual’s verbal and social skills are a critical factor, interview does the job efficiently. It helps the interviewer to make a sharp judgment not only of the candidate’s quickness of response, but also his/her fluency in the language demanded. In addition to estimating the candidate’s job related knowledge, the interviewer may also retrieve any supplementary information he/she may deem important in the context of a particular job. Likewise, the candidate may also ask the interviewing staff any questions that are influential upon his/her decision to join the organization. Hence, an interview is quite flexible in its structure and can be modified as required in an attempt to draw the best conclusions both for the interviewers and the candidate. Sometimes, the interviewer is able to improve the process of interview for the rest after having conducted it with the first candidate. Because of its open nature, existing staff interviewing a candidate face-to-face may well assess if he/she can adjust in the very culture of an organization. This reduces the verisimilitude of interpersonal conflicts in the organization after the candidate is hired. In addition to that, selection through interview is a cost effective process. However, there do exist certain factors that challenge the validity of interview as a selection tool. The biggest problem with interview is that the assessment made by the interviewers is of subjective nature. The analysis is fundamentally dependant upon their visualization or perception of the candidate and hence, a lot of subjectivity is involved in the process. Many times, it so happens that the interviewer subconsciously decides about the candidate from his/her very first impression upon the interviewer, assessment in the remaining part of the interview accords with the original impression of the candidate. Interviewers tend to project themselves to the candidate as stereotypes having traits necessary for a successful tenure on the job. The interviewer may be biased towards a certain candidate if he/she shares the same region, religion or race with the interviewer. Subjective assessment undermines many potential capabilities of the candidate. According to (Armstrong, 2003), interview is a time consuming process and is not as objective in its results as tests. Ways to improve the efficiency of interview as an assessment tool: Interviewers should be provided with a comprehensive description of the position for which the qualities of the candidates needs to be assessed (Taylor, 2010). Lack of sufficient knowledge about the job requirements may cause the interviewers to be stereotypical in their judgment of a candidate and undermine his/her capabilities. The interview should be made completely job oriented, and the questions should be according to that. Unrelated questions challenge an interview’s validity as an assessment tool for a particular job. Panning an interview in advance helps remove many difficulties both for the interviewer and the candidate (Chapman, 2010). The most important step that needs to be taken in order to improve the interview’s validity is the training of the interviewer. The interviewer should be trained so as to improve his/her interpersonal skills. The interviewer should be educated not to gain influence from the unrelated information of the candidate while making decision. The interviewer can achieve this by keeping the questions related to job, avoid making premature assessment, come to the interview with an unbiased and clear mind, avoid stereotypical judgments, and allocate reasonable weight to each question in the context of the job requirements and specifications. Many times, the interviewers tend to check the mettle of a candidate by making him/her uneasy through their stern looks, behavior or body language. A candidate is always nervous to some degree, because he/she is being assessed. In such a condition, he/she may easily become uncomfortable when an interviewer intentionally displays an offensive attitude. “Relaxed people are generally much more engaging than people who seem nervous or anxious” (Grindstaff, 2010). The lack of comfort may cause a considerable decline in the efficiency of a candidate and he/she may not be able to project his/her true self. Therefore, interviewers should be trained not to unease the candidate (hr-guide.com, 2001). Furthermore, the interviewer should maintain consistency both in his/her attitude and the nature of questions. Alternative selection methods: Apart from interviews, many tests can be used to make the selection decision such as: 1. Ability tests. 2. Personality tests, and 3. Knowledge tests. These tests can be used both alone and in combination with an interview to enhance the validity of results. The specialty of such tests is that they enable the assessment to be more quantitative, objective and measurable. As a result of this, different candidates can be compared with one another in a more rational way so as to select the best amongst them. Such methods are increasingly being employed to make the selection in conventional business practices. According to a study, the percentage of usability of assessment centers (promotion), work sample tests, ability tests, assessment centers (performance), personality tests (combination), bio-data, structured interviews, typical interviews, references, and prediction as a selection process is 75 per cent, 55 per cent, 53 per cent, 42 per cent, 41 per cent, 39 per cent, 32 per cent, 18 per cent, 15 per cent and 2 per cent respectively (Smith et al., 1989 cited in Taylor, 2008). Conclusion: It has been widely acknowledged that the conventional hiring practices that make use of interviews as a selection tool are not very reliable. The performance of an employee observed later on the job considerably differs from what was expected from the interview based assessment of his/her capabilities. As a result of this realization, many HR professionals are increasingly making use of tests in order to gather measurable assessment results. However, an interview works in its own way and its importance as a selection tool should not be underestimated. Many tests are quite inflexible in nature and do not have room to accommodate slight variation in response, that is natural even among the most highly talented lot of candidates. Interviews can be both structured and semi-structured as per the need of the situation. If the common demerits of interviews are removed, they can still prove the most reliable means of performance assessment. This can be achieved by increasing the number of judges in an interview. The judges should decide upon the response of a candidate through mutual consensus. This would reduce both subjectivity and stereotypical judgment, thus making the interview reliable. Moreover, managers need to improve the culture of an organization so that the employees may deliver their best. References: Armstrong, M 2003, A Handbook of Human Resource Practice, Kogan Page Limited. Chapman, A 2010, Job interviews, viewed 17 January, 2011, . Gatewood, R, Field, H and Barrick, M 2008, Human Resource Selection, Thompson Learning Inc. Grindstaff, S 2010, What Are the Best Job Interview Techniques? viewed 17 January, 2011, . Huang, I, Lin, H and Chuang, C 2005, Constructing factors related to worker retention, International Journal of Manpower. hr-guide.com, 2001, Personnel Selection: Methods: Interviews, viewed 17 January, 2011, . Morris, D and Maloney, M n.d., Strategic Reward Systems: Understanding the Difference between ‘Best Fit’ and ‘Best Practice’, pp. 1-21, viewed 17 January, 2011, . Taylor, S 2008, People Resourcing, CIPD Publishing, UK. Taylor, TC 2010, What Are the Different Types Recruitment and Retention Strategies? viewed 17 January, 2011, . Read More