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The process of employee selection is very challenging and therefore the method used by the human resource department to select employees plays a vital role in deciding whether the company will have the right employees or not. For effective human resource planning, a company must put in place an elaborate system for employee recruitment and retention (Mathis, 2010).
Getting employees with the required skills is not an easy task and therefore the validity of a selection method should be thoroughly checked before its application. The inferences made about a particular job applicant should be appropriate and meaningful for the selection method to be termed valid.
The inferences made during recruitment determine whether the selected candidates will perform according to the employer’s expectations or not. The validity of a selection process is based on the employee’s actual performance in relation to the expected standards.
Companies should set up job requirements that the selection method should match for a successful job selection process (Torrington, 2008). This paper will discuss selection method validity together with various employee selection techniques.
Job specification is very essential in achieving validity during employee selection. All the qualities assessed during the employee selection process should at the end of the day be useful in the actual performance of the employee (Dessler, 2000). The analysis is not only important for the selection process but also for legal reasons incase of discrimination.
The information gotten from job analysis is normally used to come up with the required qualifications for a particular job. Job analysis should be conducted properly because employees can sue the organization incase of any discrimination in the selection process (Ivancevich, 2006).
The reliability of an employee selection method is determined by quite a number of factors which can diminish the validity of selection measures. To begin with, employees who are nervous during the assessment can affect the reliability of a selection method because they may end up making mistakes that could be avoided if they were calm.
The tendency of some interviewers to turn off candidates during interviews denies the candidates an opportunity to express themselves during the interview (Bratton, 2001). The reliability of selection measures can also be compromised in a case where the questions asked during the selection process are vague or confusing.
Tools used to distinguish candidates according to specified attributes should be accurate enough to give scores that are significantly different. Selection can be more reliable if the questions asked during the selection process have moderate difficulty.
The questions should not be too difficult or too easy (Legge, 2005). The length of measure also plays a major role in determining whether a particular selection measure is effective or not. It is important to have a prolonged length of measure in order to get enough details about the candidate.
The validity of a selection method can determined using three strategies. The content –oriented strategy ensures that the selection devices are developed and used in the right way (Noe, 2009). The second strategy is the criterion-related strategy which uses statistics to determine whether the employee’s actual performance match the selection scores.
The third and final strategy is the validity generalization strategy which bases the reliability of a particular selection method on how successful it has been in other organizations. The validity of a selection method is based on how accurate the selection measures turn out to be. After establishing the validity of a selection method, the employers can now be assured of a competent employee (Noe, 2009).
There are many techniques used for employee selection but it is the decision of a company to settle on the most appropriate method. The first method of employee selection is selection based on work experience. This is among the best employee selection techniques because it involves the evaluation of the experience that a candidate has in a particular area of application (Storey, 2007).
It is always a great advantage for a company to recruit a candidate with some valuable experience in the type of job that the organization may be offering. When a job applicant is familiar with a particular job specification, it is easy for them to settle down than a candidate without any kind of experience.
A company saves itself the cost of training inexperienced employees because such employees are likely to face a learning curve that is very steep. It is easy to predict the performance of a job applicant based on their work history and in the process doing away with any kind of uncertainty (Collings, 2009).
The experience of a job applicant is normally reflected on the applicant’s resume and it is important for the employers to follow up and verify if the information is actually true. The referees provided on the resume are normally contacted by the employer to actually confirm the information presented in the applicant’s resume (Randhawa, 2007).
The best way of gauging the applicant’s experience is by taking them to the field and giving them practical tests. It is important to verify the applicant’s expertise before hiring them to avoid future complications and fall outs. Although this method of employee selection is among the best, its major shortcoming is that it can lock out inexperienced candidates who have a great potential of performing better after gaining some basic experience.
It is also not a guarantee that the experienced candidates will settle down immediately and meet the demands of their new employees as quickly as expected (Armstrong, 2006). By basing on experience alone as the criteria for selection, employers can ignore other important qualities such as interpersonal and communication skills.
The second method of employee selection is interviewing the job applicants. The job applicants come face-to-face with a selection panel that comprise of members from the human resource department and sometimes members from the top management (Mabey, 1998).
The main aim of an interview is for the employers to have a meaningful dialogue with the job applicant for them to have an overview of both intellectual and personality qualities of the candidate. The selection panel sets out to find out how a particular candidate copes under pressure as they ask questions that bring out the strengths and weaknesses of the job applicant (Mabey, 1998).
In interviews, the candidates are also asked to state their strengths and weaknesses. Candidates are asked questions on what they would do and how they would behave in different scenarios as a way of testing their integrity. Through interviewing, the right candidates suitable for the job are selected based on their performance during the interview (Lepak, 2008).
The main advantage of using interviews is that the employers are able to gauge how a particular candidate behaves under pressure as well as testing their personality and communication skills face-to face. Interviews also enable candidates to learn more about the company because they are also given an opportunity to ask questions if they wish to do so.
The candidate and the employers establish a good rapport that is useful in their future working relationships (Lepak, 2008). The other advantage of interviews is that all the candidates are given an equal opportunity to prove themselves without any form of discrimination.
The main shortcoming of using interviews as an employee selection method is that the results gotten from the interview can be deceiving and the candidates may end up performing poorly contrary to the expectations of the employers (Talwar, 2006). The other notable thing is that potential candidates can be locked out because of being nervous during the interview and yet they are brilliant in their field of specialization.
The third method of employee selection is the use of tests and assessment to select the right candidate. This method has become very common in recent times because it is very comprehensive and brings out the actual details of a job applicant’s qualifications (Noe, 2009). Employers use standardized tests and assessments to determine the qualities of candidates.
The use of tests and assessments are important in finding out those who have genuine qualifications because some candidates can present good academic results that were obtained through cheating in examinations as well as forged certificates. When candidates are given tests, the true quality in them is brought out and therefore helping the employers make the right hiring decisions.
Some of the commonly used tests include personality tests, grammar tests and a test for interpersonal skills. The candidates are also tested in their areas of specialization to determine if they are really qualified. Assessments and tests are prepared according to the positions that have been advertised and the qualifications needed (Noe, 2009).
The use of tests and assessments to select employees ensures that only the best candidates with genuine qualifications are hired by an organization (Noe, 2009). This method helps in preventing cases where candidates who cheated in their examinations end up being hired by posting good results and yet they know nothing.
The other advantage of using this method is that candidates are tested according to what is expected from them (Bratton, 2001). A company looking for sales personnel will base their tests and assessments on interpersonal skills because those are the major skills needed in sales and marketing.
The main shortcoming of this employee selection method is that it requires a lot of time and resources in order to prepare and administer those tests and assessments. This can be very expensive in cases where there are many job applicants for a single position (Bratton, 2001).
Having looked at the three employee selection methods, it is clear that each selection technique has got its advantages and disadvantages (Legge, 2005). The main aim of employee selection is to come up with qualified candidates for the advertised positions. There are various factors such as the size of the company and the nature of the position being advertised which influence the choice of a particular employee selection method.
In cases where the vacant position needs to be filled immediately, the selection method based on experience will be the most appropriate one because it takes less time compared to interviewing and the tests and assessment method (Legge, 2005). This will also ensure that there is continuity because the new employee is likely to take less time to adapt to their new working environment.
In a case where the company wants to hire personnel for long-term basis then interviews and the use of tests are the most preferred methods. All in all, the sensitivity of the position should be considered during employee selection (Legge, 2005).
There are cases were employers use more that one selection method to ensure that the final results are very accurate. Some companies prefer to use both tests and interviews in a case where there are many applications for a singe position.
The tests and assessments are used to eliminate some candidates before the final few candidates are shortlisted for interviews (Noe, 2009). Taking this approach ensures that the best candidate is finally hired for the job after a series of tests and interviews.
In a case where a medium sized company wants to recruit an accountant, the tests and assessment method is the most preferred selection method because of the practicality of the position.
Even if the candidates may have some experience in the field, it is important to give them some tests and assessment because accounting is practical. By subjecting the candidates to accounting tests and assessments, the employers are in a better position to determine whether the new accountant will be able to handle the company’s accounts as required.
In conclusion, it is important to note that employers can only find the right candidates to work in their organizations if they use appropriate employee selection techniques. The employers should eliminate all factors that may compromise the validity and reliability of selection methods for them to get accurate results (Lepak, 2008). The choice of a selection method depends on the nature of the position and the size of the organization.
References
Armstrong, G., 2006. A handbook of human resource practice. New York, NY: Kogan Page Publishers.
Bratton, J., 2001. Human resource management: theory and practice. New York, NY: Routledge.
Collings, D., 2009. Human resource management: a critical approach. New York, NY: Taylor & Francis.
Dessler, G., 2000. Human Resource management. London: Prentice Hall.
Ivancevich, J., 2006. Human resource management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Legge, K., 2005. Human resource management: rhetorics and realities. London: Palgrave McMillan.
Lepak, D., 2008. Human resource management: managing employees for competitive advantage. New York, NY: Pearson Education, Limited.
Mabey, C., 1998. Human resource management: a strategic introduction. New York, NY: Wiley-Blackwell.
Mathis, R., 2010. Human resource management. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Noe, R., 2009. Human resource management. New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Irwin.
Randhawa, G., 2007. Human resource management. New York, NY: Atlantic Publishers & Dist.
Storey, J., 2007. Human resource management: a critical text. New York, NY: Cengage Learning.
Torrington, D., 2008. Human resource management. London: Financial Times Prentice Hall.
Twalar, P. 2006. Human resources management. New York, NY: Gyan Publishing House.
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