CHAPTER EIGHT

"Selecting Human Resources"

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

CHAPTER OUTLINE

• Nature of selection.
• Importance of selection.
• Gathering job applicant information
• Obtaining the information: The selection process.
• Basic Selection Methods
• Making the selection decision

1. NATURE OF SELECTION

Selection is the process of choosing individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an organisations¹. Management selection decisions are some of the most important and most difficult staffing decisions that organisations make. More than anything else, selection of human resources should be seen as a matching process. How well an employee is matched to a job affects the amount and quality of the employee's work. This matching also directly affects training and operating costs. Workers who are unable to produce the expected amount and quality of work can cost an organisation a great deal of money and time. Furthermore, proper matching is important to the individual applying for a job; since improper job placement can result in wasted time for the employee, who might be getting useful experience elsewhere.

2. WHY IS SELECTION IMPORTANT?

Selection is of critical importance to any organisation since it provides it with its core: its human resources. Serving the organisation's needs by providing effective selection means attaining several purposes, which include²:

• to contribute to the organisation's bottom line through efficient and effective production.
• to ensure that an organisation's financial investment in employees pays off.
• to evaluate, hire and place job applicants in the best interests of both the organisation and the individual.
• to identify the potential of those employees that are likely to add value, grow and develop within a TQM organisational culture.
• to enable organisations to fulfill their strategies.

3. GATHERING JOB APPLICANT INFORMATION

Organisations can gather selection information from job applicants related to the following categories³:

• Knowledge, Skills and Abilities [KSAs]
• Personality, interests and preferences
• Other characteristics

The information gathered on an applicant is generally used to match the applicant's knowledge, skills and abilities with a suitable job. Such an endeavour is subject to legal constraints and has traditionally been of major interest to organisations because it can predict how well the individual will perform on the job. Thus, job relatedness can be demonstrated by this type of information.

In addition, information about an individual's personality, interests and preferences should also be gathered. If used appropriately, this information, in combination with job rewards, culture, and strategy of the firm can increase employee satisfaction and reduce absenteeism and voluntary turnover. It can also increase job involvement and motivation.

Lastly, employers can gather information about other characteristics such as terms and conditions of employment. These include licenses required by the law; willingness to travel or work split shifts, weekends, or under adverse conditions; required training to be taken on the job; and driver's license. These characteristics can be required as minimum qualifications for a job. Very rarely are they used to rank applicants. Applicants either possess them or they do not. Although these characteristics show no indication as to how candidates will do on the job, applicants who are unwilling to comply with them can be disqualified from consideration.

4. OBTAINING THE INFORMATION: THE SELECTION PROCESS

Most organisations take certain common steps to process applicants. The usual selection process comprises three basic activities: initial screening, testing and interviewing job applicants. Variations on this basic process depend on organisational size, nature of jobs to be filled, number of people to be selected, organisational culture, etc. The selection process shown in Figure 8.1 is typical of a large organisation. However, often one or more phases of the process are omitted or the order changed, depending on the employer.

Fig. 8.1 "Selection process flow chart", Mathis and Jackson, p. 233

5. BASIC SELECTION METHODS AND TECHNIQUES

As mentioned above, the selection process in this text is conceptualised as comprising three basic activities: initial screening, testing and interviewing of job applicants.

Initial screening of job applicants.

Initial screening comprises four elements: job preview screens; employment application forms; biographical information blanks [resumes]; and verification of references and recommendations.

- Job Preview Screens. In some cases, it may be appropriate to have a brief interview, called initial screening interview, or job review screen, to see if the applicant is likely to match any jobs available in the organisation before letting someone fill out an application form. During the screening interview, the interviewer can determine if the applicant is likely to have the ability to perform available jobs. Typical questions may concern job interests, location desired, pay expectations and availability for work⁴.

- Employment Application Forms. In other situations, the applicant may complete an application form before the short interview. Application forms are a widely used selection device. Properly prepared, the application form serves four purposes⁵:

• It is a record of the applicants's desire to obtain a position.
• It provides the interviewer with a profile of the applicant that can be used in the interview.
• It is a basic employee record for applicants who are hired.
• It can be used in research on the effectiveness of the selection process.

One way employers can make the application form more job related is by developing a weighted application blank. A job analysis is used to determine the KSAs needed for the job. Then, weights, or numerical values, are placed on different responses to application blank terms, and the responses of an applicant are scored and totaled. A typical application blank is presented in Figure 8.2

Fig. 8.2 "A typical application blank", Schuler, p. 267

-Resumes. One of the most common methods applicants use to provide background information is the resume. Resumes, or vitae, vary in style and/or length. Technically, a resume used in place of an application form must be treated by an employer as an application form. Yet, because resumes contain only information applicants want to present, some employers require that all who submit resumes complete and application form as well, so similar information will be available on all applicants.

- Recommendation and Reference Checks. Recommendations and reference checks are commonly used to screen outside job applicants. They can provide four kinds of information about a job applicant⁶: education and employment history; character and interpersonal competence; ability to perform the job; and the willingness of the past or current employer to rehire/retain the applicant.

Recent research indicates that if letters of recommendation are to be meaningful, they should contain the following information⁷:

• Degree of writer familiarity with the candidate - time known, and time observed per week.
• Degree of writer familiarity with the job in question. To help the writer make this judgment, the reader should supply to the writer a description of the job in question.
• Specific examples of performance - goals, task difficulty, work environment, and extent of cooperation from coworkers.
• Individuals or groups to whom the candidate is compared.

Selection Testing.

Written tests is another important procedure for gathering information about applicants. Many people claim that formal tests can be of great benefit in the selection process when properly used and administered. Considerable evidence supports this claim⁸.

The most common types of written tests measure cognitive [mental] abilities; motor and physical abilities; personality and interests; and achievement⁹.

1. Tests of Cognitive Ability.

Tests in this group include tests of general reasoning ability [intelligence] and tests of specific mental abilities like memory and inductive reasoning.

• Intelligence Tests. Intelligence [IQ] tests are tests of general intellectual abilities. They measure not a single trait, but rather several abilities such as memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, and numerical ability.
• Specific Cognitive Abilities. Apart from general intelligence tests, there are also measures of specific mental processes - called aptitude tests, since they aim to measure the applicant's aptitudes for the job in question. Aptitude tests include inductive and deductive reasoning, and numerical ability.

2. Tests of Motor and Physical Abilities.

Motor abilities include tests of coordination and dexterity , while physical abilities include strength and stamina.

There are many motor abilities an employer might want to measure. These include: finger dexterity, manual dexterity, speed of arm movement and reaction time.

Tests of physical abilities may also be required. Physical abilities include static strength [lifting weights], dynamic strength [like pull-ups], body coordination [as in jumping rope] and stamina.

3. Measuring Personality and Interests.

A person's mental and physical abilities are seldom enough to explain the person's job performance. Instead, other factors like the person's motivation and interpersonal skills are important as well. Personality and interests inventories are sometimes used as possible predictors of such intangibles.

Personality tests can measure basic aspects of an applicant's personality, such as introversion, stability, and motivation. While less predictive of job success than cognitive ability tests, carefully developed personality assessments can be inexpensive additions to the selection process for new jobs¹⁰. One common multidimensional test of personality that appears useful is the Ghiselli Self-Description Inventory. It includes 64 pairs of trait adjectives. For each pair, a person is asked to choose the most or least descriptive adjective. Responses are then scored across thirteen personality dimensions [ for example, supervisory ability, decisiveness, achievement motivation] that relate to managerial competence. The designer of this test, Edwin Ghiselli, was able to show that successful managers perceive themselves quite differently than do unsuccessful managers on these dimensions¹¹.

While applicants may be able to perform in various jobs, interest inventories assess their preferences for different types of work and work situations. Such inventories are useful in matching people to jobs they will enjoy. In particular, interest inventories compare one's interests with those of people in various occupations. Thus, if an employer can select people whose interests are roughly the same as those of successful incumbents in the jobs for which they are recruited, it is most likely that the applicants will be successful on their new jobs.

4. Achievement Tests.

Achievement tests predict an individual's performance on the basis of what he or she knows. Thus, these tests basically measure the applicant's job knowledge in areas like economics, marketing, personnel, etc. In some cases, in addition to job knowledge, achievement tests measure the applicant's abilities - a typing test is such an example.

Selection Interviewing.

A selection interview is designed to assess job-related knowledge, skills and abilities [KSAs] and clarify information from other sources. This in-depth interview is designed to integrate all the information from application forms, tests, and reference checks so that a selection decision can be made. Because of the integration required and the desirability of face-to-face contact, the interview is the most important phase of the selection process in many situations.

It should be noted that although the interview is NOT an especially valid predictor of job performance, it has a high 'face validity' - that is, it SEEMS valid to employers. That is why virtually NO EMPLOYERS are likely to hire individuals without interviewing them.

There are five types of interviews: structured, situational, behavioural description, nondirective and stress interview¹².

• The structured interview uses a set of standardised questions that are asked of all applicants. Every applicant is asked the same basic questions so comparisons among applicants can more easily be made. As is evident, the structured interview is almost like an oral questionnaire and offers greater consistency and accuracy than some other kinds of interviews. Research on interviews consistently has found the structured interview to be more reliable and valid than other approaches¹³ .
• The situational interview is a highly structured interview that is limited strictly to job-related questions. Interview questions are based on job analysis and checked by experts in the job so they will be content valid. Job experts also write 'good', 'average' and 'poor' responses to the questions to facilitate rating the answers of the applicant. The interviewer can code the suitability of the answer, assign point values, and add up the total number of points the interviewee received.
• In Behavioural Description Interviews, applicants are required to give specific examples of how they have performed a certain procedure or handled a problem in the past. Like other structured methods, behavioural descriptions provide better validity than unstructured interviews.
• The Nondirective Interview uses general questions from which other questions are developed. The interviewer asks general questions designed to prompt the applicant to discuss himself or herself. The interviewer then picks up on an idea in the applicant's response to shape the next question. Difficulties with a nondirective interview include keeping it job related and obtaining comparable data on each applicant.
• The stress interview is a special type of interview designed to create anxiety and put pressure on the applicant to see how the person responds. Those who use this approach often justify its use with individuals who will encounter high degrees of stress on the job, such as a consumer-complaint clerk in a department store or an air traffic controller.

Many people think that the ability to interview is an innate talent, but this contention is difficult to support. Interviewing skills are developed through training. Effective interviews do not just happen¹⁴. Pre-interview planning is essential to a well-conducted in-depth selection interview. This planning begins with selecting the time and place for the interview. Sufficient time should be allotted so that neither the interviewer nor interviewee feel rushed. Also, a private location is important so that both parties can concentrate on the interview content. The interviewer should review the application form for completeness and accuracy before beginning the interview, and also should make notes to identify specific areas for questioning the applicant about during the interview.

In addition, an important aspect of the interview is control¹⁵. If the interviewer does not control the interview, the applicant usually will. Control includes knowing in advance what information must be collected, systematically collecting it, and stopping when that information has been collected. Yet, despite the planning and control efforts, there are a number of pitfalls that interviewers should avoid¹⁶. Some common problems encountered in the interview are:

• Snap Judgments. Ideally, the interviewer should collect ALL the information possible on an applicant before making a judgment. Yet, too often, interviewers form an early impression and spend the balance of the interview looking for evidence to support it. This impression may be based on a review of an individual's application form, or more subjective factors such as dress or appearance. Consequently, many interviewers make a decision on the job suitability of applicants within the first four or five minutes of the interview.
• Negative Emphasis. As might be expected, unfavourable information about an applicant is the biggest factor considered in interviewers' decisions about overall suitability. Unfavourable information is given roughly twice the weight of favourable information. Often a single negative characteristic may bar an individual from being accepted, whereas no amount of positive characteristics will guarantee a candidate's acceptance.
• Halo Effect. Interviewers should try to avoid the halo effect, which occurs when an interviewer allows a prominent characteristic to overshadow other evidence. The halo effect is present if an interviewer lets a candidate's accomplishments in athletics overshadow other aspects, which leads the interviewer to hire the applicant because ' athletes make good salespeople'. A reverse halo effect, such as being inappropriately dressed or a low grade point average, may affect an interviewer as well.
• Biases. An interviewer must be able to recognise his/her personal biases. Studies on the interview process indicate that women are rated lower by both female and male interviewers. Other studies have found that interviewers tend to favour or select people who are perceived to be similar to the interviewer. This similarity can be on age, race, sex, previous work experiences, personal background, or other factors. As the workforce demographics shift and become more diverse, interviewers will have to be even more aware of this 'similarity bias'.

Overall, interviewers look for evidence that an applicant is well rounded, competent and successful. Significant factors, shown in order of importance, are presented in Figure 8.3.

Fig. 8.3 "Employment variables considered during an In-House interview", Mathis and Jackson, p. 249

6. THE SELECTION DECISION

Selection decisions seek to put the right person in the right job. The right person may be from outside or inside the organisation. Whether a person is ''right'' depends on the match between the person's knowledge, skills and abilities and job-skill demands, and between the person's personality, interests and preferences and job and organisational characteristics. To this end assessment centers are utilised. This selection aid evaluates applicants or current employees with regard to how well they might perform in a managerial or higher-level position - that is, it predicts whether job applicants will be successful or unsuccessful¹⁷.

An assessment center usually involves six to twelve people who have been chosen to attend it. It is most often conducted off the premises by the organisation for one to three days. The performance of the attendees is usually rated by managers in the organisation who are trained assessors. At a typical assessment center, candidates undergo evaluation using a wide range of techniques, such as the in-basket exercise, leaderless group discussions and business games¹⁸.

CASE

Manpower Inc, the largest worldwide supplier of temporary help, identified a need for a better system of selecting and training office employees. Manpower employees are assigned on a temporary basis to companies, filling in for permanent employees who are absent and helping companies get through heavy workloads or special projects. Office workers supplied by Manpower include word-processing operators, data-entry operators, computer operators, typists, secretaries, accounting clerks, and customer service representatives.

In a typical year, Manpower employs one million people worldwide. Like any business that hires and places its employees, Manpower needed effective selection tools and training techniques. It was essential that Manpower's selection and training systems be highly accurate, as well as time and cost effective. Further, those systems needed to be flexible enough to expand along with new developments in office technology.

The company developed solutions on two fronts: selection and training. Tests were developed specifically for the selection of temporary workers for automated offices. And computer training was developed to equip temporary employees with skills for hundreds of popular software programmes.

Manpower's two-pronged approach to assessment, using one set of tests for knowledge and another for skills, results in the most complete evaluation of employees for the automated office. Manpower also developed tests to assess employees' abilities to perform general office tasks, including proofreading, customer service, and order entry. By measuring competencies such as problem solving, decision-making, resourcefulness, and the ability to follow directions, Manpower's General Office Test Battery helps the company identify people with the skills and personal characteristics needed to be productive in general office jobs.

The basis of Manpower's entire selection system, called the Predictable Performance System, is job analysis. Thorough analysis of office positions was the first step in the development of the tools that enable Manpower to make the best possible match of employee to assignment. Manpower's selection system also includes a structured interview that draws information about an applicant's experience, abilities, and interests. Information on customer needs and preferences in obtained through detailed assignment orders, surveys of customers' work environments, and temporary-employees performance appraisals.

The development of Manpower's Performance System warranted a major investment of research, time and money. However, all those involved in the process benefit, especially Manpower's temporary employees and customers.

QUESTIONS.

1. What are the components of the selection process that are used by Manpower?

2. Discuss how the testing process and types of tests used are job related.

Source: Mathis, R.L. and Jackson, J.H. [1994]. Human Resource Management. Min/St. Paul: West Publishing.

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NOTES