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Chapter 6

Employee testing and selection

Selecting Employees

Selection:

└The process of choosing from among available applicants the individuals who are most likely to successfully perform a job.

└ Selection: is the use of various tools and techniques to select the best candidates for the job.

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Why careful selection is important?

HR manager’s performance depends on the performance of subordinates.

Good selection practices increase organizational productivity and job satisfaction, decrease turnover rate and replacement costs.

Factors affecting selection process

Factors affecting organization’s selection process:

Organization’s size Types of jobs to be filled Number of people to be hired

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Steps in the Selection Process

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1. initial Interview

Initial interview: └ used to determine whether the applicant’s skills,

abilities, and job preferences match any of the available jobs in the organization,

└ to explain to the applicant the available jobs and their requirements,

└ to answer any questions the applicant has about the available jobs .

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2. Employment Testing

Cognitive (Mental) Abilities

AchievementPhysical Abilities

Personality and

Interests

What Tests Measure

2. Employment Testing

Aptitude tests└ Means of measuring a person’s capacity to learn

and perform a job.

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Aptitude Tests

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2-1 Aptitude Tests

Verbal ability └ Measure person’s ability to use words in thinking,

planning, and communicating. Numerical ability └ Measure ability to add, subtract, multiply, and

divide. Perceptual speed └ Measure ability to recognize similarities and

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Aptitude Tests (cont.)

Reasoning ability└ Measure ability to analyze oral or written facts

and make correct judgments concerning them on the basis of logical implications.

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2-2 Job Knowledge and Proficiency Tests

Job knowledge tests└ Tests used to measure

the job-related knowledge of an applicant.

Proficiency tests└ Tests used to measure

how well a job applicant can do a sample of the work to be performed in the job.

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2-3 Physical and Medical Examination

Reasons for Physical and medical examinations:└To confirm that the applicant meets the physical

requirements of the position.

└To discover any medical limitations to be taken into account in placing the applicant.

└To establish a record of the applicant’s health for future insurance or compensation claims.

└To detect communicable diseases that may be unknown to the applicant.

3. Reference Checking

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3. Background and Reference Checks

Investigations and Checks: └Reference checks└Background employment checks└Criminal records└Driving records└Credit checks

Why?└To confirm actual information provided by applicants.└To uncover damaging information.

Making Background Checks More Useful

1. Include on the application form a statement for applicants to sign clearly authorizing a background check.

2. Use telephone references if possible.

3. Use references provided by the candidate as a source for other references.

4. Ask open-ended questions to get more information from references.

Background Investigations and Reference Checks (cont’d)

Former Employers

Current Supervisors

Written References

Social Networking Sites

Commercial Credit Rating Companies

Sources of Information

4. Interviewing

An interview is a procedure designed to obtain information from a person through oral responses to oral inquiries.

A selection interview is a selection procedure designed to predict future job performance on the basis of applicants’ oral responses to oral inquiries.

4.1 Interview Formats

Unstructured or Nondirective

Interview

Interview Formats

Structured or

Directive Interview

4.1 Interview Formats

1. Structured Interview (directive): └ Fixed format interview in which all questions are

prepared previously and are put in the same order to each interviewee. each interviewee is asked a same series of questions.

2. Non-structured Interview (non-directive): └ allow questions based on the interviewee's

responses and proceeds like a friendly conversation, and each interviewee is asked a different series of questions.

4.2 Interview Content

Situational Interview

Stress Interview

Behavioral Interview

Job-Related Interview

Types of Questions

4.2 Interview Content

1. Situational Interview: questions focus on the individual’s ability to plan what his behavior would be in a given situation.

2. Behavioral Interview: ask interviewee to describe how they reacted to actual situtaion in the past

3. Stress Interview: in which applicant is made uncomfortable by a series of rude questions.

Problems in Conducting Interviews

Initial impressions:└ Interviewer draws conclusions about a job

applicant within the first 10 minutes of the interview.

Halo effect: └ Occurs when managers allow a single major

characteristic of the employee to influence their judgment on several items of a performance appraisal.

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Problems in Conducting Interviews

Overgeneralizing :└ interviewee may not behave exactly the same

way on the job as during the interview.└ interviewer must remember that the

interviewee is under pressure during the interview and that some people just naturally become very nervous during an interview.

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Designing and Conducting An Effective Interview

Step 1: Job Analysis, Write a job description with a list of job duties, required knowledge, skills, abilities, and other worker qualifications.

Step 2: Rate the Job’s Duties, Identify the job’s main duties. To do so, rate each job duty, based on its importance to job success and on the time required to perform it compared to other tasks.

Step 3: Create Interview Questions, Create interview questions that are based on actual job duties, with more questions for the important duties.

Designing and Conducting An Effective Interview

Step 4: Create Benchmark Answers, develop answers for the interview questions.

Step 5: Appoint the Interview and Conduct Interviews , include the job’s supervisor, and an HR representative.