Term Paper 1 Shuchi Tomer

8/8/2019 Term Paper 1 Shuchi Tomer

1/28

HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES

term paperon

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Submitted To:

Prof. C.P. Shrimali

Submittedby:

ShuchiTomer

10PGHR46

MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE,

GURGAON


2/28

TABLE OF CONTENTS

ContentsPage No.

1. Preface32. Background....43. Impact of recruitment and selection on other HR functions..54. Recruitment....6

y Main objectives..6y Factors affecting recruitment.6

y Internal factors....6y External factors...6

y Components....7y Methods of recruitment..9y Steps of a recruitment process9y Implications9y Sources.10

y External recruitment.10y Internal recruitment..13

y Identifying qualified candidates...14y Recent trends in recruitment.14

5. Selection...15y Main objectives....15y Steps in selection procedure.16y Necessary elements of a selection process...17y Selection process..18

y Sources of information about job candidates...19y Employment tests.22y Interviews.24y Decision strategy..26

y Challenges faced by HR during recruitment and selection..27References28


3/28

PREFACE

It is said that employees are the most valuable assets of an organization. But, it cannot be

agreed to. Actually, it is the high potential employees that are the most valuable assets of an

organization. In this world of cut-throat competition, every organization takes utmost care

about the quality of its employees work performance. The reason behind this is that:

1. Employees work performance is one of the biggest factors contributing to anorganizations success.

2. It helps the organization to get a competitive edge over its rival firms i.e. talent sets anorganization apart from other competing firms.

Therefore, it is in best interests of the organization to have an appropriate talent pool and this

can be accomplished only through a proper recruitment and selection process.

Recruitment and selection process is one of the most important functions of Human Resource

Department (HRD) in an organization. It does not matter whether a company is an IT firm or

a banking organization; large or small;etc., hiring the best candidates is of primary

importance. Although it is seen as a single step, yet recruitment and selection are two totally

different and crucial steps to building a healthy workforce for an organization. The two steps

ensure that people with appropriate calibre are recruited and put to jobs based upon the field

knowledge and skills required for that job. This process is fair i.e. free from any kind of

discrimination and potential bias. As recruitment and selection have an important role to play

in an employees performance and also in the overall performance of their organization, duo

is directly connected to the strategic planning in an organization. These processes must be

well coordinated with all other HRM processes or functions so that they together fit in the

overall organizations strategy.


4/28

BACKGROUND

There are five basic human resource management functions as follows:

1. Staffing2. Human Resource Development3. Compensation4. Safety and health5. Employee and labour relations

Staffing: It is a process through which an organization ensures that it always has the proper

number of employees with the appropriate skills in the right jobs, at the right time, to achieve

organizational objectives. It involves:

1. Job analysis2. Human resource planning3. Recruitment4. Selection

Human Resource Development: It is the development of an organizations workforce

through processes which consist of:

1. Training and development2. Individual career planning and development activities3.

Organization development

4. Performance management5. Appraisal

Compensation: It includes the total of all adequate and equitable rewards provided to

employees in return of their services. It may be of three types:

1. Direct financial compensation2. Indirect financial compensation (Benefits)3. Nonfinancial compensation

Safety and Health: Safety involves protecting employees from injuries caused by work-

related accidents. Health refers to the employees freedom from physical or emotional illness.

Employee and labour relations: It involves the promotion of union free environment and

job of collective bargaining in case where unions are unavoidable. It also includes nurturing

of healthy relations among labour, employees and the top management.


5/28

IMPACT OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION ON OTHER

HR FUNCTIONS

Recruitment and selection has a great impact on most of the functions like training, individual

career planning, performance management, appraisal and compensation.

1. Initial trainingenhances necessary skills required for the job and it is for the peoplewho have accepted the job offer through the recruitment and selection process. If a

wrong candidate is selected through the two processes, it may lead to training

extensions which will incur more costs to the concerned organization.

2. In individual career planning, ambitious and high performing employees are providedwith opportunities for growth within the organization to retain talent. Again the

quality of employees depends on recruitment and selection.

3. Job performance management is used to test the effectiveness of recruitment andselection process. The main objective of recruitment and selection is to get those

people who will perform well.

4. Appraisals are based on employee performance which, as described, depends highlyon recruitment and selection.

5. Compensation also interacts with both these processes as:Firstly, the applicants decision to accept the job depends upon the salary decided

by the companys recruitment and selection procedure.

Secondly, salary paid depends upon the qualifications possessed by him.


6/28

RECRUITMENT

Recruitmentis a process of attracting prospective employees, on a timely basis, in sufficient

numbers, and with appropriate qualifications who might take up a job in the organization and

stimulating and encouraging them to apply for existing or anticipated job openings.

Main objectives:

y Increase pool of job applicants with reasonable costsy Increase success rate of selection process by reducing applicants who are not qualified

for the job

y Meet company's legal and social obligations: demographic composition of itsworkforce

Factors affecting Recruitment:

y The size of the organizationy The employment conditions in the community where the organization is locatedy The effects of past recruiting efforts which show the organizations ability to locate

and retain the good performing people

y Working conditions, salary and benefit packages offered by the organizationy Rate of growth of the organizationy The future expansion and production programsy Cultural, economic and legal factors

However, these factors may be divided specifically as Internal and External factors.

1. Internal Factors:y Recruitment policy of the organizationy Human resource planning strategy of the companyy Size of the organization and number of people employedy Cost involved in recruiting employeesy Growth and expansion plans of the organization

2. External Factors:y Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour markety Political and legal factors like reservations of jobs for specific sections of society,

etc.

y The job seekers image perception of the company


7/28

Components:

I. Recruitment Policy: It defines the objective of the recruitment and also provides aframework for the implementation of the recruitment program. The criteria for

selection and preferences should include merit and suitability. The policy should

be based upon:

y Corporate goalsy Needs of a particular position

II. Recruitment organization: It is necessary to centralize the recruitment andselection function in a single office. This centralized office is known as the

Employee Office or the Recruitment Section.

This will bring about maximum efficiency and success in hiring.

III. Requirements: Before starting with recruitment procedures, it is necessary tofollow pre-recruitment procedures, which include analysis of the job vacancy and

preparation of a document containing the following:

1. Job description involves: Tasks Duties Responsibilities

2. Job specification includes: Skill Requirements Knowledge Requirements AbilitiesNeeded Experience

This improves job understanding, both on part of the employer and the applicant.

IV. Forecast ofManpower: This usually specifies:y Duration of their employmenty Salary to be offered and terms of employment


8/28

V. Candidat :Candidat need t be tested on t e basis of t ei knowledge, skills,abilities and ot er feat res (KSAOs , t att ejob position requires, as well as t e

specific tasks t at will be performed by t e employee. They may be oftwo types:

1. Acti candidat :They keep searching for better opportunities.2. Passi candidat s: They might not be there searching for better

opportunities, but may possess greattalents. To tap their potential, we can

use the following:

y Social networking: Going to industry-specific events, meetings,etc.

y Targeted recruiting:Search out the who's who in the competition,identify potential talent and target recruiting efforts at those

individuals.

y Referrals: Ask inside - does anyone know someone who fits yourcompany culture, someone who might be interested in a change?

Referrals carry with them the added benefit of a candidate that

comes to you with a known track-record.

The diagram below demonstrates the steps forthe active candidate.


9/28

Methods of Recruitment:The possible recruiting methods can be divided into threecategories:

1. Direct: In this method, recruiters visit colleges and technical schools. For example,Infosys, the Tata Group, Accenture, IBM, Siemens and several other companies

maintain continuous relationship with institutions to hire students for responsible

positions.2. Indirect: This involves advertising in newspaper, radio, T.V., journals, etc.

Advertising can be very effective if its media is properly chosen.

3. Third Party methods: These include use of commercials or private employmentagencies, placement officials of schools, recruitment firms, etc. Friends and relatives

of present employees are also a good source from which employees may be drawn as

part of the Buddy Referral programs.

Steps of a Recruitment Process:

Personnel Recruitment Process can be mapped in a flowchart as below:

Personnel/Human Resource Planning

Locating needed Personnel

Selecting Qualified Personnel

Placing New Employees on the Job

Implications:

1. Selection process becomes more valuable to an organization as the number ofqualified applicants increases during the recruitment process. A large number of

applicants means that there is a bigger pool of talent to select from and hence a better

workforce.

2. It is also necessary for a company to have a varied demographic composition.If therecruitment process does not provide a varied set of applicants it is hardly possible

that selection process will give a demographically balanced workforce.

3. Processing of a large number of applicants is very ex pensive. If the recruitmentprocedure does not get right applicants who match the job requirements then this cost

can increase alarmingly.


10/28

Sources:

1. From outside the organization (External): These sources lie outside the organization.2.

From within the organization (Internal): This includes personnel already on the payroll of an organization. Whenever there is a vacancy, somebody within the

organization fills in or is upgraded.

The decision to choose between them depends upon:

1. Companys HR policies2. Availability of personnel with proper skill set3. Requirement of the position to be staffed4. Availability of sufficient candidate pool to select from, internally as well as externally

For example, for a high level job, people are directly recruited from outside, or through a

series of promotions where each person take a position up in hierarchy and a new person is

brought in at a lower level in hierarchy.

1. External recruitment:The sources of external recruitment depend upon the labourmarket conditions and job position to be fulfilled. A market with low unemployment

may force companies to span various sources for recruitments whereas in a market

with high unemployment company may get the desired employees through a single

source only. Following are few of the sources of external recruitment:

i. Advertisements:It is the most common method of inviting applicants. There arevarious places where advertisements are put up like newspaper, websites,

billboards, radio, e-mails, etc. The main advantage of advertisements is its reach.

Through mass media we can easily target a large pool of applicants. An

advertisement should be creative and well written so as to target the right set of

applicants. If an advertisement rightly specifies the information about the job,

there are more chances of recruitment success. This whole procedure is time

consuming.

ii. Executive search firms:Instead of finding right job for a person, executive searchfirms find right people for jobs in an organization. These firms charge fee fromemployers rather than applicants and it is usually 30-40% of the annual salary.

New CEOs are generally recruited through Executive search firms. Executive

search firms are a big success because of their knowledge of the market enables

them to suggest compensation needed to attract right talent pool. Since these firms

charge whether the position is finally staffed or not, these firms should be properly

chosen.


11/28

iii. Employee Referral Programmes:It means that some present employees of thecompany can refer potential candidates for a particular job. Quality of candidates

which apply through this programme is mostly high. Efficiency of these

programmes can be increased by some of the following steps:y Companies should pay commissions to employees who refer new employees

as money is incurred in advertisements, internet recruiting, etc.

y Companies which havesome specific skill set need should make it clear totheir employees so that the applicants they refer are clear about the job they

have to perform.

y Employees who refer good applicants should be rewarded so as to encouragethem.

y Even if some applicants do not fit the position, their resumes should be keptfor future reference.

iv. Former employees and relatives o f employees:Some organizations refuserecruiting former employees. Though these policies seem correct when employee

had moved to rival firm because of monitory benefits, but in cases other than that,

not recruiting former employees is ante-diluvian. Those employees who

performed well during their tenure in the company and left, because of maybe

dissatisfaction or lack of growth opportunities, can be rehired after the conditions

in the company have improved. Even if former employees are not rehired, they

still can be asked for referring new employees.

Another argument is about recruiting the relatives of current employees.

Advantage: Current employees can easily help and share the job

knowledge they have with their relatives.

Disadvantage: It can lead to bias and favouritism.

v. Internet Recruitment:Internet is the most common source youngsters use forlooking for jobs. They upload their resumes on sites like Monster.com,

Naukri.com, etc. These sites have a huge database of resumes which company can

look for according to their requirements. At present there are more than 4000 sites

where applicants can upload their resumes. This mode of recruitment is quick,

cheap and effective.

vi. Professional associations and Unions:Many occupations have associations thathold conferences and publish newsletter. These associations frequently have

placement services also which they offer as a benefit of being a member. These

associations generally publish list of employees seeking jobs in their newsletter or

journals. Labour unions can also supply applicants, mainly for blue collar jobs.


12/28

vii. Employment Agencies:Employment agencies main purpose is to locate jobseekers. The company which has job vacancy and has hired an employment

agency provides agency with the information about the job i.e. job specification

and job description which agency uses to locate right people for the job. These

agencies can be:

Public:In public employment agencies, individuals who become unemployed

register themselves. If a particular job matches with their skill set, these

companies refer them to company. Most of the local public employment

agencies publish the list on regular basis along with other information like

skill set wise people, etc.

Private:Private employment agencies are more effective due to their

professional attitude and their better qualified counsellors. In addition to

having permanent task force, company can also look for a temporary task

force. These employment agencies also provide temporary applicants. This

industry is one of the fastest growing industries as it is beneficial for both the

organization as well as applicants. Organizations can recruit a temporary task

force whenever pressure of work is high and can easily dismiss them also. The

cost of maintaining a temporary task force is also low. For employees also it is

beneficial to work on temporary basis for few days with a company,

understand its way of working and then go into a permanent relationship.The

fees can be charged to employer, applicant or both depending upon the

policies of the agency and the position of the vacancy. They are of two types:

y Specific:Specific employment agencies help in recruitment in specificsectors like IT, Finance, etc.

y General: General employment agencies are not sector specific.viii. Campus Recruitment:A huge percentage of colleges these days provide campus

recruitment i.e. companies come on their campus and recruit students even before

they have completed their course. Campus recruitment is a major source for IT

companies like TCS, Infosys, etc. in India. But this source is not being properly

utilised as many graduate recruits change jobs within a year and many dont turn

up for the job. It is becauseproper understanding of job is not communicated to

students and no proper team is sent to college to hire the best. Focus of the team is

to scan as many colleges as possible and as early as possible rather than recruiting

the best. If proper teams with proper job understanding are sent, this recruitment

source can become an asset both for employers and students. Another solution can

be to provide internship in the companies so that the student himself can learn

about the work he has to do and then come in the company.


13/28

ix. Conventions and Other Meetings:A convention is a very important source forrecruitment. It is a single source that brings together seniors and juniors of an

organization, the leaders of the field and the students. Recruitments through

conventions have reached a high proportion these days.

x. Employee leasing:Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) have grown a lotrecently. These PEOs perform most of the work of the HR Department of the

company like hiring, performance management, appraisal, etc. In return, PEOs

charge a fee. These PEOs place their employees permanently.Since they handle

HR work for many companies, they can easily provide benefits to employees

which are difficult for small firms to provide.

xi. Walk-Ins:Unsolicited applications can be costly when there is huge manpoweravailable but when manpower is in short supply, these applications can be a lot

useful. Applicants who go out of way and contact employers on their own

initiative will serve as better employees than applicants who are recruited through

campus recruitment, etc.

2. Internal recruitment:Recruitment is often seen as recruiting from outside. Manycompanies follow the policy of recruitment of people at lowest level and internal

recruitment wherever possible. Promotion of employees:

y Serves as a reward for the past performancey Acts as a motivatory Serves as a social rewardy Other employees also try to perform better in order to reap the same benefitsThe policy of internal recruitment should be clearly communicated to employees

so that they know that their performance will fetch them the rewards. Transfers help

employees broaden their job scope and prevent layoffs.

The policy of internal recruitment helps company to capitalize on recruitment, selection and

training costs. But certain jobs require specific skill sets which are not present in the

company. For such scenarios,recruitment from external sources needs to be

considered.Particularly for technical openings, applicants from external sources may bring

along a new technology. A right mix of external as well as internal recruitment is what is

required.


14/28

Identifying qualified candidates:

y Human resource information systems:Databases containing complete information,qualifications and skills possessed by each of its employee can be created. Managers

can use this information to identify right individual for an available job.

y Identifying talent through performance appraisal: Managers evaluate an employeesperformance for various reasons including analysing his work for success. Successful

candidates can be provided with a promotion.

y Job po sting andbidding:Companies can post a list of job vacancies throughout theorganization so that anyone who wishes to apply can apply. Some companies even

have a system for employees seeking to upgrade their position. Those employees can

fill in the database and as soon as a vacancy is available, the company can refer the

database to find suitable candidates.

y A ssessment centres:It is a procedure in which people are evaluated on the basis oftheir participation in various situations which resemble the job work for which

candidate is required. There can be many exercises like role plays, behavioural

interviews, group discussions, etc. to judge an individual for a job vacancy.

Recent trends in recruitment:

1. Outsourcing:Outsourcing has been prevalent in India, for more than a decade. Many companies

outsource their HR processes like recruitment, etc. There are firms which have a large

database of applications. They screen and select this database according to the job

profile and send it to the company. In this way, much of work is handled by an

external firm rather than the organization.

2. E-recruitment:It is becoming a major source of recruitment these days. With advancement in

technology, it is just not logical to neglect this source. This process is convenient both

forthe employer and the future employee. Job vacancy is advertised on the web pages

and candidates can fill built-in resumes or application forms directly on the internet.

3. Raiding/poaching:With increasing competition and talent war going on, the latest trend evolved is to buy

talent instead of developing it. Raiding/poaching refers to employing a talented and

ex perienced person working with some other company. Though this practise is


15/28

unethical, companies are doing it. They do it by luring employees with more attractive

packages.

SELECTION

Selection is the process of choosing the right candidate amongst the individuals who have

the relevant qualifications.

Itis a continuous process. This is because people can leave an organization as and when

they want, in the following ways:

1. In this competitive world, rival firms try to lure employees of other companies.2. Employees also look for more options and better opportunities across the firms and

switch their job when they find the same.

3. Due to economic cycles also, companies hire and fire people.The overall outcome is that people are less likely to continue with the same job on a long

term basis. Thus a continuous process of recruitment and selection goes on.

At first, a selection policy is formulated in which organizational requirements like

technical and professional dimensions are kept in mind. Then the process of selection begins

with an initial screening interview and concludes with a final employment decision.

Main Objectives:

y determine whether an applicant meets the qualifications for a specific joby choose the applicant who is most likely to perform well in that joby maximize the number of hits i.e. produce accurate predictions and minimise the

number of misses i.e. reduce inaccurate predictions


16/28

Steps in selection procedure:

1. Reception of applications or preliminary screening2. Application bank that gives details about the applicants background and life history3. A well conducted interview to explore the applicants background4. Physical examination5. Psychological testing that gives an objective look at a candidates suitability for the

job6. Reference check7. Final selection approved by the manager8. Communication of the decision to the candidate

Selection process can be pictorially represented in a flowchart as below:

Establishing Selection Process

Identifying & choosing selection criteria (1.)

Gathering information about potential employees (2.)

Evaluating information for assessing applicant (3., 4., 5., 6.)

Making decision to select or reject (7.)

Communicating decision (8.)These steps differ from company to company and position to position. When an applicant is

rejected at a particular stage, the person is no more required to complete the whole process.


17/28

Necessary elements of a selection process:

y Efficiency in human resource utilization: Right person for the right job needs to be

selected.

1. Person-job fit: It is important for manager to judge competencies of applicantto see whether there will be person-job fit or not. A job requires many

knowledge, skills and abilities. Person selected should possess all of these to

be successful at a job.

2. Person-organization fit: Selection process must take care of checking person-organization fit. Each organization has its values and culture. Employees

values must be in line with companys values so as to have maximum

productivity.

Inducting the person into the organization or department successfully is the basic

criteria of the entire process. Person-job fit and person-organization fit ensure

efficiency in human resource utilization. The selection process should utilize human

resources efficiently.

y Privacy: Privacy means not bothering the applicant to produce any unnecessaryprivate information during the selection process. The selection processshould respect

the privacy of the applicants information.

y Confidentiality: Confidentiality means keeping the applicants information (like photographs, etc.) confidential or secret to protect it from unscrupulous users

irrespective of the fact whether the candidate is selected or not. The selection process

should respect the confidentiality of the applicants information.

y Legality: Legality means not engaging in any kind of malpractices in selectionprocedure. Malpractices may include bribery, etc. The selection process should follow

all legal practices while selecting an applicant.

y Validity: Validity means what and how much adequately the selection processmeasures. Favouritism, etc. hamper validity. The selection process should be valid.

y Reliability: Reliability means whether the selection process yields similar data whentests are administered again and again at different points of time. A test which when

given to a same individual at different point of time resulting in very different scores

is unreliable.


18/28

Cro ss validation which is the process of giving tests to different samples in

orderto testits effectiveness is also required for selection process to be effective.The

selection process should be reliable.

Selecti process:

It comprises steps 2. to 7. of selection procedure.These steps are now further described in

detail as to what actually transpires during the selection process.The various stages of a

selection process are:

This process also differs from one organi ation to another.Most of the times, following

procedure is followed:

1. The candidates academic and profile information i s gat red to check whethertheyfulfil minimum eligibility criteria to be in the organi ation.

Completion of Application

Initial Interview in HR Department(Checking minimum criteria for

application)

Employment Testing (Aptitude, etc.)

(Written test in IT )

Background Investigation (Technical

interview in case of IT recruitment)

Preliminary Selection in HR

Department

Supervisor Interview (HR interview

round in case of IT recruitment)

Medical Exam/ Drug Test

Hiring Decision

Source: Human Resource Management-Snell/Bohlander


19/28

2. Employment tests are taken which may include tests for aptitude, physical ability, etc.

for only those candidates who fulfil minimum eligibility criteria.

3. Candidates who clear these tests are scheduled forinterview(s).4. Decision is taken on the basis of performance in interviews.

Sources of information about job candidates:

Many sources are there to provide reliable and valid information about an applicant. Some of

them are as follows:

1. Application forms:They provide a fast and systematic way of obtaining a large bank of information about

the individual. They provide a lot of information like whether an applicant has

minimum qualifications for a job or not. They also provide some basis for interviewee

to ask questions. But care should be taken against applicant exaggerating the

information and sometimes falsifying it also. Questions on issues such as age, gender,

marital status are controversial. But certain questions which should be present are:

y Educational Backgroundy Experiencey ReferencesDisability is one area which is very tricky. Interviewee asking questions regarding

whether a person will be able to perform a particular job or not, is acceptable but

other questions which try to judge about the nature of disability is not acceptable.

While making the application forms, some points should be kept in mind like

prevention of discrimination against women, minorities, etc., as failure to provide

these can lead to legal actions also.

2. Online applications:The biggest success in past few years has been recruitment through online procedures.

Initially web sites only collected resumes. Now these web sites even allow

categorizing them, matching applicants with required skill sets, etc. Companies can

also collaborate with web sites like Monster.com for internet recruitment purposes.

Companies can also search through keyword approach various such web sites to find


20/28

resumes and then call people for interview. Major advantages of online applications

approach is that it is fast, costs less and can provide a large diversity in applications.

3. Background investigations:It is necessary to check information provided by the applicant about the previous job,

his background, etc. Many people exaggerate the information on application forms.

And after events like Mumbai terrorist attacks, it is all the more important to check

the information provided by the applicant. If a company doesnt do proper

background investigation and some problem arises, the company is held responsible.

Company should also check applicant for past embezzlements and criminal records.

Today this information is available online also but it is quite cumbersome to find such

data.

4. Reference check:References validity is not assured as they can easily be inflated. So they should be

confirmed at least once whether they are right or wrong. Generally, checking through

telephone is easiest and fastest method but other methods like electronic mails can

also be used. Previous job supervisors can provide a lot of information as they have a

first-hand ex perience of applicants performance and behaviour. But sometimes the

previous employers are not willing to give information/feedback because they can

easily be sued by employees for giving a negative feedback.

5. Medical tests and drug tests:These tests appear in later part of selection process as this is a costly test. This test is

given to people to ensure that they have proper health to work properly and meet jobrequirements. These tests should not discriminate against women. In some scenarios,

these tests are found to intrude persons privacy and thus these tests should be given

while taking into care a lot of precautions. These tests should not be given until an

offer of employment has been given to the applicant.

Illegal drug use can be tested through urine sampling. But saliva, sweat and hair

testing are becoming more common these days. Saliva testing results positive if drugs

are taken recently whereas hair testing shows positive even for months back. Drugs


21/28

testing are not so common because as such no relation has been found between drug

tests resulting positive and workplace indiscipline.

6. Biographic information banks:They try to elicit information about family background, hobbies, investments, club

memberships, etc. They also reveal information about persons past experiences.

These questions have no as such right or wrong answers so people dont really try to

fake them. But a proper scoring system should be developed for assessing these tests.

Biographic information banks along with application forms are one of the most

successful methods in predicting job performance of an applicant. Some sample

questions are as follows:

y At what age you started working?y Did you ever make a working model in your school?y Do you like dancing?

7. Polygraph tests:These tests basically measure persons changes in blood pressure, breathing and

pulse. A rubber tube is worn around the chest or sensors are attached to the fingers ofapplicant and then the person is asked questions. Answers are generally a yes or a no.

Questions generally cover issues like stealing, taking drugs before, etc. These tests are

generally prohibited to be used apart from firms like pharmaceuticals, etc.

8. Honesty and integrity tests:These tests are more commonly used for settings such as a retail store where workers

have access to instant cash. These tests generally try to bring forward individuals

views on theft, its punishment, its cause, etc. These tests are quite adequate to judge a

persons job performance. But these tests in some situations are not useful. Forexample, when questions regarding forgiving a thief or a person involved in dishonest

methods is involved, kind hearted members will generally forgive leading to their

dismissal which is wrong.

9. Graphology:It refers to handwriting analysis. It is used by some employers to make decisions

because this method can examine a persons characteristics like intelligence,

creativity, personality traits, integrity, etc. based on amount of pressure applied, size,


22/28

shape of letters, etc. This is a very simple test as one only requires an essay or few

lines written by an applicant which is not at all time consuming. But applicability of

such tests for high profile jobs is questionable.

Employment tests:

These tests are objective in nature and they are administered to an applicant to judge a

persons KSAOs:

y Knowledgey Skillsy abilitiesy other characteristics

Tests developers should keep in their minds the need to check whether these tests meet

adequate standards of validity and reliability.

Current employees performance can be used as a benchmark for measuring new

employees performance. Employment tests basically test achievements i.e. how much a

candidate knows and what is the level of the persons aptitude i.e. how much the person can

learn. The main employment tests used are:

1. Cognitive ability tests:These tests measure things like intelligence, analytical ability and verbal fluency.

Tests like SAT, GMAT, etc. measure these abilities.

These tests check applicant on specialized areas like quant, etc. But these tests

have a direct connection with mental capabilities like intelligence, etc. Sample

questions asked are:

y What does catharsis means?y What is value of 1672 ?

2. Physical tests:Employers are sometimes keen on judging physical abilities of an applicant and in

those scenarios, these tests are useful.


23/28

For dangerous jobs like military, police, etc., these tests are important because

it is necessary to judge applicants on their physical ability parameters. But these tests

should prevent any kind of discrimination against women.

3. Personality tests:These tests help understand a persons personality like:

y How the person reacts to a situationy W

hats the persons normal behavioury Whats the persons motivation levely Other areas such as their leadership style, etc.Big five factors (extraversion, emotional stability, openness to experience,

agreeableness and conscientiousness) are common traits on which an individual is

usually judged.

For judging a personality, tools like MBTI and Calliper Test are available.

These tests should be used along with cognitive ability tests to be more helpful to

employers.No invasion in privacy of a candidate should be done by these tests.

4. Job knowledge tests:These tests check an applicants understanding of the job for which the person is

applying.

These tests play a major role in areas like navy and air force as no one can be

given an expensive jet to fly for the first time.

5. Job sample tests:These tests require an applicant to perform tasks that are similar in nature to what the

person has to perform on the job. They are good to check the competencies of the

candidate. Jobs which require competency based selections should use it. Many job

sample tests have been devised for various jobs.

For example, for a supervisor, judgement and decision making tests have been made.


24/28

Main advantages :They are reliable and cost effective.

Interviews:

Interviews have a major role in the whole selection process. It is hardly possible to find a

selection process without any interview rounds.

Interviews can have problems like personal bias and subjectivity but still they are thepreferred choice of many employers.

There are many types of interviews, what set each apart from others is the amount of control

by the interviewer or it can be said that amount of freedom given to the interviewee. Types of

interviews depend on organization, job position, etc.

The different types of interviews are:

1. Non-directive interview:In a non-directive interview, interviewer gives a lot of freedom to interviewee in

determining the discussion flow. The interviewer generally asks open ended questions

so that the candidate can include whatever information the person wishes to and

thinks will increase his/her candidature. Interviewer doesnt argue or interrupt but

listens and gives a chance to the candidate to speak, to elaborate on any topic the

person wishes to. This whole procedure allows interviewee to bring some extra

information in front which may be hindered in case of a structured interview.

But since no particular course of action is followed and different interviewees

can take interviews in different directions, there is no benchmark established to judge

different candidates leading to low reliability and validity.

2. Structured interview:These interviews have a set of structured pre-decided questions and a set of answers

with which the answers of candidates can be compared and graded. It provides a more

quantifiable way of rating and selecting a candidate.

Though these interviews provide more data on which a candidate can be

judged but they are less likely to happen.

3. Situational interview:


25/28

In this interview, a hypothetical situation is given to the candidate and asked about his

or her reaction towards it. The reaction is then analysed and compared with pre-

defined benchmark.

4. Behavioural description interview:This interview focuses on actual work performed by the candidate in the past. It is not

based on any hypothetical situation; rather it is based on real life performance. The

basic assumption in this type is that an individual repeats his/her behaviour and thus

what the person has performed in past, the person will replicate in future. Also, there

is no chance of faking. These interviews are successful for recruiting and selecting

people for high profile jobs.

5. Panel interviews:In this type of interview a panel of interviewers are there instead of a single

interviewer. Generally they are 3-5 panel members. It is better to have panel members

from varied backgrounds. It has several advantages in comparison to traditional

interviews.Because of presence of a panel, bias and discrimination is prevented, more

decision acceptance is there and after interview is finished, ratings of all the panel

members is combined to form a single rating.

6. Computer interviews and video interviews:With technology growing at a very fast pace, companies are using internet for

interview purposes. These tests are mostly used as a screening test for removing

candidates with insufficient candidature. These tests generally have a list ofMCQs

which candidate has to answer and on basis of time to respond, typing speed, etc., a

variety of things can be checked.

Videoconferencing techniques can also be used for interviews. Companies can

use their in house systems or can take help of any external agency providing these

services. Major advantages of such interviews are that they are fast, cost effective and

flexible. Some companies allow candidates to record and upload their tapes on their

web sites and the companies which want to recruit can check these tapes for a smallfee and proceed further with their recruitment and selection process.

Guidelines for interviewers:With increasing workforce diversity, it has become necessary

for organizations to select interviewers who are balanced in their approach and in relating

themselves with people of varied backgrounds. Interviewers should be humble, mature

and have analytical thinking. Some of the things they should keep in mind while taking an

interview are:


26/28

1. Establish a plan beforehand2. Be an activelistener3. Separate facts from inferences4. Pay attention to nonverbal cues5. Standardize the questions asked6. Recognize biases and stereotypes

Decision strategy:

The most important step is to select or reject the candidate. Final decision must be as logical

as possible.

1. An employer must check what an applicant or future employee can do and will do:y

Can do part is a persons KSAOs and they can be easily measured from thetest scores.

y Will do part entails employees motivation to work,the persons otherpersonality characteristics. These are not so easy to measure.

A person high in both these ratings is required. The decision strategy varies from

organization to organization and position to position.

2. There are many things to be considered like whether we should take highest potentialor needs of organization into account when hiring or whether overqualified candidates

should be hired or not. There are mainly two types of approaches:

I. Clinical approach:y Decision on basis of review of all data of applicanty Decision on basis of jobs and individuals who have been successful in their

jobs

y Different individuals arrive at different decisionsy Personal bias and stereotype often step in

II. Statistical Approachy More objective approachy Most valid predictors are used and then they are weighed through statistical

methods

y Individuals with highest scores are selectedy Many models like compensatory model, multiple cut off model and multiple

hurdles model exist.


27/28

3. Finally, after all the process has been done, the potential candidates are then referred

to managers of the departments who have come up with the job vacancy. These

managers make the final decision.

Challenges faced by HR duringrecruitment and selection:

Like all HR functions, recruitment also requires certain abilities like finding and bringing

in the best potential candidate for a job in a company and aligning the recruitment process

with other HR functions of theorganization in order to benefit it fully.

With a change in times and the processes followed, the labour market has also undergone

many changes like change in technology, increasing competition, better pay, cut throat

competition, new sources of recruitment, etc. Because of war of talent pool, companies are

going into practices like raiding and luring other companies employees.

As a result, the human resources of a company are constantly in move and recruitment

and selection activities are on-going in an organization.

HR heads of a company have to face various challenges and some of them are as follows:

Adaptability toGlobalization: With increase in globalization, HR professionals shouldkeep themselves updates with new techniques of recruitment being followed across

the globe.

Process Analysis: If recruitment process is not speedy, flexible, cost effective andadaptive, it is of no use. so proper recruitment analysis required at each and every

stage.

Lackof Motivation:No motivation present as it is basically a thankless job. Even if aright person is selected no credit is given to HR department. So no motivation for HR

employees.


28/28

References:

Websites:

y www.oneclickhr.comy www.recruitment.naukrihub.comy www.ttidisc.comy www.learningdb.com

Books:

y Human Resource Management-R. Wayne Mondyy Human Resource Management-Snell/Bohlandery Human Resource Selection-Robert D. Gatewood, Hubert S. Fieldy Hiring the Best and the Brightest-Sherrie Gong Taguchiy The Selection Process: Choosing the right man for the job-Milton M. Mandell

Term Paper 1 Shuchi Tomer

Documents

Transcript of Term Paper 1 Shuchi Tomer