Initial Assessment Methods and External Selection

Important Factors Concerning Initial Employee Methods 

Professionalism, expert opinions and job analysis should guide the process of selecting new incumbents into the working culture of an organization. The knowledge, skills plus the abilities of candidates are meaningful in the determination of potential candidate besides considering past job experiences. Qualification levels and responsibilities of candidates in their previous working experiences are examined too. Again, educational backgrounds of the applicants are attentively checked to confirm their qualifications. Nonetheless, character traits like personality and attitude are reviewed by the organizations seeking new employees (Leach and Hayden, 2012). 

The necessary skills, knowledge, and abilities which are required for job performance are described as the job requirements. Human resources departments in an organization recognize that the examination of knowledge, skills, and capabilities of an applicant can lead to the selection of professional employees (Hicks, 2016). 

When assessing work experience to determine the most qualified applicants for hire, organizations evaluate the duties and accountabilities of the applicants in order to understand their working criteria and requisites. Definitely, the most experienced applicants are chosen. In this context, the most experienced personnel are those who bear a great measure of knowledge and job skills. The organization regards them as a great asset in the achievement of its objectives that are aligned with its mission and vision statements. In addition, organizations exploit their potential in the critical role they can play in benefitting the company in the future due to their ability in developing professional relations and teamwork (Nolan, Langhammer, and Salter, 2016). 

It is utterly necessary to confirm the qualification of the interested applicants so that an organization can select only the most qualified ones (Hicks, 2016). It is obvious that all organization seek qualified persons for hire. Verification of the educational qualifications is done so as to confirm their validity. Consequently, setting out the job specification follows based on the educational qualifications. 

Finally, multiple organizations deliberately examine the personal attributes of their candidates to the job position (Nolan, Langhammer, and Salter, 2016). In particular, communication and presentation skills, competency in oral and written languages and confidence levels are reviewed. By recognizing that all these characteristics comprise the personality of the applicants, organizations only seek to employ workers with professional traits and personal attributes. 

Validity and Reliability of Selection Methods 

In the field of employee selection, validity is described as the meaningfulness, appropriateness, and usefulness of the inferences made about candidates when the human resource department is engaged in their selection. In the actual sense, validity is concerned with the establishing of whether the applicant’s actual performance matches the expected performance by the human resource department which was concluded during the process of selection using that method. If there is a close relationship between the actual performance and the expected performance, then the selection method is described as valid whereas if both performances have gaps, then the selection method must be changed for the applicant to be selected for the job (Hicks, 2016). 

Reliability of a selection method is its ability to produce constant results over a period of time. If a selection method produces similar results after a test for a period of time, the method is deemed reliable. In addition, reliability entails the dependency or consistency of a selection method. The degree to which the scores of the selection method are unaffected by the errors in the selection process indicates the reliability of the test (Hicks, 2016). 

Tools Available to Recruiters in Making Candidate Selection Decisions 

In the contemporary business world, human resource departments are developing tools and technologies in order to make the existing recruitment methods more effective. These methods have the potential to influence employee selection in a positive way due to the lack of adequate information about an applicant’s job skills and qualifications. These tools include; applicant tracking systems, location systems, gamification and video interviewing (Nolan, Langhammer, and Salter, 2016). 

Applicant tracking systems are a core technology for human resource departments as they bring a lot of recruitment functions to a central place (Hicks, 2016). One of the most important applicants tracking system is the Tribepad which is a social system which enables the HR departments using them to advertise their jobs on the platform. Its futures include multiple intelligent-skills matching which is based on a competent technology. Secondly, location systems technology has the potential to bring recruitment and human resources teams closer to the right talent or occupant for the job (Hicks, 2016). In this technology, the real geographical location of the applicant for a job can be identified using their gadgets such as mobile phones and computers. 

Gamification is a lowdown technology involves the application of game mechanics to the non-game environments such as recruitment in order to achieve a behavior change in people. Gamification bears the potential to deliver a meaningful efficiency to the recruitment process by attracting and engaging applicants so as to identify their skills. As a result, the people with the correct skills are identified. Besides that, gamification enables employers to connect and communicate with the applicants as a way of relating them. Lastly, video interviewing helps employers in the selection process by picking the body language and emotional clues of the applicant for a job position. The major advantage of video interviewing is its speed and convenience that allows a large number of candidates to be seen live in order to review their personality in the recruitment process (Hicks, 2016). 

Five Initial Selection Methods and their Effectiveness 

The selection method is the process of gathering and analyzing the information about a person for the purpose of offering a new job. The organizations use various selection methods according to the nature of the job, size of organization and number of candidates. The important methods can be described as; Application forms and CVs, psychometric testing, ability and aptitude tests, presentation and group exercises (O'Neill et al., 2017). 

Application forms are an essential part of a job application process mostly in public areas. Their main problem is that they are so lengthy. However, application forms are used to collect information that some applicants do not give deliberately on their Curriculum vitae. Employers also use application forms during the assessment of personal skills and attributes such as motivation. Contrary, CVs are commonly utilized in private sectors. Employers use them to gain initial and important information regarding the candidate's qualification, previous job experiences, and other qualifications. In CVs, applicants fill information that is capable of securing them the job position but it may lack integrity. Therefore, employers are not tricked into judging applicants by CVs only (O'Neill et al., 2017). 

Psychometric Tests mental measurements useful in testing of personal attributes as well as personal profile abilities (Nolan, Langhammer, and Salter, 2016). Interviewing accompanies the tests so that the selection process can be completed. Professional and trained staff must be selected by the human resource. There are two steps in these tests. In the first step, ability and aptitude are measured while in the second step, there is judging of the personality. 

Ability and aptitude tests are imperative in the measurements of general intelligence, spatial, verbal sensory and numerical abilities (Nolan, Langhammer, and Salter, 2016). Afterward, logical reasoning and mental performance are assessed through this process due to its comprehensiveness. Multiple questions are administered and have to be answered in fixed time. 

Presentations are selection methods that are utilized especially in senior level jobs. Candidates are presented with topics and a time frame is set. The candidate has to deliver their content within that time. Power point and overhead projectors are used to deliver presentations. Information about this selection method is revealed to the candidate either through the interview letter to allow for preparation or during the employee selection day (O'Neill et al., 2017). 

In group exercises, elimination is utilized as the basis for selecting some employees over others. Candidates are involved in debates that have been assigned to them by the employer. Afterward, the human resource department evaluates the knowledge, skills, and abilities of the participants and assigns them a score based on the grading criterion. Those who do not meet the criterion are filtered out (Hicks, 2016). 

Improving Initial Selection Methods to Increase their Effectiveness and Factors that can Cause Potential Discrimination against the Applicant 

A multitude of employers develop behaviorally based questions to comprehend how the prospect thinks and the choices to make at work. However, prospects have learned to master the old interview questions about their work history. Through changing things up, more honest responses are submitted by candidates to a job position (O'Neill et al., 2017). Discrimination in the workplace is upheld through decision-making that is limited to one group. In addition, non-compliance affirmative action causes discrimination. Besides that, pre-employment screenings adversely affect employment applicants as their credit rating and economic status must be proved before employment. Lastly, identification factors such as race, religion, origin, and age are used to discriminate against applicants when determining their status, promotion potentials and disciplinary actions (Nolan, Langhammer, and Salter, 2016). 

When HR departments are hiring key positions such as sales and management, they need to enhance their employee selection process. Employee selection processes should be regarded as a form of continuous work in progress and the need for improvement should be appreciated. First, HR departments should commit to hiring the best talent possible talents in every selection process. HR managers should not rush the selection as they can be costly if wrong. Secondly, human resource managers should partner with stakeholders to partner them in identifying the best possible talents. Working with external recruitment firms leads to a brilliant selection. Likewise, the human resource department should use a benchmark with quality pre-employment personality assessments. In fact, this is a powerful method that matches the best talent for the job position by selecting the applicants that best match the personal attributes related to the job (O'Neill et al., 2017). 

References 

Nolan, P.K., Langhammer, K. and Salter, N.P. (2016). EVALUATING FIT IN EMPLOYEE SELECTION: BELIEFS ABOUT HOW, WHEN, AND WHY. Consulting Psychology Journal: Practice and Research © 2016 American Psychological Association , 68(3), 222–251. 

O'Neill, T.A., Lewis, J.R., Law, J.S., Larson, N., Hancock, S., Radan, J, Lee, N. and Carswell, J. (2017). Forced-choice pre-employment personality assessment: Construct validity and resistance to faking . Personality and Individual Differences , 115, 120–127. 

Leach, S.R., and Hayden, W.R. (2012). Background Checks and the Pitfalls That Employers Face . Employee Relations Law Journal , 38(1), 14-17. 

Hicks, R. (2016). A COACH-LIKE SELECTION INTERVIEW. Physician Leadership Journal , PP622-64.