Recruitment and selection

1. Recruitment and
Selection

2. A brief recap of Job Analysis
• What is job analysis? (job title, tasks, ability, roles)
• Output of job analysis – Job identification (information about
job title, physical location) Job description (detailed work task,
summary of workflow) and job specification (inferred
employees trait for successful performance, knowledge, skills,
abilities and other characteristics KSAOs)
• Methods of doing job analysis? (interview, questionnaire,
observations)
• How job analysis is interrelated with other HR domains (for
selection, promotion, compensation and training)
• For selection job description is not enough and job specification
is equally important

3. Qualitative methods of job
analysis
• Observation and interviews
- The first-hand nature of the data, as the
information is obtained directly,
- The opportunity to obtain in-depth qualitative
information, purely descriptive details
- Unstructured interviews can obtain a great deal of
work-related information (initial interview and
verification interview)

4. Quantitative methods
• Job-task inventories: has a list of tasks arranged
by general functions or duties. Likert type scale is
used for assessing importance, frequency,
criticality and/or complexity
• Fleishman Job Analysis Survey (F-JAS): System
of analysing KSAOs (knowledge, skills, ability)
required to perform jobs. The F-JAS is a 73-item
questionnaire measuring three domains of
required KSAOs: cognitive, psychomotor and
physical.

5. Position Analysis
Questionnaire (PAQ)
• “A structured job analysis questionnaire which provides
for a quantified analysis of individual jobs in terms of a
number of ‘job elements’, often referred to as ‘items’ ”
(McPhail et al., 1989, p. 1).
• http://www.paq.com/?FuseAction=Main.PAQProgram
• Describe jobs based on six domains: information
sources, mental process, action involved in jobs,
interpersonal activities in work, work situation and
context, other miscellaneous
• We will learn about O*NET

6. Today’s learning
objectives
• Learn about ‘Task Oriented’ job analysis and ‘Worker
Oriented’ job analysis
• Within ‘worker oriented’ job analysis, understand the widely
used concept of ‘Competency Modeling’
• Strategies and practical constraints to maximize the size and
quality of applicants (role of pay, headhunting, organisational
image and location)
• Characteristics of effective recruitment message, Role of
recruiters
• Basics of reliability and validity of instruments for recruitment
and selection

7. Task oriented analysis
• Considers duties, functions, and tasks as the
basis for studying jobs
• Particular employees’ attributes are not of interest
• Jobs are independent of the people who perform
them. Ex. Time and Motions Study, Critical
Incident Technique (Flanagan, 1954), Functional
job analysis in O*NET database

8. A short introduction to O*NET
database – A tool for job analysis
• Occupational quick search: https://www.onetonline.org/
• Example of computer programmer:
https://www.onetonline.org/link/summary/15-1131.00
Free platform sponsored by US department of
Labour/Employment and Training Administration
• The system provides occupational profiles filled with
information regarding the required knowledge, skills,
abilities, work activities, work styles, work interests,
background, education and training requirements, and work
context.
Currently has analysis of 974 occupations (last revised in 2010)

9. The O*NET content model
framework

10. Worker-oriented job analysis
• Individual characteristics an employee must have for adequate
performance.
• Competencies as those trainable core characteristics, in terms
of behaviors, that lead employees to success
• CM (Competence Modeling) enables identification of KSAOs
that are broad and not necessarily linked to specific jobs or
tasks
• CM takes into account organizational goals and missions and
seeks to develop a set of competencies to be applied across
the organization or units
• CM more advantageous than traditional worker-oriented job
analysis, which narrowly focus on most relevant KSAOs for the
job

11. Developing a competence
framework
• “ While traditional job analysis focuses on
describing and measuring the requirements of
work, CM creates a conduit to influence day-to-
day employee performance along strategic lines”
(Sánchez and Levine; 2009, p. 61).
• We can amalgamate Task Job Analysis (TJA) and
CM
• Developing a Competence Framework (How
competencies are defined, find appropriate
competence framework and how the framework
meet your needs)

12. Defining competencies
• Competence as an underlying characteristic of an
individual that causally relates to superior
performance in a job or situation (motives,
attitudes, knowledge, behavior or skills etc.).
• A signal from the organization to the individual of
the expected areas and levels of performance.
• Provide individual with a map or indication of the
behaviours that will be valued, recognized and in
some organizations rewarded.

13. Practical challenges in
capturing competency
• Example: Highly beneficial to find out what
motivates employees, but highly difficult to do it in
practice.
• Motives are internal to person (some
questionnaires aim to assess motives, values or
attitudes), however in high stake situation, easy
for candidate to provide acceptable answers

14. Types of competence
• Universals: could be related to general performance,
like interpersonal skill and oral communication
• Occupational: specific to jobs or family of jobs (e.g.
numerical reasoning for accountants)
• Relational competency: The setting or location of job
might require different competence (e.g. lawyer
working in small and big town; same firm in rural and
urban setting, domestic pilot and international pilot)
• Relational competency can be related to organisational
fit

15. Where to find competence
frameworks
• Management Standards Centre, UK
• http://www.management-
standards.org/standards/background-and-overview-
management-leadership-national-occuptational-
standards
• Many occupational psychology consultancies sell such
frameworks having list of competencies minus the
behavioral indicators (which you pay and get)
• Two key methods of generating competency
framework: Critical incident analysis and repertory grid
analysis

16. Critical Incident Analysis
• Identification of key incidents where the job may have a big
impact and make the real difference by listing
• 1. Key demands- jobs that must be done and if done right it
would make a difference
• 2. Analyse job constraints: could be tangible (rules and
regulations) and latent (can’t challenge the boss)
• 3. Define each task in terms of difficulty, importance and
frequency (tough thing to do however guidelines are: analyze
implication if things go wrong, number of people potentially
affected, internal or external implication etc.)
• 4. Identify critical incidents, key competencies and behaviour
indicators

17. Repertory Grid Analysis
• Origin from clinical psychology by George Kelly
• Allow people to identify their own ideas of criteria or
construct (e.g. What makes a good manager?)
• Two managers who were excellent, two who were poor and
two who were midway or moderate
• Note that competence framework is broad mental roadmap,
to guide you and do not provide clear-cut black and white
answers
• Overlap or conflict of competency if analysed carefully (e.g.
acting decisively under leadership and interpersonal skill
can be interpreted differentially)

18. More complexity in using competency
model
• Organizations using competence framework for
behavioral change
• Do not reflect on skills and abilities that
organisaiton may need in future.
• Competence framework changes with culture an
countries (high power distance and conflict
resolution through interpersonal skill)

19. and how to select a
competence framework
• Option 1: Use competence framework for performance
management and appraisal already there in the
organisation and tailor it (revise indicators)
• Option 2: Use publicly available framework and revise
it as per need
• Option 3: Design your own sample framework by
capturing typical behaviours likely to be displayed in
various activities
• These indicators will be used for purpose of selection,
performance indicator and even in compensation

20. Example of a sample
framework
Positive/Effective Negative/Less Effective
1. Oral Communication
Speaks clearly
Speaks at an appropriate pace
Keeps to the point Uses
straightforward language
Mumbles
Speaks quickly
Verbose
Uses jargon inappropriately
2. Presentation
Uses visual aids as appropriate
Keeps eye contact with the whole
audience
Invites audience participation
Uses appropriate structure with an
introduction and summary
Uses visual aids as a ‘script’ Over-
uses visual aids
Looks away or only at the
audience selectively
Cannot be heard clearly
One-way communication
Has no introduction or summary

21. References for today’s inputs
• Employee recruitment, selection and assessment:
Contemporary issues for theory and practice,
Ioannis Nikolaou, Janneke K. Oostrom,
Psychology press
• A practical guide to assessment centres and
selection methods: Measuring competency for
recruitment and development, Ian Taylor, Kogan
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