The document provides an overview of the selection process in human resource management. It defines selection as the process of differentiating between job applicants to identify those most likely to succeed. The summary includes:
1) Selection involves multiple steps, from screening applications and resumes to conduct tests, interviews, background checks, and medical examinations to narrow the pool of candidates.
2) The goal is to reject unsuitable candidates at each stage through a "successive hurdles technique" until the best candidates remain.
3) An effective selection process reduces errors in hiring by accurately predicting who will and won't succeed in a role.
2. SELECTION
Dale Yoder says, “Selection
has long held a high rank in the
priority of problem areas in
management. Investments in
good people produce a very high
rate of return. A good choice of
people can provide a basis for
long, sustained contributions.”
3. Introduction
The process of
choosing the most
suitable persons out of
all the applicants.
The purpose of
selection is to pick up
the right person for
every job.
Selection involves
picking up the fits and
rejects the unfits.
Therefore, sometimes,
it is called a negative
process in contrast to
positive programme of
recruitment.
4. Some Definition by Management Thinkers
According to Dale
Yoder
• “Selection is the
process in which
candidates for
employment are
divided into
two classes-those who
are to be offered
employment and
those who are not”.
According to Keith
Davis
• “Selection is the
process by which an
organisation chooses
from a list of
screened applicants,
the person or persons
who best meet the
selection criteria for
the position
available.”
According to
Thomas Stone
• “Selection is the
process of
differentiating
between applicants
in order to
identify (and hire)
those with a greater
likelihood of success
in a job”.
5. Difference between Recruitment and Selection
Recruitment is a positive process
of searching for prospective
employees and
stimulating and encouraging them
to apply for jobs in an
organisation
Selection on the other hand tends
to be negative because it rejects a
good number of those who apply,
leaving only the best to be hired.
Edwin Flippo describe difference as:
6. Basis Recruitment Selection
Meaning It is an activity of
establishing contact
between employers and
applicants.
It is a process of picking
up more competent and
suitable employees.
Objective It encourages large
number of Candidates for
a job.
It attempts at rejecting
unsuitable candidates.
Process It is a simple process. It is a complicated process.
Hurdles The candidates have not to
cross over many hurdles.
Many hurdles have to be
crossed.
Approach It is a positive approach. It is a negative approach.
Sequence It proceeds selection. It follows recruitment.
Economy It is an economical
method.
It is an expensive method.
Time Consuming Less time is required. More time is required.
7. Selection Procedure
Selection procedure consists of a series of steps. Each step must be successfully
cleared before the applicant proceeds to the next.
Technique is called “Successive Hurdles Technique”
The selection process is a series of successive hurdles or barriers which an
applicant must cross.
These hurdles are designed to eliminate an unqualified candidate at any point in the
selection process .
Selection is a long process, commencing from the preliminary interview of the
applicants and ending with the contract of employment (sometimes).
8. Major factors which determine the steps involved in a
selection process are as follows:
Selection process depends on the number of candidates that are available for
selection.
Selection process depends on the sources of recruitment and the method that
is adopted for making contact with the prospective candidates.
Various steps involved in as selection process depend on the type of
personnel to be selected.
Selection procedure for the senior managers will be long drawn and rigorous,
but it is simple and short while hiring lower level employees.
9. • Base for selection process
Application pool from
recruitment process
• Eliminate those who does not fulfil job requirementPrimary screening
& interview
• Unfavourable personnel dataApplication
Blank
• Eliminate those who obtain unfavourable test scoreSelection tests
• Eliminate those not meeting job and organisational
requirements
Interviews
• Eliminate those with adverse remarksBackground
investigations
• Eliminate those not meeting physical standardsPhysical examination
• Adopt objectivityApproval by appropriate
authority
• CongratulateFinal Employment
decision
• Check the reliability and validityEvaluation
10. Application Blank or Application Form
Biographical
Data
Educational
Attainment
Work
Experience
Salary and
Benefits
Other Items
Name, father’s name, data and place of birth, age, sex, nationality,
height, weight, identification marks, physical disability, if any, marital
status, and number of dependants.
Education (subjects offered and grades secured), training acquired
in special fields and knowledge gained from professional/technical
institutes or through correspondence courses.
Previous experience, the number of jobs held with the same or other
employers, including the nature of duties, and responsibilities and the
duration of various assignments, salary received, grades, and reasons
for leaving the present employer.
Present and expected.
Names and addresses of previous employers, references, etc.
11. Selection Tests
Aptitude Tests
• measure whether an
individual has the
capacity or talent
ability to learn a
given job if given
adequate training
Personality
Tests
• Determine personality
traits of the candidate
like cooperativeness,
emotional balance
individual’s motivation,
adjustment to the
stresses of everyday
life, capacity for
interpersonal relations
Interest Tests
• Determine the
applicant’s interests.
The applicant is asked
whether he
likes, dislikes or is
indifferent to many
examples of school
subjects, occupations,
amusements,
peculiarities of people,
and particular activities
12. Contd.
Performance Tests
• In this test the
applicant is
asked to
demonstrate his
ability to do the
job.
Achievement
Tests
• Achievement is
concerned
with what one has
accomplished.
When applicants
claim to know
something, an
achievement test
is given to
measure how well
they know it.
Intelligence
Tests
• Aim at testing the
mental capacity of
a person with
respect to
reasoning,
word fluency,
numbers, memory,
comprehension,
picture
arrangement,etc.
Projective Tests
• In these tests the
applicant projects
his personality
into free responses
about
pictures shown to
him which are
ambiguous.
13. Interview
Interview is the heart of the employment process
Interviewer does a formal in-depth conversation with the applicant, to evaluate his
suitability.
This tool is used when interviewing skilled, technical, professional and even
managerial employees. It involves two-way exchange of information
Objectives of Interviews: Interview helps:
To obtain additional information from the candidate.
Facilitates giving to the candidate information about the job, company, its policies,
products etc.
To assess the basic suitability of the candidate
14. Types of interviews
Degree of
Structure
Unstructured or non directive:: In which you ask questions as they
come to mind. There is no set format to follow.
Structured or directive: In which the questions and acceptable
responses are specified in advance. The responses are rated for
appropriateness of content.
Structured interviews are generally more valid. However structured
interviews do not allow the flexibility to pursue points of interests as
they develop.
15. Contd.
Purpose
of
Interview
Depth Interview : :Designed to intensively examine the candidate’s
background and thinking and to go into considerable detail on a
particular subject to special interest to the candidate.
Stress Interview: Designed to test the candidate and his conduct and
behaviour by putting him under conditions of stress and Strain.
Group Interview: This is designed to see how the candidates react to
and against each other. All the candidates may be brought together in
the office and they may be interviewed.
Panel Interview: This is done by members of the interview board or a
selection committee.This is done usually for supervisory and
managerial positions.The candidate may be asked to meet the panel
individually for a fairly lengthy interview
16. Background Investigation
The next step in the selection process is to undertake an investigation of
those applicants who appear to offer potential as employees. This may include
contacting former employers to confirm the candidate’s work record and to obtain their
appraisal of his or her performance/contacting other job-related and personal
references, and verifying the educational accomplishments shown on the
application
17. Physical Examination
After the selection decision and before the job offer is made, the candidate is
required to undergo physical fitness test.
Dale Yoder writes, “Modern policy used the physical examination not to eliminate
applicants, but to discover what jobs they are qualified to fill.The examination should
disclose the physical characteristics of the individual that are significant from the
standpoint of his efficient performance of the job he may enter or of those jobs to
which he may reasonably expect to be transferred or promoted. It should note
deficiencies, not as a basis for rejection, but as indicating restrictions on his transfer to
various positions also.”
18. Approval by Appropriate Authority
Suitable candidates are recommended for selection by the selection committee or
personnel department.
Though such a committee or personnel department may have authority to select the
candidates finally, often it has staff authority to recommend the candidates for selection
to the appropriate authority.
Top level managers, board of directors may be approving authority; for lower levels,
even functional heads concerned may be approving authority.
19. Final Employment Decision
After a candidate is finally selected, the human resource department recommends his name for
employment.
The management or board of the company offers employment in the form of an appointment letter
mentioning the post, the rank, the salary grade, the date by which the candidate should join and
other terms and conditions of employment.
Usually an appointment is made on probation in the beginning. The probation period may range
from three months to two years. When the work and conduct of the employee is found
satisfactory, he may be confirmed.
The personnel department prepare a waiting list and informs the candidates. In case a person does
not join after being selected, the company calls next person on the waiting list.
20. Evaluation
The selection process, if properly performed, will ensure availability of competent and
committed personnel.
A period audit, conducted by people who work independently of the human resource
department, will evaluate the effectiveness of the selection process.
The auditors will do a thorough and the intensive analysis and evaluate the employment
programme.
21. Selection Decision Outcomes
Any selection decision can result in four possible outcomes.
Two of these outcomes would indicate correct decisions, but two would indicate errors.
Correct decisions are those where the applicant was predicted to be successful and later
did prove to be successful on the job, or where the applicant was predicted to be
unsuccessful and would have performed accordingly if hired.
Problems occur when we make errors-by rejecting candidates who would later perform
successfully on the job (reject errors) or accepting those individuals who subsequently
perform poorly on the job (accept errors).
The major thrust of any selection activity, therefore, is to reduce the probability of
making reject or accept errors while increasing the probability of making reject or
accept errors while increasing the probability of making correct decisions.
23. Employee selection process at few companies
Siemens India: It uses extensive psychometric instruments to evaluate short-listed
candidates. The company uses occupational personality questionnaire to understand the
candidate’s personal attributes and occupational testing to measure competencies.
LG Electronics India: LG Electronics uses 3 psychometric tests to measure a person’s
ability as a team player, to check personality types and to find a person’s responsiveness and
assertiveness.
PepsiCo India: The Company uses India as a global recruitment resource. To select
professionals for global careers with it, the company uses a competency- based interviewing
technique that looks at the candidate’s abilities in terms of strategizing, lateral thinking,
problem solving, managing the environment. This apart, Pepsi insists that to succeed in a
global posting, these individuals possess strong functional knowledge and come from a
cosmopolitan background.