Steps in Employee Selection Process

Steps in Employee Selection Process

A comprehensive selection process involves the various steps as shown in figure

01. (a) Application Blank

Most of public sector undertaking, various ministries of Government, Selection Commissions, Recruitment Boards and Private Sector Companies either supply pre-printed application form or direct the candidates to download the forms uploaded in their respective websites. In the case of voluntary applications submitted by the candidates, they are issued application form afresh at the venue of the interview to collect complete information about the candidate in the standardized format. Selector can collate different types of information from the application blank namely family background, educational qualification, co-curricular activities, work experience, exposure to related activities, scale of pay drawn, academic distinction, area of expertise and so on.

01. (b) Scrutinizing the Applications

Where the applications received in response to advertisement inviting applications for opening are more, it is not possible for recruitment agency to call all the applicants for interview. Hence, selection committee has to evolve some criteria like age, length of experience, level of education, percentage of marks, higher qualification, level of exposure, communal quotos, proficiency etc., to shortlist the number of applicants for the interview.

01. (c) Selection Test

Several tests are conducted in the selection process to ensure whether the candidate possesses the necessary qualification to fit into various positions in the organization.

A. Ability Test

A test designed to measure an individual’s cognitive function in a specific area, such as variety of skills, mental aptitude, problem solving, knowledge of particular field, reasoning ability, intelligence etc. This test is used to find the suitability of a candidate for a given job role.

1. Aptitude test

Aptitude test is a test to measure suitability of the candidates for the post/role. It actually measures whether the candidate possess a set of skills required to perform a given job. It helps in predicting the ability and future performance of the candidate. Aptitude test can be measured by the following ways:

i) Numerical Reasoning Test - Numerical reasoning test provides information about candidate’s numerical aptitude. In other words this test measure the candidate's ability to make correct decision from numerical data.

ii) Verbal Reasoning Test - It measures the candidate's ability to comprehend the written text and ability to arrive at factual conclusion from the written text.

iii) Inductive Reasoning Test - Inductive Test is one of the psychometric tests conducted in the selection process to measure the problem solving abilities and ability to apply logical reasoning.

iv) Mechanical Reasoning Test - This test measures the engineering student’s ability to apply engineering concepts in actual practice.

v) Diagrammatic Reasoning Test - This test measures the candidate’s ability to understand the shapes, abstract ideas and ability to observe and extract values from illustrations and apply them to new samples.

vi) Spatial Reasoning Test - The test measures the candidate’s ability to clearly manipulate and remember the shapes, still images, and find out pattern which govern the sequence.

vii) Situational Judgment Test - This test measures the candidate’s ability to choose the most desirable action in critical situations using his judging ability.

viii) Mental Arithmetic Test - It tests the candidate’s basic numerical ability like addition, subtraction, multiplication, division and fraction. It tests the speed of doing calculation.

ix) Vocabulary Test - The test measures candidate’s ability to recognize the relationship among the ideas, think methodically and fluency in English language.

x) Number Sequence Test - This measures the candidate’s ability to find a logic in a series or pattern. Under this test, candidates have to find out missing number in a sequence to determine the pattern.

2. Achievement Test

This test measures a candidate’s capacity to achieve in a particular field. In other words this test measures a candidate’s level of skill in certain areas, accomplishment and knowledge in a particular subject. The regular examination conducted in educational institution represents achievement test. It is also called proficiency test. This test is conducted before, during or after a learning experience. In short it is a test conducted to find out candidate’s mastery over the subject. Example,

a) A driver may be asked to drive a vehicle to test his driving efficiency

b) Music student may be asked to play a given instrument

c) Teacher candidate may be asked to give a demonstration

3. Intelligence Tests

Intelligence tests are one of the psychological tests, that is designed to measure a variety of mental ability, individual capacity of a candidate. The main aim of these tests is to obtain an idea of the person’s intellectual potential.

Mental age and Actual (age wise) calculate the Flow of IQ level.

Formula for IQ :

[ Mental Age / Actual Age ] x100

(Physical age or current age)

Mental age: A person’s mental age is a measurement of their ability to think when compared to the average person’s ability at that age.

Example: Average intelligence or Average IQ = 100If ten years old has a mental age 13, Therefore, IQ = 130, ie, Above average.

4. Judgment Test

This test is conducted to test the presence of mind and reasoning capacity of the candidates

B. Personality test

Personality test refers to the test conducted to find out the non-intellectual traits of a candidate namely temperament, emotional response, capability and stability. There is no right or wrong answer in the test. It comprises of following tests.

1. Interest Test

Interest test measures a candidate’s extent of interest in a particular area chosen by him/ her so that organization can assign the job suited to his/her in term.

2. Personality Inventory Test

Under this method standardised questionnaire is administered to the candidate to find out traits like interpersonal rapport, dominance, intravertness, extravertness, self confidence, lower sign quality etc. This test assesses the reliability and innate characters of the candidate concerned.

3. Projective Test / Thematic Appreciation Test

This test measures the candidate’s values, attitude apprehensive personality etc. out ofthe interpretation or narration given by the candidate to the pictures, figures etc. shown to him in the test situation.

4. Attitude Test

This test measures candidate’s tendencies towards the people, situation, action and related things. For example, morale study, values study, social responsibility study expresses attitude test and the like are conducted to measure the attitude of the candidate.

02. Interview

Next step in selection process is interview. The term ‘interview’ has been derived from French word enter voir that means to glimpse or to see each other .

In other words interview represents a face to face interaction between the interviewer and interviewee. According to Scott and others “an interview is a purpose full exchange of ideas, the answering of questions and communication between two or more persons.”

Various types of interview are shown in figure

02) Screening / Telephone Interview

Where the candidates live far away from organization and find it difficult to attend preliminary interview for various reasons, telephone interview is conducted by some organization to eliminate unfit and unsuitable candidate at the preliminary stage itself.

02) In depth Interview

This interview is conducted to test the level of knowledge of the interviewee in a particular field intensively and extensively. Thus interview helps the interviewers to learn about the candidate’s expertise and practical exposure with respect to his/her area of specialization.

03) Video Conferencing Interview

Video conferences interview is similar to face to face interview. Video conferencing interview is a kind of conference call that connects the candidate with companies located across various geographies. Just like telephone call a video conferencing interview has multi point which allows two or more people in different locations to participate in the interview process. Interview can be conducted from a desktop at work, a home computer or smart phone or a tablet.

04) Group interview

A group interview is a screening process where multiple candidates are interviewed at the same time. Group interview is a good time saving type of interview. Instead of spending 5 hours interviewing 5 candidates individually, one hour can be spent interviewing them in a group. Some time particular topic is given to the group, and they are asked to discuss it. The competency of members of group is assessed by keenly observing the participation of members in the discussion.

05) Panel Interview

Where a group of people interview the candidate, it is called panel interview. Usually panel comprises chair person, subject expert, psychological experts, representatives of minorities/underprivileged groups, nominees of higher bodies and so on. All panel members ask different types of questions on general areas of specialization of the candidate. Each an every member awards marks for the candidate separately. At the end, the marks awarded by all the members are aggregated and the candidates are ranked accordingly. This method eliminates bias in selection process. It ensures more reliability in the selection of the candidate.

06) Preliminary Interview

This interview is conducted to know the general suitability of the candidates who have applied for the job. Team of experts conducts their interview primarily to eliminate those who are unqualified and unfit candidates. This helps the employer organization to cut cost and time in selection process.

07) Stress Interview

This type of interview is conducted to test the temperament and emotional balance of the candidate interviewed. Interviewer deliberately creates stressful situation by directing the candidate to do irrational and irritating activities. They assess the suitability of the candidate by observing the reaction and response of the candidate to the stressful situations. Mostly this type of interview is conducted for recruiting sales representatives staff for defence and law enforcement agencies.

08) Structure/Guided/Planned Interview

Under this method, a series of question to be asked by the interviewer are pre-prepared by the interviewer and only these questions are asked in the interview. Ultimately interviewees are ranked on the basis of score earned by the candidate in the interview.

09) Unstructured Interview

This is quite contrary to structured interview. An atmosphere for free and frank interaction is created in the interview environment. There is no pre-prepared questions. Interviewers determine the suitability of the candidate based on their response to the random questions raised in the interview.

10) Online Interview

Due to tremendous growth in information and communication technology, these days interviews are conducted by means of internet via Skype, Wechat, Google duo, Viber, Whatsapp or Video chat applications. This enables the interviewers to conduct interview with the candidates living in faraway places. They saves a lot of time, money and energy both for employer's organisation and the candidate.

10 most common Interview questions

1. Tell me about (your self)

2. Why do you want to work for this Organization?

3. Why are you interested in this position?

4. Why should we select you?

5. What is your greatest strength?

6. Tell about the time, when you failed?

7. What is your salary requirement?

8. What is your five year plan ?

9. Why are you looking to leave your present job?

10. Do you have any questions for me!

03. (a) Physical Examination or Medical Examination

The last technique used in selection process is medical examination. This is the most important step in the selection because a person of poor health cannot work competently and any investment on him may go waste, if he/ she is unable to discharge duties efficiently on medical grounds. In other words, it determines an applicant’s physical ability to perform a specific job. The main purpose of medical examination is to find out

1. Physical fitness of the candidate under selection to the job concerned

2. To protect the existing employees of business organization from the infectious diseases likely to be spread by the candidate selected

3. To check excessive expenditure in the treatment of selected employee after placement.

03. (b)Reference Check

Reference check is done to know reliability and trustworthiness of the candidate. Usually application blank contains a column for the candidate to furnish the list of persons to be contacted for reference purpose. Employer organization used to send either standardized form to referees or request them to write in detail about certain behavioral traits of candidate under selection like conduct, character, attitude, behavior, value system etc., of the candidate under selection process. The selector decides the selection worthiness of the candidate based on the reference and recommendation given by referees.

04. Approval by Higher Authority

Selection committee sends the list of candidates selected with some candidate kept in waiting list for approval by higher authority like chairman, HR director, CEO and the like. Once the list is approved the selected candidate will be called for final interview.

05. Final Selection

The successful candidate who passed through various stages of selection process will be called for final interview. These candidates are briefied about the rules and regulations of the organization, organizational culture, reporting relationship, dress code, expectations of employer, facilities available for career growth etc. At the end of the final interview even the candidate under selection is allowed freedom to seek clarification or make his own demands if any.

06. Contract of Employment

After the final selection process is completed, certain documents are expected to be signed both by the organization and the candidate. Hence there is a need for preparing a contract of employment. The following basic informationwhichneedtobeincludedinawritten contract of employment varies according to the level of the job. Generally it contains details like 1. Job Title 2. Duties & Responsibilities 3. Scale of Pay allowance, increments 4. Working hours 5. Date when continuous employment starts and basis for calculating service. 6. Work Rules 7. Grievance procedure 8. Disciplinary procedure 9. Special terms and Conditions relating to rights etc.