What Is this Intervention?

Farrell and Hakstia (2001) define selection as the process of choosing new employees. More than merely choosing, selection involves ensuring that the person who is chosen for a particular position will have the best “fit” with both the position and the organization. The characteristics of the applicant in terms of values, beliefs and preferences must match up with those of the organization. In addition, the skills, knowledge, and experience of the candidate must match up with the job being filled. Such a good match is called a good “fit”.

In addition to careful selection, ensuring this good fit starts with effective recruitment – the process of finding applicants. By recruiting people who are most likely to have the best fit, employers are likely to have the easiest time finding potential employees in the least amount of time. To assess the fit of applicants with the organization and the job, many organizations have carefully structured recruitment and interviewing process, which are intended to identify the strengths of candidates as well as potential problems.

Organizations seek a good fit for practical reasons: a large percentage of new hires do not work out. In retrospect, organizations realize that issues that caused the match to fail could have been identified during the hiring process. Furthermore, in combination with other interventions, employee recruitment and selection has been found to have significant positive impact on the success and performance of an organization.

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When Should this Intervention Be Used?

Selection is a performance intervention that should be used every time someone is hired to ensure that the hire is a good one. Employers can also use specific recruitment and selection strategies to ensure good fits.

One is hiring opportunistically. When doing so, employers are constantly on the lookout for good candidates and will hire when one is available, even if no job opening is available. This is to ensure that a good catch is not lost.

Another strategy is the ‘hire and train’ technique, which employers use when they require specific skills. Employers that use this approach will hire people who are good fits with the organization first, and then provide them with training and support in the skills needed, so that they are able to perform the job. The advantage is that the employer has control of the skill development and training of its workforce and little effort is spent to assess the match between the candidate and the job being filled. On the other hand, there is significant cost associated with this method.

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Issues to Consider when Using this Intervention

Consider these issues when preparing a recruitment and selection procedure.

1. Use a combination of tools and criteria. Selection criteria include: personality, past experience and references, qualifications, cognitive ability, perceptual ability, temperament, interest, and preferences for job outcome. Some employers even consider biodata, job-relevant biographical information, since the best predictor of future performance is past performance.

Tools are used to identify which criteria are sought, the specific characteristics needed, and verification that the candidate meets the criteria. One tool is job description – the more specifically it is written and the more explicit the criteria sought, the more likely the recruitment and selection process can find a match. (If an organization cannot define what it wants in a candidate, it will have a difficult time finding them.) Another tool is references, which can be used to verify facts. Note, however, that the names of references are provided by candidates, so they are only likely to provide positive feedback. Additional tools include various skills and personality tests. These tests need to be validated to ensure that they really assess the criteria they intend to assess, and that they are not discriminatory against any group.

The criteria and tools chosen should provide the most information about how the applicant will perform if hired. The choices are job and organization specific.

2. Be aware of adverse reactions. Certain tools can elicit negative reactions from candidates. For example, the best candidates can afford to be more choosy about where they work therefore it is important to consider how they feel about the selection process. If they are unhappy with the hiring process, they may choose not to accept a job offer and a good candidate is lost. Ryan and Tippin (2004) suggest that adverse reactions can be limited by keeping applicants informed about the process and by ensuring that the tools employed in the process are well-developed and appropriate. Ryan and Tippin advise employers to choose the tools that will do the best job of predicting who will be a good employee but will also have the least likelihood of adverse impact.
3. Remember, certain tools are not always appropriate. Some tools tend to exclude certain groups of people and screen out good candidates. For example, when used alone cognitive ability tests (CAT) (tests designed to assess candidates reasoning and problem-solving skills) can exclude many participants. To avoid such a problem, use at least two tools, to have move than one external assessment of a candidate.
4. Consider how a candidate heard about the job – some ways are more effective than others. Referrals, in-house postings and rehiring old employees tend to be the most successful as employees from these sources tend to have the lowest turn-over rates. Referrals tend to be successful because these candidates have the best information about the job and the organization before the interview. Also, those doing the referring tend to informally screen applicants. Applicants who walk-in, respond to newspaper ads, or come from school placement services, and employment agencies are less likely to work out.

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Examples of this Intervention in Use

Procter and Gamble uses an extensive selection process to choose new employees. This is of particular importance to them as they believe in growing their company from within. They hire employees opportunistically and then promote them based on results. To ensure that they hire people that have the characteristics they believe to be important such as: leadership, collaboration, risk-taking and problem solving, they follow a four-step selection process. The process begins when a potential candidate views jobs on-line and then applies for a specific position. From there, candidates who have the required qualifications are asked to fill out an on-line questionnaire with multiple-choice questions designed to identify whether they also have the required skills and interests for the job at hand. The next step is a problem-solving test that incorporates three types of questions which require critical thinking and analytic skills. The Procter and Gamble website provides potential candidates with a practice version of the test to allow them to become familiar with the format and to point out strategies that may help the candidate perform well on the test. The final step is the interview process. Interviews take place in front of a panel of Procter and Gamble managers. The questions are designed to look at the capabilities and the personality of the candidate. The candidate is also given the opportunity to ask questions to solidify their interest in the job. P&G believes that this process helps them pick the best employees to grow their company.

Organizations like the Canadian Security Information Service (CSIS) have additional considerations when hiring new employees. In addition to choosing an employee who will be a good fit for the organization it is also important that the employee be a Canadian citizen and that the candidate pass the required security clearance. Therefore, the agency’s selection process is extremely detailed and vigorous.

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References

Borman, W. & Motowidlo, S. (1997) Task performance and contextual performance: The meaning for personnel selection research. Human Performance: 10, 99-109.