MANAGEMENT DEVELOPMENT INSTITUTE,

GURGAON

HUMAN RESOURCE SYSTEMS AND PROCESSES

term paper on

RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION

Submitted To:
Prof. C.P. Shrimali

Submitted by:
Shuchi Tomer

10PGHR46
 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Contents Page No.

1. Preface…………………………………………………………………………………3
2. Background……………………………………………………………………...…….4
3. Impact of recruitment and selection on other HR functions……………………..……5
4. Recruitment………………………………………………………………………..…..6
 Main objectives………………………………………………………………..6
 Factors affecting recruitment………………………………………………….6
 Internal factors………………………………………………………....6
 External factors………………………………………………………...6
 Components…………………………………………………………………....7
 Methods of recruitment………………………………………………………..9
 Steps of a recruitment process…………………………………………………9
 Implications……………………………………………………………………9
 Sources……………………………………………………………………….10
 External recruitment………………………………………………….10
 Internal recruitment…………………………………………………..13
 Identifying qualified candidates……………………………………………...14
 Recent trends in recruitment………………………………………………….14
5. Selection……………………………………………………………………………...15
 Main objectives……………………………………………………………....15
 Steps in selection procedure………………………………………………….16
 Necessary elements of a selection process…………………………………...17
 Selection process……………………………………………………………..18
 Sources of information about job candidates………………………...19
 Employment tests…………………………………………………….22
 Interviews…………………………………………………………….24
 Decision strategy……………………………………………………..26
 Challenges faced by HR during recruitment and selection…………………..27

References……………………………………………………………………………28
 PREFACE

It is said that employees are the most valuable assets of an organization. But, it cannot be
agreed to. Actually, it is the high potential employees that are the most valuable assets of an
organization. In this world of cut-throat competition, every organization takes utmost care
about the quality of its employee’s work performance. The reason behind this is that:

1. Employee’s work performance is one of the biggest factors contributing to an

organization’s success.
2. It helps the organization to get a competitive edge over its rival firms i.e. talent sets an
organization apart from other competing firms.

Therefore, it is in best interests of the organization to have an appropriate talent pool and this
can be accomplished only through a proper recruitment and selection process.

Recruitment and selection process is one of the most important functions of Human Resource
Department (HRD) in an organization. It does not matter whether a company is an IT firm or
a banking organization; large or small; etc., hiring the best candidates is of primary
importance. Although it is seen as a single step, yet recruitment and selection are two totally
different and crucial steps to building a healthy workforce for an organization. The two steps
ensure that people with appropriate calibre are recruited and put to jobs based upon the field
knowledge and skills required for that job. This process is fair i.e. free from any kind of
discrimination and potential bias. As recruitment and selection have an important role to play
in an employee’s performance and also in the overall performance of their organization, duo
is directly connected to the strategic planning in an organization. These processes must be
well coordinated with all other HRM processes or functions so that they together fit in the
overall organization’s strategy.
 BACKGROUND
There are five basic human resource management functions as follows:

1. Staffing
2. Human Resource Development
3. Compensation
4. Safety and health
5. Employee and labour relations

Staffing: It is a process through which an organization ensures that it always has the proper
number of employees with the appropriate skills in the right jobs, at the right time, to achieve
organizational objectives. It involves:

1. Job analysis
2. Human resource planning
3. Recruitment
4. Selection

Human Resource Development: It is the development of an organization’s workforce

through processes which consist of:

1. Training and development

2. Individual career planning and development activities
3. Organization development
4. Performance management
5. Appraisal

Compensation: It includes the total of all adequate and equitable rewards provided to
employees in return of their services. It may be of three types:

1. Direct financial compensation

2. Indirect financial compensation (Benefits)
3. Nonfinancial compensation

Safety and Health: Safety involves protecting employees from injuries caused by work-
related accidents. Health refers to the employee’s freedom from physical or emotional illness.

Employee and labour relations: It involves the promotion of union free environment and
job of collective bargaining in case where unions are unavoidable. It also includes nurturing
of healthy relations among labour, employees and the top management.
IMPACT OF RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION ON OTHER
HR FUNCTIONS

Recruitment and selection has a great impact on most of the functions like training, individual
career planning, performance management, appraisal and compensation.

1. Initial training enhances necessary skills required for the job and it is for the people
who have accepted the job offer through the recruitment and selection process. If a
wrong candidate is selected through the two processes, it may lead to training
extensions which will incur more costs to the concerned organization.

2. In individual career planning, ambitious and high performing employees are provided
with opportunities for growth within the organization to retain talent. Again the
quality of employees depends on recruitment and selection.

3. Job performance management is used to test the effectiveness of recruitment and

selection process. The main objective of recruitment and selection is to get those
people who will perform well.

4. Appraisals are based on employee performance which, as described, depends highly

on recruitment and selection.

5. Compensation also interacts with both these processes as:

Firstly, the applicant’s decision to accept the job depends upon the salary decided
by the company’s recruitment and selection procedure.

Secondly, salary paid depends upon the qualifications possessed by him.

 RECRUITMENT

Recruitment is a process of attracting prospective employees, on a timely basis, in sufficient

numbers, and with appropriate qualifications who might take up a job in the organization and
stimulating and encouraging them to apply for existing or anticipated job openings.

Main objectives:

 Increase pool of job applicants with reasonable costs

 Increase success rate of selection process by reducing applicants who are not qualified
for the job
 Meet company's legal and social obligations: demographic composition of its
workforce

Factors affecting Recruitment:

 The size of the organization

 The employment conditions in the community where the organization is located

 The effects of past recruiting efforts which show the organization’s ability to locate
and retain the good performing people

 Working conditions, salary and benefit packages offered by the organization

 Rate of growth of the organization

 The future expansion and production programs

 Cultural, economic and legal factors

However, these factors may be divided specifically as Internal and External factors.

1. Internal Factors:

 Recruitment policy of the organization

 Human resource planning strategy of the company

 Size of the organization and number of people employed

 Cost involved in recruiting employees

 Growth and expansion plans of the organization

2. External Factors:
  Supply and demand of specific skills in the labour market

 Political and legal factors like reservations of jobs for specific sections of society,
etc.

 The job seekers image perception of the company

Components:

I. Recruitment Policy: It defines the objective of the recruitment and also provides a
framework for the implementation of the recruitment program. The criteria for
selection and preferences should include merit and suitability. The policy should
be based upon:

 Corporate goals

 Needs of a particular position

II. Recruitment organization: It is necessary to centralize the recruitment and

selection function in a single office. This centralized office is known as the
Employee Office or the Recruitment Section.

This will bring about maximum efficiency and success in hiring.

III. Requirements: Before starting with recruitment procedures, it is necessary to

follow pre-recruitment procedures, which include analysis of the job vacancy and
preparation of a document containing the following:

1. Job description involves:

• Tasks

• Duties

• Responsibilities

2. Job specification includes:

• Skill Requirements

• Knowledge Requirements

• Abilities Needed
 • Experience

This improves job understanding, both on part of the employer and the applicant.

IV. Forecast of Manpower: This usually specifies:

 Duration of their employment

 Salary to be offered and terms of employment

V. Candidates: Candidates need to be tested on the basis of their knowledge, skills,

abilities and other features (KSAO’s), that the job position requires, as well as the
specific tasks that will be performed by the employee. They may be of two types:

1. Active candidates: They keep searching for better opportunities.

2. Passive candidates: They might not be there searching for better

opportunities, but may possess great talents. To tap their potential, we can
use the following:

 Social networking: Going to industry-specific events, meetings,

etc.

 Targeted recruiting: Search out the who's who in the competition,

identify potential talent and target recruiting efforts at those
individuals.

 Referrals: Ask inside - does anyone know someone who fits your
company culture, someone who might be interested in a change?
Referrals carry with them the added benefit of a candidate that
comes to you with a known track-record.

The diagram below demonstrates the steps for the active candidate.
Methods of Recruitment: The possible recruiting methods can be divided into three
categories:

1. Direct: In this method, recruiters visit colleges and technical schools. For example,
Infosys, the Tata Group, Accenture, IBM, Siemens and several other companies
maintain continuous relationship with institutions to hire students for responsible
positions.

2. Indirect: This involves advertising in newspaper, radio, T.V., journals, etc.

Advertising can be very effective if its media is properly chosen.

3. Third Party methods: These include use of commercials or private employment

agencies, placement officials of schools, recruitment firms, etc. Friends and relatives
of present employees are also a good source from which employees may be drawn as
part of the “Buddy Referral” programs.

Steps of a Recruitment Process:

Personnel Recruitment Process can be mapped in a flowchart as below:

Personnel/Human Resource Planning


Locating needed Personnel


 Selecting Qualified Personnel


Placing New Employees on the Job

Implications:

1. Selection process becomes more valuable to an organization as the number of

qualified applicants increases during the recruitment process. A large number of
applicants means that there is a bigger pool of talent to select from and hence a better
workforce.

2. It is also necessary for a company to have a varied demographic composition. If the

recruitment process does not provide a varied set of applicants it is hardly possible
that selection process will give a demographically balanced workforce.

3. Processing of a large number of applicants is very expensive. If the recruitment

procedure does not get right applicants who match the job requirements then this cost
can increase alarmingly.

Sources:

1. From outside the organization (External): These sources lie outside the organization.

2. From within the organization (Internal): This includes personnel already on the
payroll of an organization. Whenever there is a vacancy, somebody within the
organization fills in or is upgraded.

The decision to choose between them depends upon:

1. Company’s HR policies
2. Availability of personnel with proper skill set
3. Requirement of the position to be staffed
4. Availability of sufficient candidate pool to select from, internally as well as externally

For example, for a high level job, people are directly recruited from outside, or through a
series of promotions where each person take a position up in hierarchy and a new person is
brought in at a lower level in hierarchy.

1. External recruitment: The sources of external recruitment depend upon the labour
market conditions and job position to be fulfilled. A market with low unemployment
 may force companies to span various sources for recruitments whereas in a market
with high unemployment company may get the desired employees through a single
source only. Following are few of the sources of external recruitment:

i. Advertisements: It is the most common method of inviting applicants. There are

various places where advertisements are put up like newspaper, websites,
billboards, radio, e-mails, etc. The main advantage of advertisements is its reach.
Through mass media we can easily target a large pool of applicants. An
advertisement should be creative and well written so as to target the right set of
applicants. If an advertisement rightly specifies the information about the job,
there are more chances of recruitment success. This whole procedure is time
consuming.

ii. Executive search firms: Instead of finding right job for a person, executive search
firms find right people for jobs in an organization. These firms charge fee from
employers rather than applicants and it is usually 30-40% of the annual salary.
New CEO’s are generally recruited through Executive search firms. Executive
search firms are a big success because of their knowledge of the market enables
them to suggest compensation needed to attract right talent pool. Since these firms
charge whether the position is finally staffed or not, these firms should be properly
chosen.

iii. Employee Referral Programmes: It means that some present employees of the
company can refer potential candidates for a particular job. Quality of candidates
which apply through this programme is mostly high. Efficiency of these
programmes can be increased by some of the following steps:
 Companies should pay commissions to employees who refer new employees
as money is incurred in advertisements, internet recruiting, etc.
 Companies which have some specific skill set need should make it clear to
their employees so that the applicants they refer are clear about the job they
have to perform.
 Employees who refer good applicants should be rewarded so as to encourage
them.
 Even if some applicants do not fit the position, their resumes should be kept
for future reference.

iv. Former employees and relatives of employees: Some organizations refuse

recruiting former employees. Though these policies seem correct when employee
had moved to rival firm because of monitory benefits, but in cases other than that,
not recruiting former employees is ante-diluvian. Those employees who
performed well during their tenure in the company and left, because of maybe
 dissatisfaction or lack of growth opportunities, can be rehired after the conditions
in the company have improved. Even if former employees are not rehired, they
still can be asked for referring new employees.

Another argument is about recruiting the relatives of current employees.

Advantage: Current employees can easily help and share the job
knowledge they have with their relatives.
Disadvantage: It can lead to bias and favouritism.

v. Internet Recruitment: Internet is the most common source youngsters use for
looking for jobs. They upload their resumes on sites like Monster.com,
Naukri.com, etc. These sites have a huge database of resumes which company can
look for according to their requirements. At present there are more than 4000 sites
where applicants can upload their resumes. This mode of recruitment is quick,
cheap and effective.

vi. Professional associations and Unions: Many occupations have associations that
hold conferences and publish newsletter. These associations frequently have
placement services also which they offer as a benefit of being a member. These
associations generally publish list of employees seeking jobs in their newsletter or
journals. Labour unions can also supply applicants, mainly for blue collar jobs.

vii. Employment Agencies: Employment agencies main purpose is to locate job

seekers. The company which has job vacancy and has hired an employment
agency provides agency with the information about the job i.e. job specification
and job description which agency uses to locate right people for the job. These
agencies can be:

Public: In public employment agencies, individuals who become unemployed

register themselves. If a particular job matches with their skill set, these
companies refer them to company. Most of the local public employment
agencies publish the list on regular basis along with other information like
skill set wise people, etc.

Private: Private employment agencies are more effective due to their

professional attitude and their better qualified counsellors. In addition to
having permanent task force, company can also look for a temporary task
force. These employment agencies also provide temporary applicants. This
industry is one of the fastest growing industries as it is beneficial for both the
organization as well as applicants. Organizations can recruit a temporary task
force whenever pressure of work is high and can easily dismiss them also. The
cost of maintaining a temporary task force is also low. For employees also it is
beneficial to work on temporary basis for few days with a company,
 understand its way of working and then go into a permanent relationship. The
fees can be charged to employer, applicant or both depending upon the
policies of the agency and the position of the vacancy. They are of two types:

 Specific: Specific employment agencies help in recruitment in specific

sectors like IT, Finance, etc.

 General: General employment agencies are not sector specific.

viii. Campus Recruitment: A huge percentage of colleges these days provide campus
recruitment i.e. companies come on their campus and recruit students even before
they have completed their course. Campus recruitment is a major source for IT
companies like TCS, Infosys, etc. in India. But this source is not being properly
utilised as many graduate recruits change jobs within a year and many don’t turn
up for the job. It is because proper understanding of job is not communicated to
students and no proper team is sent to college to hire the best. Focus of the team is
to scan as many colleges as possible and as early as possible rather than recruiting
the best. If proper teams with proper job understanding are sent, this recruitment
source can become an asset both for employers and students. Another solution
can be to provide internship in the companies so that the student himself can learn
about the work he has to do and then come in the company.

ix. Conventions and Other Meetings: A convention is a very important source for
recruitment. It is a single source that brings together seniors and juniors of an
organization, the leaders of the field and the students. Recruitments through
conventions have reached a high proportion these days.

x. Employee leasing: Professional Employer Organizations (PEOs) have grown a lot

recently. These PEOs perform most of the work of the HR Department of the
company like hiring, performance management, appraisal, etc. In return, PEOs
charge a fee. These PEOs place their employees permanently. Since they handle
HR work for many companies, they can easily provide benefits to employees
which are difficult for small firms to provide.

xi. Walk-Ins: Unsolicited applications can be costly when there is huge manpower
available but when manpower is in short supply, these applications can be a lot
useful. Applicants who go out of way and contact employers on their own
initiative will serve as better employees than applicants who are recruited through
campus recruitment, etc.
 2. Internal recruitment: Recruitment is often seen as recruiting from outside. Many
companies follow the policy of recruitment of people at lowest level and internal
recruitment wherever possible. Promotion of employees:
 Serves as a reward for the past performance
 Acts as a motivator
 Serves as a social reward
 Other employees also try to perform better in order to reap the same benefits

The policy of internal recruitment should be clearly communicated to employees

so that they know that their performance will fetch them the rewards. Transfers help
employees broaden their job scope and prevent layoffs.

The policy of internal recruitment helps company to capitalize on recruitment, selection and
training costs. But certain jobs require specific skill sets which are not present in the
company. For such scenarios, recruitment from external sources needs to be considered.
Particularly for technical openings, applicants from external sources may bring along a new
technology. A right mix of external as well as internal recruitment is what is required.

Identifying qualified candidates:

 Human resource information systems: Databases containing complete information,

qualifications and skills possessed by each of its employee can be created. Managers
can use this information to identify right individual for an available job.

 Identifying talent through performance appraisal: Managers evaluate an employee’s

performance for various reasons including analysing his work for success. Successful
candidates can be provided with a promotion.

 Job posting and bidding: Companies can post a list of job vacancies throughout the
organization so that anyone who wishes to apply can apply. Some companies even
have a system for employees seeking to upgrade their position. Those employees can
fill in the database and as soon as a vacancy is available, the company can refer the
database to find suitable candidates.

 Assessment centres: It is a procedure in which people are evaluated on the basis of

their participation in various situations which resemble the job work for which
candidate is required. There can be many exercises like role plays, behavioural
interviews, group discussions, etc. to judge an individual for a job vacancy.
Recent trends in recruitment:

1. Outsourcing:
Outsourcing has been prevalent in India, for more than a decade. Many companies
outsource their HR processes like recruitment, etc. There are firms which have a large
database of applications. They screen and select this database according to the job
profile and send it to the company. In this way, much of work is handled by an
external firm rather than the organization.

2. E-recruitment:
It is becoming a major source of recruitment these days. With advancement in
technology, it is just not logical to neglect this source. This process is convenient both
for the employer and the future employee. Job vacancy is advertised on the web pages
and candidates can fill built-in resumes or application forms directly on the internet.

3. Raiding/poaching:
With increasing competition and talent war going on, the latest trend evolved is to buy
talent instead of developing it. Raiding/poaching refers to employing a talented and
experienced person working with some other company. Though this practise is
unethical, companies are doing it. They do it by luring employees with more attractive
packages.

SELECTION
Selection is the process of choosing the right candidate amongst the individuals who have
the relevant qualifications.

It is a continuous process. This is because people can leave an organization as and when
they want, in the following ways:

1. In this competitive world, rival firms try to lure employees of other companies.
2. Employees also look for more options and better opportunities across the firms and
switch their job when they find the same.
3. Due to economic cycles also, companies hire and fire people.

The overall outcome is that people are less likely to continue with the same job on a long
term basis. Thus a continuous process of recruitment and selection goes on.

At first, a selection policy is formulated in which organizational requirements like

technical and professional dimensions are kept in mind. Then the process of selection begins
with an initial screening interview and concludes with a final employment decision.

Main Objectives:
  determine whether an applicant meets the qualifications for a specific job

 choose the applicant who is most likely to perform well in that job

 maximize the number of hits i.e. produce accurate predictions and minimise the
number of misses i.e. reduce inaccurate predictions

Steps in selection procedure:

1. Reception of applications or preliminary screening

2. Application bank that gives details about the applicant’s background and life history

3. A well conducted interview to explore the applicant’s background

4. Physical examination

5. Psychological testing that gives an objective look at a candidate’s suitability for the
job

6. Reference check

7. Final selection approved by the manager

8. Communication of the decision to the candidate

 Selection process can be pictorially represented in a flowchart as below:

Establishing Selection Process


Identifying & choosing selection criteria (1.)


Gathering information about potential employees (2.)


Evaluating information for assessing applicant (3., 4., 5., 6.)


Making decision to select or reject (7.)


Communicating decision (8.)

These steps differ from company to company and position to position. When an applicant is
rejected at a particular stage, the person is no more required to complete the whole process.

Necessary elements of a selection process:

 Efficiency in human resource utilization: Right person for the right job needs to be
selected.

1. Person-job fit: It is important for manager to judge competencies of applicant

to see whether there will be person-job fit or not. A job requires many
knowledge, skills and abilities. Person selected should possess all of these to
be successful at a job.

2. Person-organization fit: Selection process must take care of checking person-

organization fit. Each organization has its values and culture. Employee’s
values must be in line with company’s values so as to have maximum
productivity.
 Inducting the person into the organization or department successfully is the basic
criteria of the entire process. Person-job fit and person-organization fit ensure
efficiency in human resource utilization. The selection process should utilize human
resources efficiently.

 Privacy: Privacy means not bothering the applicant to produce any unnecessary
private information during the selection process. The selection process should respect
the privacy of the applicant’s information.

 Confidentiality: Confidentiality means keeping the applicant’s information (like

photographs, etc.) confidential or secret to protect it from unscrupulous users
irrespective of the fact whether the candidate is selected or not. The selection process
should respect the confidentiality of the applicant’s information.

 Legality: Legality means not engaging in any kind of malpractices in selection

procedure. Malpractices may include bribery, etc. The selection process should follow
all legal practices while selecting an applicant.

 Validity: Validity means what and how much adequately the selection process
measures. Favouritism, etc. hamper validity. The selection process should be valid.

 Reliability: Reliability means whether the selection process yields similar data when
tests are administered again and again at different points of time. A test which when
given to a same individual at different point of time resulting in very different scores
is unreliable.
Cross validation which is the process of giving tests to different samples in
order to test its effectiveness is also required for selection process to be effective. The
selection process should be reliable.

Selection process:

It comprises steps 2. to 7. of selection procedure. These steps are now further described in
detail as to what actually transpires during the selection process. The various stages of a
selection process are:
 Completion of Application

Initial Interview in HR Department (Checking

minimum criteria for application)

Employment Testing (Aptitude, etc.) (Written

test in IT )

Background Investigation (Technical

interview in case of IT recruitment)

Preliminary Selection in HR Department

Supervisor Interview (HR interview round in

case of IT recruitment)

Medical Exam/ Drug Test

Hiring Decision

Source: Human Resource Management-Snell/Bohlander

This process also differs from one organization to another. Most of the times, following
procedure is followed:

1. The candidate’s academic and profile information is gathered to check whether they
fulfil minimum eligibility criteria to be in the organization.
2. Employment tests are taken which may include tests for aptitude, physical ability, etc.
for only those candidates who fulfil minimum eligibility criteria.
3. Candidates who clear these tests are scheduled for interview(s).
4. Decision is taken on the basis of performance in interviews.

Sources of information about job candidates:

Many sources are there to provide reliable and valid information about an applicant. Some of
them are as follows:

1. Application forms:

They provide a fast and systematic way of obtaining a large bank of information about
the individual. They provide a lot of information like whether an applicant has
minimum qualifications for a job or not. They also provide some basis for interviewee
to ask questions. But care should be taken against applicant exaggerating the
information and sometimes falsifying it also. Questions on issues such as age, gender,
marital status are controversial. But certain questions which should be present are:

 Educational Background
 Experience
 References

Disability is one area which is very tricky. Interviewee asking questions regarding
whether a person will be able to perform a particular job or not, is acceptable but
other questions which try to judge about the nature of disability is not acceptable.
While making the application forms, some points should be kept in mind like
prevention of discrimination against women, minorities, etc., as failure to provide
these can lead to legal actions also.

2. Online applications:

The biggest success in past few years has been recruitment through online procedures.
Initially web sites only collected resumes. Now these web sites even allow
categorizing them, matching applicants with required skill sets, etc. Companies can
also collaborate with web sites like Monster.com for internet recruitment purposes.
Companies can also search through keyword approach various such web sites to find
resumes and then call people for interview. Major advantages of online applications
approach is that it is fast, costs less and can provide a large diversity in applications.

3. Background investigations:
 It is necessary to check information provided by the applicant about the previous job,
his background, etc. Many people exaggerate the information on application forms.
And after events like Mumbai terrorist attacks, it is all the more important to check
the information provided by the applicant. If a company doesn’t do proper
background investigation and some problem arises, the company is held responsible.
Company should also check applicant for past embezzlements and criminal records.
Today this information is available online also but it is quite cumbersome to find such
data.

4. Reference check:

References validity is not assured as they can easily be inflated. So they should be
confirmed at least once whether they are right or wrong. Generally, checking through
telephone is easiest and fastest method but other methods like electronic mails can
also be used. Previous job supervisors can provide a lot of information as they have a
first-hand experience of applicant’s performance and behaviour. But sometimes the
previous employers are not willing to give information/feedback because they can
easily be sued by employees for giving a negative feedback.

5. Medical tests and drug tests:

These tests appear in later part of selection process as this is a costly test. This test is
given to people to ensure that they have proper health to work properly and meet job
requirements. These tests should not discriminate against women. In some scenarios,
these tests are found to intrude person’s privacy and thus these tests should be given
while taking into care a lot of precautions. These tests should not be given until an
offer of employment has been given to the applicant.

Illegal drug use can be tested through urine sampling. But saliva, sweat and hair
testing are becoming more common these days. Saliva testing results positive if drugs
are taken recently whereas hair testing shows positive even for months back. Drugs
testing are not so common because as such no relation has been found between drug
tests resulting positive and workplace indiscipline.

6. Biographic information banks:

 They try to elicit information about family background, hobbies, investments, club
memberships, etc. They also reveal information about person’s past experiences.
These questions have no as such right or wrong answers so people don’t really try to
fake them. But a proper scoring system should be developed for assessing these tests.
Biographic information banks along with application forms are one of the most
successful methods in predicting job performance of an applicant. Some sample
questions are as follows:

 At what age you started working?

 Did you ever make a working model in your school?
 Do you like dancing?

7. Polygraph tests:

These tests basically measure person’s changes in blood pressure, breathing and
pulse. A rubber tube is worn around the chest or sensors are attached to the fingers of
applicant and then the person is asked questions. Answers are generally a yes or a no.
Questions generally cover issues like stealing, taking drugs before, etc. These tests are
generally prohibited to be used apart from firms like pharmaceuticals, etc.

8. Honesty and integrity tests:

These tests are more commonly used for settings such as a retail store where workers
have access to instant cash. These tests generally try to bring forward individual’s
views on theft, its punishment, its cause, etc. These tests are quite adequate to judge a
person’s job performance. But these tests in some situations are not useful. For
example, when questions regarding forgiving a thief or a person involved in dishonest
methods is involved, kind hearted members will generally forgive leading to their
dismissal which is wrong.

9. Graphology:

It refers to handwriting analysis. It is used by some employers to make decisions

because this method can examine a person’s characteristics like intelligence,
creativity, personality traits, integrity, etc. based on amount of pressure applied, size,
shape of letters, etc. This is a very simple test as one only requires an essay or few
lines written by an applicant which is not at all time consuming. But applicability of
such tests for high profile jobs is questionable.
Employment tests:

These tests are objective in nature and they are administered to an applicant to judge a
person’s KSAO’s:

 Knowledge
 Skills
 abilities
 other characteristics

Tests developers should keep in their minds the need to check whether these tests meet
adequate standards of validity and reliability.

Current employee’s performance can be used as a benchmark for measuring new

employee’s performance. Employment tests basically test achievements i.e. how much a
candidate knows and what is the level of the person’s aptitude i.e. how much the person can
learn. The main employment tests used are:

1. Cognitive ability tests:

These tests measure things like intelligence, analytical ability and verbal fluency.
Tests like SAT, GMAT, etc. measure these abilities.

These tests check applicant on specialized areas like quant, etc. But these tests
have a direct connection with mental capabilities like intelligence, etc. Sample
questions asked are:

 What does catharsis means?

 What is value of 1672 ?

2. Physical tests:

Employers are sometimes keen on judging physical abilities of an applicant and in

those scenarios, these tests are useful.

For dangerous jobs like military, police, etc., these tests are important because
it is necessary to judge applicants on their physical ability parameters. But these tests
should prevent any kind of discrimination against women.
3. Personality tests:

These tests help understand a person’s personality like:

 How the person reacts to a situation

 What’s the person’s normal behaviour
 What’s the person’s motivation level
 Other areas such as their leadership style, etc.

Big five factors (extraversion, emotional stability, openness to experience,

agreeableness and conscientiousness) are common traits on which an individual is
usually judged.

For judging a personality, tools like MBTI and Calliper Test are available.

These tests should be used along with cognitive ability tests to be more helpful to
employers. No invasion in privacy of a candidate should be done by these tests.

4. Job knowledge tests:

These tests check an applicant’s understanding of the job for which the person is
applying.

These tests play a major role in areas like navy and air force as no one can be
given an expensive jet to fly for the first time.

5. Job sample tests:

These tests require an applicant to perform tasks that are similar in nature to what the
person has to perform on the job. They are good to check the competencies of the
candidate. Jobs which require competency based selections should use it. Many job
sample tests have been devised for various jobs.

For example, for a supervisor, judgement and decision making tests have been made.

Main advantages: They are reliable and cost effective.

Interviews:

Interviews have a major role in the whole selection process. It is hardly possible to find a
selection process without any interview rounds.

Interviews can have problems like personal bias and subjectivity but still they are the
preferred choice of many employers.

There are many types of interviews, what set each apart from others is the amount of control
by the interviewer or it can be said that amount of freedom given to the interviewee. Types of
interviews depend on organization, job position, etc.

The different types of interviews are:

1. Non-directive interview:

In a non-directive interview, interviewer gives a lot of freedom to interviewee in

determining the discussion flow. The interviewer generally asks open ended questions
so that the candidate can include whatever information the person wishes to and
thinks will increase his/her candidature. Interviewer doesn’t argue or interrupt but
listens and gives a chance to the candidate to speak, to elaborate on any topic the
person wishes to. This whole procedure allows interviewee to bring some extra
information in front which may be hindered in case of a structured interview.
But since no particular course of action is followed and different interviewees
can take interviews in different directions, there is no benchmark established to judge
different candidates leading to low reliability and validity.

2. Structured interview:

These interviews have a set of structured pre-decided questions and a set of answers
with which the answers of candidates can be compared and graded. It provides a more
quantifiable way of rating and selecting a candidate.
Though these interviews provide more data on which a candidate can be
judged but they are less likely to happen.

3. Situational interview:

In this interview, a hypothetical situation is given to the candidate and asked about his
or her reaction towards it. The reaction is then analysed and compared with pre-
defined benchmark.

4. Behavioural description interview:

 This interview focuses on actual work performed by the candidate in the past. It is not
based on any hypothetical situation; rather it is based on real life performance. The
basic assumption in this type is that an individual repeats his/her behaviour and thus
what the person has performed in past, the person will replicate in future. Also, there
is no chance of faking. These interviews are successful for recruiting and selecting
people for high profile jobs.

5. Panel interviews:

In this type of interview a panel of interviewers are there instead of a single

interviewer. Generally they are 3-5 panel members. It is better to have panel members
from varied backgrounds. It has several advantages in comparison to traditional
interviews. Because of presence of a panel, bias and discrimination is prevented, more
decision acceptance is there and after interview is finished, ratings of all the panel
members is combined to form a single rating.

6. Computer interviews and video interviews:

With technology growing at a very fast pace, companies are using internet for
interview purposes. These tests are mostly used as a screening test for removing
candidates with insufficient candidature. These tests generally have a list of MCQ’s
which candidate has to answer and on basis of time to respond, typing speed, etc., a
variety of things can be checked.
Videoconferencing techniques can also be used for interviews. Companies can
use their in house systems or can take help of any external agency providing these
services. Major advantages of such interviews are that they are fast, cost effective and
flexible. Some companies allow candidates to record and upload their tapes on their
web sites and the companies which want to recruit can check these tapes for a small
fee and proceed further with their recruitment and selection process.

Guidelines for interviewers: With increasing workforce diversity, it has become necessary
for organizations to select interviewers who are balanced in their approach and in relating
themselves with people of varied backgrounds. Interviewers should be humble, mature
and have analytical thinking. Some of the things they should keep in mind while taking an
interview are:

1. Establish a plan beforehand

2. Be an active listener
3. Separate facts from inferences
4. Pay attention to nonverbal cues
5. Standardize the questions asked
6. Recognize biases and stereotypes
Decision strategy:

The most important step is to select or reject the candidate. Final decision must be as logical
as possible.

1. An employer must check what an applicant or future employee can do and will do:
 “Can do” part is a person’s KSAO’s and they can be easily measured from the
test scores.
 “Will do” part entails employee’s motivation to work, the person’s other
personality characteristics. These are not so easy to measure.
A person high in both these ratings is required. The decision strategy varies from
organization to organization and position to position.

2. There are many things to be considered like whether we should take highest potential
or needs of organization into account when hiring or whether overqualified candidates
should be hired or not. There are mainly two types of approaches:

I. Clinical approach:

 Decision on basis of review of all data of applicant

 Decision on basis of jobs and individuals who have been successful in their
jobs
 Different individuals arrive at different decisions
 Personal bias and stereotype often step in

II. Statistical Approach

 More objective approach

 Most valid predictors are used and then they are weighed through statistical
methods
 Individuals with highest scores are selected
 Many models like compensatory model, multiple cut off model and multiple
hurdles model exist.

3. Finally, after all the process has been done, the potential candidates are then referred
to managers of the departments who have come up with the job vacancy. These
managers make the final decision.
Challenges faced by HR during recruitment and selection:

Like all HR functions, recruitment also requires certain abilities like finding and bringing
in the best potential candidate for a job in a company and aligning the recruitment process
with other HR functions of the organization in order to benefit it fully.

With a change in times and the processes followed, the labour market has also undergone
many changes like change in technology, increasing competition, better pay, cut throat
competition, new sources of recruitment, etc. Because of war of talent pool, companies are
going into practices like raiding and luring other companies’ employees.

As a result, the human resources of a company are constantly in move and recruitment
and selection activities are on-going in an organization.

HR heads of a company have to face various challenges and some of them are as follows:

• Adaptability to Globalization: With increase in globalization, HR professionals should

keep themselves updates with new techniques of recruitment being followed across
the globe.

• Process Analysis: If recruitment process is not speedy, flexible, cost effective and
adaptive, it is of no use. so proper recruitment analysis required at each and every
stage.

• Lack of Motivation: No motivation present as it is basically a thankless job. Even if a

right person is selected no credit is given to HR department. So no motivation for HR
employees.
References:

Websites:

 www.oneclickhr.com
 www.recruitment.naukrihub.com
 www.ttidisc.com
 www.learningdb.com

Books:

 Human Resource Management -R. Wayne Mondy

 Human Resource Management -Snell/Bohlander
 Human Resource Selection -Robert D. Gatewood, Hubert S. Field
 Hiring the Best and the Brightest -Sherrie Gong Taguchi
 The Selection Process: Choosing the right man for the job -Milton M. Mandell