SUBJECT: Selection and testing

SUBMITTED TO: Prof. Ekta Sharma

DATE: 17th September, 2020

TOPIC
Reflection note

SUBMITTED BY
AMRIT PARMAR
AU1914017
Selection and testing are 2 very important functions of human resource management. A company
Must hire quality talent in order to achieve their goals. The quality of hire is very important
because a bad hire costs a lot of money, opportunity cost and also in turn decreases the
productivity of the peers. During the hiring process, the company also bears the cost of travel,
hotel, time of the hiring managers etc. For example, in the JetBlue airlines case we studied that
selecting the right people was very crucial as the values were such and the founders wanted to
keep the small company feeling. Morale among employees due to bad hires or the decrease in
output, cannot be quantified and hence costs the company in terms of productivity.
Then we also studied about the issues in global staffing, like communication, different time
zomes, language. When hiring for a global position, along with other qualities, the hiring manger
must look for qualities such as cross cultural fluency and adaptability.
We hen studied about the selection strategy according to the relation the person has with the
company. For example, short/long term generalist and short/long term specialist. Also how a
selection method must be in terms of reliability, validity, legality, etc. For example, a polygraph
test is not allowed in India. The selection methods must be innovative in order to brand the
employer in a good light so as to hire as well as retain good quality talent. The biggest decision
that the company has to make in terms of staffing is whether to make or buy talent. There are 3
approaches when it comes to hiring. Traditional, strategy formation(top level) and strategy
implementation(middle level).
Now a days, the way companies recruit also makes a big impact on employer branding. A lot of
companies use social media to put out recruitment advertisements which gives them good
publicity. Using social media to recruit has a lot of advantages like, larger pool, more information,
decreased response time, increased visibility better candidate experience.
Using all these concepts, we developed a set of questions and competencies. We chose the
position of a campaign manager to develop upon. Also gamification was one aspect where we
developed 2 games called wedding dash and salonclues to asses various positions and
competencies.
The tests indicate how closely a potential candidate will match the hiring requirements. This
helps reduce the risk of wrong hiring decision and improve the quality of the company's hiring.
The various types of tests are, cognitive ability tests. Personality tests, physical ability test, job
knowledge test, work sample tests, etc. Various models to decide upon selection of the
candidate: Clinical, Statistical approach(multiple hurdle, compensatory, multiple cutoff).
The tests which we were asked to give during the course were
Big Five Personality test
The Big Five assessment measures your scores on five major dimensions of personality:
Openness, Conscientiousness, Extraversion, Agreeableness, and Neuroticism (sometimes
abbreviated OCEAN).

N- This suggests that a person will only be willing to take calculated risks which involves a lot of
thinking and analyzing.
C- This means that a person thinks about the bigger picture and takes calculated risks which is
complemented by the high Neuroticism score as well.
A-This shows the emotional Quotient of the person which then helps gauge the person’s response
to sensitive matters and situations.
The above are the results of my test. A high Neuroticism score means that I need to improve on
my reactions and take decisions in a more calm manner so that I am able to take better decisions.
The other test that we took was Multiple intelligence questionnaire.
With the help of the Israeli Special forces assignment, we learnt how to evaluate tests. There are
5 criteria: validity, reliability, objectivity, economic, legality. Then we had the guest session by
Mr. Ashish Pandya about assessment development centers gave us a lot of information about
that. ADCs are basically multiple exercises which could be behavior based, simulation based, etc.
It includes various tests and tools which are mapped against the required competencies and the
assessment center is put in action.
Then we had the guest session by Dr. Snigdha Rai from Mettl, who discussed about assessment
trends and tool identification for the hiring process.
All in all, the course provided insights into how the selection process is crucial to the
organizational goals and a bad hire can lead to higher costs for the company. Also there is much
more to the selection process than just interview and tests.