Chapter 4

(Textbook Chapter 5 & 6)

Recruitment &
Selection

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 Learning Outcomes
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

 4.1 Understanding labor markets and recruiting

process
 4.2 Sources and alternatives for recruiting
 4.3 Selecting process
 4.4 Selection criteria and techniques

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 Figure 5.1:
Elements of a Recruitment Strategy

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 Brand: How Do We Attract Talent?

• How Do We Attract Talent?

Whomever and wherever a firm is recruiting, it wants to be the employer of
choice to attract and hire top candidates before its competitors do.
• Branding can help organizations do this. Branding refers to a
company’s efforts to help existing and prospective workers understand
why it is a desirable place to work as opposed to its competitors.

• Another way is by reaching out to people via social networks. Firms are
creating pages on websites like LinkedIn, Facebook, and Google to
promote their organizations and careers they have to offer.

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 Focus: What Types of Positions Are
•
Needed?

As you learned from Chapter 2, a major responsibility of human resources

managers is knowing what jobs a firm needs now and in the future as well as the
KSAOs required for those jobs.

Given those needs, the condition of the labor market can have a big effect on a
firm’s recruiting plans.

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 Location: Where Do We Need the
Talent, and Where Will We Find It?
• The two primary locations in which to find candidates are those
internal to the firm (internal candidates) and those external to the
firm (external candidates), each of which are recruited somewhat
differently.

• Internal versus External Recruiting Markets. Recruiting internally

is generally easier, faster, and less expensive. However, not all
positions can be filled internally. Jobs that require specialized
training and experience cannot always be easily filled from within
and may need to be filled from the outside. This is especially
common in small

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 Timing: When Do We Need the
Talent?
• You have probably heard the saying “Timing is
everything.” This is especially true for recruiters. HR
professionals shouldn’t just engage in recruiting
when a position comes open.
• Timing also comes into play in terms of the
recruiting process. Some jobs, such as the job of an
administrative assistant, can be advertised and
filled relatively quickly. Other jobs, such as a search
for a CEO, can take months. These factors have to
be taken into consideration when recruiting and
moving applicants through the various hiring
stages.
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Method: How Do We Find the Talent?

• Firms use different methods to try to recruit different types of people for
different jobs. The methods also change over time as technology
changes and the sources of candidates change.

• Recruitment ads on the Internet and social media sites like LinkedIn
have replaced the bulk of print advertisements.

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 Decision: Who Does the Recruiting
and Makes the Final Hiring Decision?
• The size of an organization often affects who performs the
recruitment function. Most large firms have full-time, in-
house HR recruiters.
• In smaller organizations, the recruiting might be done by
an HR generalist. If the organization has no HR function,
managers and supervisors recruit their own employees.

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 Decision: Who Does the Recruiting
and Makes the Final Hiring Decision?
• Regardless of who does the recruiting, they must have a
good understanding of the knowledge, skills, abilities,
experiences, and other characteristics required for the job
and be personable, enthusiastic, and competent.
Recruiters can often enhance the perceived
attractiveness of a job and an organization—or detract
from it. They are often a major reason why applicants
select one organization over another.

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CONTINUE PART 2

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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QopNpIcerw

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 5.2 External and
Internal Recruiting Methods
 The two primary locations in which to find
candidates are those external to the firm
(external candidates) and those internal to the
firm (internal candidates), each of which are
recruited somewhat differently.

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 Figure 5.2:
Sources of External Recruitment

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 5.2a External Recruiting Methods
(slide 1 of 6)

Advertisements
 Advertising can reach a large audience of possible applicants.
 Preparing recruiting advertisements not only is time consuming; it requires
creativity in terms of developing their design and message content.
 Websites, social media, newspaper…

Walk-Ins and Unsolicited Applications and Résumés

 It is often believed that individuals who contact employers on their own
initiative will be better employees than those recruited through ads.

The Internet
 Looking on the Internet is the most commonly used search tactic by
jobseekers and recruiters to connect with one another.
 Both companies and applicants find the Internet cheaper, faster, and
potentially more effective.
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 5.2a External Recruiting Methods
(slide 2 of 6)

Social Media
 Firms are utilizing social media websites (e.g., Facebook, LinkedIn) to
recruit employees.
 Passive jobseekers – People who are not looking for jobs but could be
persuaded to take new ones given the right opportunity

Mobile Recruiting
 Mobile recruiting – The process of recruiting candidates via their mobile
devices

Job Fairs
 At a job fair companies and their recruiters set up booths, meet with
prospective applicants, and exchange employment information.
 Virtual job fair – Job fairs conducted online

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 5.2a External Recruiting Methods
(slide 3 of 6)

Employee Referrals
 Word-of-mouth recommendations are the way most job positions are
filled.
 Research findings:
 Employee referrals are the best source of applicants.
 Referred employees have higher retention rates than those who are not
referred and are hired in less than half the time as other candidates.
 Once hired, applicants referred by an employee tend to remain with the
organization longer.
 Negative factors:
 Corporate “inbreeding” – Occurs when firms hire employees similar to
those who provided the referrals and thereby discriminate against
protected classes
 Nepotism – A preference for hiring the relatives of current employees

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 5.2a External Recruiting Methods
(slide 4 of 6)

Re-recruiting
 Re-recruiting – The process of keeping track of and maintaining
relationships with former employees to see if they would be willing to return
to the firm

Executive Search Firms

 In contrast to public and private employment agencies, which help
jobseekers find the right job, executive search firms (often called
“headhunters”) help employers find the right person for a job.

Educational Institutions
 High schools and community colleges
 Work-study programs
 Internships

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 5.2b Internal Recruiting Methods
(slide 1 of 2)

 Most companies try initially to fill job vacancies above the entry-level
position through promotions and transfers.
 Promoting employees rewards them for their past performance and
encourages them to continue their efforts, which in turn can improve
morale within the organization and support a culture of employee
engagement.
 Research suggests that internal candidates are likely to outperform
external candidates.
 When qualified employees are passed over for external candidates,
a firm’s current employees can become disillusioned to the point
where they begin looking elsewhere for jobs.
 When experienced employees leave an organization, they take with
them years of corporate knowhow that is hard to replace.

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 5.2b Internal Recruiting Methods
(slide 2 of 2)

Internal Job Postings

 Bulletin boards
 Intranets

Identifying Talent through Performance Appraisals

 Nine-box grid – A comparative diagram that includes appraisal and
assessment data to allow managers to easily see an employee’s actual and
potential performance.

Skills Inventories and Replacement Charts

 Skills inventories – Track an employee’s education, past work experience,
vocational interests, specific abilities and skills, compensation history, and
job tenure to see how they can best be used
 Replacement charts – Used for succession planning

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6.1 Overview of the Selection Process
 Selection – The process of choosing individuals
who are qualified to fill existing or protected job
openings

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 6.1a Begin with a Job Analysis
 Job specifications help identify the competencies
employees need for success—the knowledge, skills,
abilities, and other factors (KSAOs) that lead to superior
performance.
 Managers then use selection methods such as interviews,
references, and preemployment tests to measure applicants’
KSAOs against the competencies required for the job.
 Complete and clear job specifications help interviewers
differentiate between qualified and unqualified applicants and
reduce the effect of an interviewer’s biases and prejudices.
 Applicants whose KSAOs are well matched to the jobs they are
hired for are also found to perform better and be more satisfied.

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 6.1b Steps in the Selection Process
 The steps in the selection process and their sequence
will vary, not only with the organization, but also with the
type of job being filled.
 Organizations gather information about applicants in a
number of ways:
 Résumés
 Applications
 Interviews
 Tests
 Medical examinations
 Background and other checks

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 Figure 6.2:
Steps in the Selection Process

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 6.2 Initial Screening
 Before you interview applicants for a job, you
first want to screen out people who aren’t
qualified for the job in order to save time and
money.

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 6.2a Initial Screening Methods
 Cover letters and résumés
 Internet checks
 Phone and video screening
 Video résumés – Short video clips that highlight
applicants’ qualifications beyond what they can
communicate on their résumés
 Application forms

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 6.3 Employment Interviews
 Even though they are plagued by subjectivity
and have shown to be poor predictors of
performance, employment interviews are almost
always utilized in the selection process.
 Firms continue to use interviews because:
 They are practical when there are only a small number of
applicants.
 They serve other purposes, such as public relations.

 Interviewers trust their judgments when it comes to making

decisions about which candidates to choose.

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Figure 6.4: Variables in the
Employment Interview

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 6.3a Types of Interviews
 Nondirective interview – An interview in which the applicant is allowed the
maximum amount of freedom in determining the course of the discussion,
while the interviewer carefully refrains from influencing the applicant’s
remarks
 Structured interview – An interview in which a set of standardized
questions having an established set of answers is used
 Situational interview – An interview in which an applicant is given a
hypothetical incident and asked how he or she would respond to it
 Behavioral description interview (BDI) – An interview in which an
applicant is asked questions about what he or she actually did in a given
situation
 Sequential interview – A format in which a candidate is interviewed by
multiple people, one right after another
 Panel interview – An interview in which a board of interviewers questions
and observes a single candidate

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 6.3b Methods for
Administering Interviews
Video and Phone Interviews
 Video interviews – Interviews conducted via videoconferencing or
over the Web
 Video and phone interviews make it easier to interview people in
different geographic areas, thereby expanding the talent pool.

Computer-Administered (Automated) Interviews

 Computer-administered (automated) interview – Interviews in
which the questions are administered to applicants via computers.
The interviews can be conducted at a firm’s facilities, using kiosks,
online, or via phone
 Drawback:
 Recruiters and managers can’t immediately ask candidates follow-up
questions based on their answers.
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 6.4 Post-Interview Screening
 After a candidate has been interviewed and
appears to be a good potential new hire,
information about the person’s previous
employment as well as other information
provided by the applicant is investigated.

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 6.4a Reference Checks
 Organizations check the references of
employees in a number of ways.
 Phone checks
 Former employers
 Prior to checking a candidate’s references, the
candidate must complete forms permitting
information to be solicited from former
employers and other reference sources.

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 6.4b Background Checks
 Negligent hiring – The failure of an organization to
discover, via due diligence, that an employee it hired had
the propensity to do harm to others
 To run background checks, firms must obtain clear and
conspicuous written consent from applicants beforehand.
 Applicants must also be told if the information uncovered
is going to be used to deny their employment; they must
be given a copy of the report(s), the right to dispute it
(them), and time to do so.

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 6.5 Preemployment Tests
 Preemployment test – An objective and
standardized test used to gauge a person’s
knowledge, skills, abilities, and other
characteristics (KSAOs) relative to other
individuals
 Drawback:
 They create the potential for legal challenges by
applicants claiming the tests they took were
discriminatory.

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 6.5a Types of Tests (slide 1 of 3)
Job Knowledge Tests
 Job knowledge tests are achievement tests designed to measure
people’s level of understanding, or knowledge, about a particular job.

Work Sample Tests

 Work sample tests, or job sample tests, require the applicant to
perform tasks that are part of the work required on the job.

Assessment Center Tests

 Assessment center test – A process by which managerial
candidates are evaluated at an assessment center as they
participate in a series of situations that resemble what they might
need to handle on the job
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 6.5a Types of Tests (slide 2 of 3)
Cognitive Ability Tests
 Cognitive ability tests measure mental capabilities such as general
intelligence, verbal fluency, numerical ability, and reasoning ability.

Biographical Data (Biodata) Tests

 Biological data tests (biodata tests) collect biographical information
about candidates who have shown to correlate with on-the-job
success.

Personality and Interest Inventories

 Personality tests have been found to be good predictors of
applicants’ motivation, such as their leadership efforts and
propensity to adhere to rules.
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 6.5a Types of Tests (slide 3 of 3)
Physical Ability Tests
 For some jobs, such as firefighters and police officers, employers need to
assess a person’s physical abilities.

Medical Examinations
 The law prohibits a medical examination being administered to an applicant
before he or she has been made a conditional employment offer and agreed
to undergo it.

Drug Tests
 Different states have different laws regarding drug testing.
 A candidate can refuse to take a drug test, but that is tantamount to turning
down the job.
 There are mixed results regarding the effectiveness of drug testing.

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 6.6 Reaching a Selection Decision
 There are various approaches you can use to
weigh all of the information about the candidates
so as to make a final decision.

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 6.6 Final Decision
 In large organizations, managers or supervisors usually make the
final decision about whom to hire, and communicate it to the human
resources (HR) department, who then notify the candidate about the
decision and make a job offer.
 The HR department should confirm the details of the job, working
arrangements, hours, wages, and so on and specify a deadline by which
the applicant must reach a decision.
 For internal candidates, generally, the hiring manager contacts the
candidates personally and informs them of the decision.
 For both external and internal candidates, it is important to put the
offer in writing so there is no ambiguity or dispute about its terms.
 Organizations should not fail to notify candidates who are not
chosen for the position.

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