SELECTION

“The selection and recruitment process is concerned with identifying, attracting and choosing suitable people to meet an organisation’s human resource requirements.” Beardwell, I., Holden, L. and Claydon, T. (2004)

There are many techniques of selection which could be used in organisations. First, and probably the most common is to Interview potential candidates. An interview is a conversation between the interviewer and applicant. The interviewer asks questions to obtain required information about the applicant and determine if this person is suitable for the job.  The main advantage of interviews is that the interviewer can meet and talk with a candidate in person; this assures that the responses are from the person intended.  One of the disadvantages is that job interviews can be time consuming, it takes a while to obtain the required information and make sure that the right person has been chosen. If there are a large number of applicants then this disadvantage becomes even greater and sometimes interviewing every applicant can be an unrealistic task.

( picture taken from http://www.businesspundit.com/the-ten-worst-job-interview-questions-ever/)

 A telephone interview can also be used as a part of the selection process (especially for jobs in call centres). The advantage of a telephone interview is that it can also be used to shortlist candidates for a face-to-face interview. Telephone interviews can be quicker and easier to arrange and provide less opportunity to discriminate on grounds of race, age etc. This technique of selection also has some disadvantages. One of them is that the interviewers could be biased against people with a particular manner or accent.

The use of an assessment centres is a process that consists of a small group of applicants that undertake tests and exercises under observation. This technique is usually used by large companies. The use of an assessment centre allows organisations to observe the behaviour of a candidate in a work related setting.  Unfortunately, they can be also very expensive and take a lot of time to organised, another disadvantage the likelihood of competition between applicants. The idea of competing with each other might make the candidates nervous and insecure.

One interview I had was for the position of Sales Assistant in Leroy Merlin. It was a one-to-one interview with the Human Resource Manager, Caroline. First of all, she went through my CV and cover letter. Afterwards I was asked some questions related to my life, work experience, education, plans and skills. I was also set with a few problem solving tasks. For example I had to explain how I would deal with uncomfortable situations or how I would you deal with unpleasant clients etc. At the end I had to act out a small role play, me in the role of a sales assistant and the interviewer as an impolite customer. I think that interview was very effective. The interviewer was very nice and friendly and this made me feel relaxed, comfortable and more confident. She made the interview as easy as a normal conversation with a friend. Following the interview I was offered the job.

I believe it is important to carry out an interview in a friendly, stress-free way. Being nervous, worried and stressed does not help candidates. There are many people who cannot deal with stress very well. Also it might have a big influence on their performance in the interview.

To improve the selection process in my own organisation, I would put some additional methods into the system. Instead of carrying out only common techniques like interviews, assessment centres or references, I would like to try to add a new technique called Graphology, which is not widely used in UK. This method is based on the idea that handwriting analysis is very important and could reveal personal traits and characteristics. An organisation takes a writing sample provided by a candidate, and proceeds to do a personality profile, matching the congruency of the applicant with the ideal psychological profile of employees in the position. A graphological report is then used in conjunction with other tools, such as comprehensive background checks, practical demonstration or a record of work skills.  Although this technique has been criticised and is not very popular, I think it is a useful additional tool, it could help the organisation to get to know candidates and their personalities.

In conclusion, different organisations use different selection methods to choose the right people. Every method has many pros and cons. Some of them are easy to falsify, allowing applicants to create a personality that the organisation would favour (personality tests) and some of them are not (interviews). In an effort to avoid this in my own organisation, I would utilise different methods of selection for all shortlisted candidates.

References:

-         Beardwell, I., Holden, L. and Claydon, T. (2004) Human Resource Management: A Contemporary Approach. Forth Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

-         Foot, M. and Hook, C. (2008) Introducing Human Resource Management. Fifth Edition. Harlow: Pearson Education Limited.

-         Uwex.edu (2011) [Online], Available at: http://www.uwex.edu/ces/tobaccoeval/pdf/ProConInt.pdf [Accessed: 10th April 2011]

-         Wikipedia (2011) [Online], Available at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graphology#Employment_profiling [Accessed: 10^th April 2011]