Selection

Recruiting and Selecting Employees

Course: HADM 3750
Semester: Fall Semester 2025

Pre-Recruitment Activities

  • Avoid rushing into recruitment without proper planning.

  • Recruitment Planning:

    • Review job analysis, descriptions, and specifications.

    • Identify and review applicable hiring laws and regulations.

    • Gather competitor intelligence and understand community dynamics.

    • Define the message for applicants, including club culture, competitive positioning, and job offerings.

The Pre-Recruitment Process

  1. Decide whether to recruit internally, externally, or through both channels.

  2. Determine the locations for recruitment based on previously identified factors.

  3. Select recruiters who will be involved in the process.

  4. Choose and implement specific recruitment strategies and methods.

  5. Establish criteria for evaluating applicants.

  6. Establish criteria for recruiting methods used.

Developing an Employee Marketing Plan

  • Key considerations:

    • Why would someone be attracted to work at your organization?

    • Describe the work environment your business provides.

    • Outline the benefits available to employees.

    • Compare your organization's competitive stance against other employers.

    • Identify the specific recruitment messages relevant to your target markets.

The Importance of a Job Analysis

  • Job analysis results can be leveraged for:

    • Human Resource Planning

    • Recruitment

    • Selection

    • Placement

    • Promotion

    • Career Path Planning

    • Safety Issues

    • Serving as a defense against EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) charges.

Steps Involved in Analyzing Jobs

  1. Select jobs that are to be analyzed.

  2. Determine the types of information that need to be collected.

  3. Establish methods for collecting information.

  4. Designate personnel to collect the information.

  5. Process the collected information.

  6. Write detailed job descriptions.

  7. Write concise job specifications.

Physical and Working Conditions

  • Physical demands could include:

    • Standing

    • Sitting

    • Talking

    • Walking

    • Lifting: specify maximum weight

    • Carrying: specify maximum weight

    • Pushing: specify maximum weight

    • Pulling: specify maximum weight

    • Climbing, kneeling, reaching, speaking, and hearing.

  • Working Conditions:

    • Describe conditions such as extreme temperatures (hot/cold), noise levels, and workplace heights.

  • Minimum Hiring Requirements:

    • Include substantiated qualifications like education, specific skills, and experience level.

    • List any special licenses, permits, or certifications required.

Essential Job Functions

  • Determine the essential functions of each job position based on the following criteria:

    • Whether the position exists to perform the function.

    • Limitations in the number of employees available to perform tasks.

    • Amount of time spent on tasks.

    • Consequences for allowing an employee to skip the task.

    • Level of skill or expertise required.

    • Previous work experience of employees performing similar tasks.

Developing Job Descriptions & Job Specifications

  • Job Descriptions:

    • Summarize job duties, responsibilities, working conditions, and activities.

    • Include elements like job identification data, job summary, and job duties.

  • Job Specifications:

    • Outline qualifications required to perform the job, including training, education, skills, experience, and personal characteristics (mental/physical).

Planning and Recruiting

  • Two general approaches to forecasting labor demand:

  1. Bottom-Up Forecasting:

    • Based on the intuitive insights from managers and the direct experience of operational needs.

  2. Top-Down Forecasting:

    • Relies on quantitative or statistical data, analyzing trends and projections for labor needs.

Techniques Used to Forecast Internal Supply of Labor

  • Utilize Skills Inventories: track employee skills and competencies.

  • Consider potential changes due to promotions, layoffs, and retirements.

  • Deploy Replacement and Succession Charts to visualize future organizational needs.

  • Develop Management Succession Plans to prepare for leadership transitions.

Advantages of Internal Recruiting

  • Benefits include:

    • Enhances morale among promoted staff.

    • Provides career advancement visibility for existing employees, boosting morale.

    • Allows better assessment of candidates' abilities.

    • Reduces recruitment costs, including training expenses.

Disadvantages of Internal Recruiting

  • Risks "inbreeding", morale issues for non-promoted staff, political complications, and creating new departmental gaps.

Advantages of External Recruiting

  • Introduces fresh perspectives, can be more cost-effective, avoids internal political issues, and serves as an organizational advertisement.

Disadvantages of External Recruiting

  • Challenges include finding a cultural fit, potential morale issues for current employees, and longer orientation times affecting productivity.

Evaluating Recruitment Sources & Methods

  • A critical determinant of recruiting success is the rate of applicants hired from each source relative to the costs incurred.

  • Managers should maintain detailed records of each recruitment method for assessment purposes, including:

    • Costs incurred (dollars spent).

    • Time spent on the recruitment process.

Application Forms/Pre-Employment Tests

  • Purpose: To investigate the applicant’s past experiences.

  • Typical inclusions are:

    • Previous work experience.

    • Educational background.

    • Employment history.

    • Work and personal references.

    • Other pertinent personal data.

Lawful or Unlawful?

  • Questions that may be considered unlawful include:

    • Work history under a different name (LU)

    • National origin (LU)

    • Age queries (e.g., Are you 18 or older) (LU)

    • Graduation details (LU)

    • Marital status (LU)

    • Spousal information (LU)

    • Childcare status (LU)

    • Citizenship status (LU)

Further Unlawful Questions

  • Other potentially problematic queries include:

    • Arrest records (LU)

    • Criminal convictions (LU)

    • Relatives employed by the organization (LU)

    • Memberships in certain organizations (LU)

    • Disability information (LU)

    • Prior work-related accidents (LU)

    • Availability for work (LU)

Areas on Application Forms and Resumes to Follow-up on in Interviews

  • Focus on:

    • Gaps in employment or education history.

    • Frequent job changes within short time frames.

    • Any unaddressed areas on the application form.

    • Requests not to contact former employers.

Types of Application Forms

  • Bona Fide Occupational Qualifications: Relevant qualifications that are essential for job performance.

  • Weighted Application Blanks: Designed to pinpoint factors that are significant for job performance.

  • Biographical Information Blanks (Biodata forms): Capture factual material, attitudes, life events, and social values but may lead to unverifiable responses.

Types of Interviews

  1. Unstructured Interviews:

    • No fixed set of questions and allows for spontaneous dialogue.

  2. Semi-Structured Interviews:

    • Combines both structured and free-form questions for flexibility.

  3. Structured Interviews:

    • Follows a set sequence of predetermined questions for consistency.

Types of Interview Questions

  1. Closed-Ended Questions:

    • Can be answered with a simple "yes" or "no."

  2. Open-Ended Questions:

    • Encourage detailed responses and deeper engagement from the interviewee.

Selection Strategies

  • Multiple Hurdles:

    • Allows for the elimination of candidates at each stage of the selection process.

  • Compensatory Strategy:

    • Assumes strengths in one area may offset weaknesses in another, evaluating overall candidate suitability.

Behavioral Interviewing

  • Focus on open-ended, probing questions that assess past behaviors as indicators of future performance.

  • Example Questions:

    • “Do you enjoy working with individuals?”

    • “What do you believe constitutes excellent service in a restaurant?”

    • “Describe a situation where you turned a dissatisfied guest into a satisfied one.”

Selecting the Best Questions

  • Evaluate the effectiveness of interview questions:

    • Poor: “Did you ever have a problem with co-workers?”

    • Better: “What qualities do you think are crucial in a strong team member?”

    • Best: “Detail a stressful day at work. What occurred, and how did you respond?”

Phases of Interviewing

  1. Preparation Stage:

    • Familiarize yourself with job description and specifications.

    • Review legal guidelines related to the hiring process.

    • Plan specific interview questions.

  2. Allocate sufficient time and ensure a private setting for the interview.

  3. Warmly greet the applicant and establish rapport.

  4. Outline the topics to be covered in the interview.

Conducting the Interview

  1. Extract information from the applicant.

  2. Provide the candidate with information about the job and organization.

  3. Allow time for specific questions from the candidate.

  4. Close the interview and evaluate the applicant based on pre-set criteria.

Should You Conduct Testing?

  • Key considerations for testing include:

    • Test relevancy to bona fide occupational qualifications.

    • Demonstrated validity of the tests.

    • Ensuring non-discrimination against protected groups.

    • Consistent application within the job role.

Other Employee Screening Essentials

  • Conduct thorough Reference Checks:

    • Follow the principle of fairness without undue bias (“Ask unto others what you should not answer”).

    • Reference checks demonstrate commitment to reasonable hiring standards.

    • Criminal Background Checks:

    • If issues arise, assess context by examining the timeline, nature of offenses, including convictions and consequences.

Selection Errors and Biases

  • Common Errors Include:

    • Similarity Error: Favoring candidates who are similar to the interviewer.

    • Contrast Error: Effects of recent candidates affecting judgments on current candidates.

    • Overweighing Negative Information: Giving undue importance to negative feedback over positive.

    • Biases related to Race, Sex, and Age.

    • First Impression Error: Judgements based on initial impressions.

    • Halo Effect: Letting one positive quality color the overall evaluation.

    • Devil’s Horns: Negative qualities disproportionately influencing overall assessment.

    • Recency Errors: Evaluations based on recent rather than overall performance data.

    • Interviewer Domination: When interviewers control the discussion overly, hindering applicant expression.

Evaluation of Selection Practices

  • Reliability:

    • Refers to the consistency and dependability of a selection process over time.

    • A reliable selection method should yield the same results consistently across different applications.

  • Validity:

    • Measures the degree to which a selection process accurately reflects its intended purpose.

    • Types of validity include:

    • Criterion-Related Validity: Associates selection performance with actual job outcomes.

    • Content Validity: Ensures the selection method covers all relevant domains pertinent to the job.

Other Sources of Employees

  • Temp Agencies:

    • Important considerations before engaging temp agencies include:

    • Their employee selection processes.

    • The interview process followed.

    • Record-keeping practices, including 1-9 records.

    • Reference and background checks conducted.

    • Drug screening policies.

    • Methods for assessing employee performance.

Additional Topics

  • Outsourcing:

    • Discuss the implications and strategies of outsourcing recruitment.

  • Negligent Hiring:

    • Understand the legal and ethical responsibilities related to hiring practices.