EM PLOYEE SELECTION PRINCIPLES AND TECHNIQUES

Organizational EntryYour entry into organization is immense importance not only for the immediate satisfaction it may bring you but also for your long term contentment. You as the nature of your first love affair will affect your subsequent emotional relationships, so your first job experience will affect your work performance and your expectations about your career.

Research has shown that people who demonstrate success early in their career are more likely to be promoted than those who are less successful early in their career. In other words, employees who start out well, who have positive experiences in their initial stages of their working life, continue to do well.

The amount of challenge your first job provides influences your commitment to your work, your level of achievement, and your motivation to do well for yourself and for your company. The positive impact of challenging job stimulate a high level of performance and technical competence that can lead to continued success for employees in a variety of occupations in many different organizations.

Finding the right amount of challenge is of major importance in your organizational entry process. It is vital that the challenge offered by your first job be compatible with your expectations and preferences. Indeed, it is crucial to you and your employer that everything about your initial job comes close to satisfying your needs. That is why employer tries to learn all they can about the expectations and interests of potential employees.

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Employee Preferences:

What are you looking for in a job? High salary? Stock options? A comprehensive health insurance plan? A reserved parking space? Although it may be easy to identify the single most important factor for you as an individual, there is no single answer for all employees, I-O psychologist have identified several job characteristics likely to be important to employees. Some of these are listed below.

How do you rank them for yourself?

Challenging, interesting, and meaningful work High salary Opportunity for advancement Job security Company stock options Satisfactory working hours Pleasant working conditions Compatible co-worker Sign of respect and appreciation from one’s boss Opportunity to learn new skills Fair and loyal supervisor Being asked one’s opinion on work issues Assistance with personal problems

An online survey of 869 college students from more than 50 schools found that challenging work was the most desirable factor mentioned in choosing a job .an online recruiting service, conducted the survey in the year 2000.other factors important to the students were training for advancement, compatible colleagues and supervisors, appropriate salary, stock option and being allowed to dress casually on the job.

A survey of 359 collage seniors revealed significant preferences about the size of the organization. Nearly 75% of the students wanted to work for large companies

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– defined as those with more than 1000 employees –whereas only 25% would prefer to work for small companies employing fewer than 500 workers.

Another factor that effect employees preference is level of education college graduates have high expectations than high school graduates .who intern different preferences from those who did not complete high school .not all the college graduate engineering and computer science major differ from liberal art matters and a student differ from c student s younger workers preference differ from than of old worker .white collar workers from blue collar worker ,and technical personal from managerial personnel.

Employee preference change as function of economic condition in an economic down turn when job are scarce new employees in the job market may be more interested in pay and job security .in a robust economic climate when jobs are plentiful, issues such as challenging work or the opportunity to develop new skills rank higher than security or salary.

Many people enter an organization with unrealistic or inflated expectations about the nature of the job and the company, which explain why so many people leave their first job .The discrepancy between expectations and reality too great. Expectations begin with reality from outset, when you have your first contact with a potential employer, typically at your initial meeting with the company recruiter. This marks the first opportunity for each to size up the other, and it is an important step in the preselecting process of organizational entry.

The recruitment process:I-O Psychologists are concerned with several issues in the recruitment process: the source employees use to find out about jobs the characteristics of recruiter college campus recruiting and the kinds of information provided to job applicant.

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Source of recruiting:The traditional recruiting sources available to organization include online search services, help wanted ads and newspaper referral from current employees, employment agencies, search services, placement services of professional association, job fairs and out placement agencies and other popular source of recruiting college campus. Almost half of all large corporations actively recruit managerial and professional employees through on campus interviews.

Online recruiting is popular with majority of medium size and larger employer’s .Electronic bulletin boards post company advertisements foe available positions and job seekers post their resumes .The use of online source speeds up the entire recruitment and personnel selection process.

Recruiter Characteristics:The behavior and personal characteristics of company recruiters can have a significant impact how collage seniors choose their first job .Psychologists have found that characteristics likely to induce graduating seniors to accept a job offer include behaviors such as smiling, nodding, maintaining eye contact, demonstrating empathy and warmth and showing thoughtfulness.

Other research on job applicants at on campus placement centers showed that collage seniors preferred recruiters to spend the interview period providing information about the company. Soliciting information about the applicant, and answering the applicant’s questions. When the collage seniors thought that corporate recruiters were spending too much time talking about irrelevant topics, they were significantly less likely to accept a job offer.

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Campus recruiting:Collage recruiting may not be living potential, and companies may not be realizing full value from their recruitment programs. one explanation for this finding is that fewer than half of corporate recruiters receive training in the proper techniques for interviewing job applicants .Recruiters tend to form a positive or negative impression about an applicant’s qualifications in the first few minutes of an interview, hardly sufficient time to collect information on which to base recruiting decision .

Whether collage recruiting is face to face or virtual, one major difficulty faced by corporate recruiters on campuses finding job candidates who have realistic review of business world this is another reason why collage recruiter often produce less than satisfactory result during the campus recruitment interview many student obtain the false picture of job and organization .some time because they have had no experience in corporate life and therefore what question ask by the recruiter. they want to make a good impression and may try to hide attitudes and characteristics they think the recruiters might not like another reason for the misleading match is the fault of the recruiters their goal is to find people for the promise the company and to accomplish this they may paint their an idealize picture of their organization and of the new graduates first job in it.

Realistic job preview:Realistic job preview gives you information accurate as possible about all aspect of job .such information can be provided through broachers and through a film video tape.

The purpose of realistic is to acquaint perspective implies with both positive and negative aspect of the job .the hope is that this practice will reduce overly optimistic and unrealistic expectations what the job involves.

The realistic job preview gives you the information about positive and negative aspect the job.

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A REVIEW ON THE SELECTION PROCESS

There is more to proper selection methodology than placing an ad in the news-paper or with an online search service, having people come to the office to fill out an application blank, and questioning them in brief interview. A successful selection program involves several additional procedures. Let’s suppose that the head of the human resources department is told that 200 new employees must be hired to operate the complex machinery that is being installed to produce fax machines. How will these workers be found?

Job and Work Analyses:Ideally, the first step is for I-O psychologist to investigate the nature of the job. The organization will not know what abilities potential employees should have unless it can describe in detail what they are expected to do to perform the job effectively. A process called job analyses is undertaken to determine the specific skills necessary to the job. Form the job analyses; a profile of worker qualification can be developed.

The purpose of job analyses is to describe in specific term the nature of the component tasks performed by workers on a particular job. A job analyses in the education and training about the tools or equipment used, the operation performed, the education training required, the wages paid, and any unique aspects of the job such as safety hazards.

Work analyses:It is important to note that many I-O psychologist practitioners prefer to use term work analyses instead of job analyses. Work analyses focuses on certain tasks and skills that can be transferred from one job to another. In today’s job market,

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employees must develop and continue to reline a diverse package of skills that they can apply to different jobs. Unlike working in previous generations, employees in the twenty-first century do not expect to spend their working lives performing routine repetitive tasks.

We mentioned earlier the value of job and work analyses in employee’s selection. Unless the company knows precisely what a job entails and what is required for successful performance of these tasks, it will have no way of knowing what qualities to seek in application for that job.

O*NET:I-O psychologists have devised a number of techniques for conducting job and work analyses. One approach is to refer to previously compiled analyses. The U.S Department of labor has developed the Occupational Information network (O*NET), a database that summarizes such information. It defines, classifies, and describes a variety of occupations. This online database is updated frequently to provide employers with examples and analyses of the knowledge, skills and abilities employees need to perform these jobs. In general O*NET provides the following information for each job.

Personal requirements:

The skills and knowledge required to perform the work.

Personal characteristics:

The abilities, interests, and values needed to perform the work.

Experience Requirements:

The training and level of licensing and experience needed for the work.

Job Requirements:

The work activities and context, including the physical, social and organizational factors involved in the work.

Labor market:The occupational outlook and pay scales for the work.

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OTHER TECHNIQUES:Other techniques for conducting job and work analyses for specific jobs including interviews, questionnaires, Direct Observations, Activity logs, and critical incidents.

Interviews:The use of interviews for job and work analyses involves extensive meetings with the persons directly connected with job (the so called “subject matter experts”). These include the workers performing the job. Job analyses may supplement interviews with questionnaires.

Questionnaires:Two types of questionnaires are used in job analyses: the unstructured questionnaire and structured questionnaires. In structured questionnaire or open-end approach, the subject matter experts (workers, supervisors, and trainers) describe in their own words the components of job and the tasks to be performed.

When the structured questionnaire approach used, the people being interviewed are provided with descriptions of tasks, operations, working conditions and are asked to rate the items or to select those items that characterize the job.

Direct Observation:A third approach to job and work analyses is the direct observation of workers as they perform their jobs. Because people may behave differently when they know they are being watched, it is necessary for the job analysts to remain as unobtrusive as possible.

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Systematic activity Logs:With systematic activity logs, workers and supervisors maintain detailed written records of their activities during a given period. If prepared with care, these logs can reveal details about a job that are not otherwise obtainable.

Critical Incidents:The critical-incidents technique is based on the identification of those incidents or behaviors that are necessary to successful job performance. The goal is to have subject matter experts indicate the behaviors that distinguish good from poor workers. The critical-incidents techniques focuses on specific actions that lead to desirable or undesirable consequences on the job. A single critical incident id of little value, but hundreds of them can effectively describe the unique behavio5rs required to perform the job well.

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INTERVIEWAn interview is a conversation between two or more people (the interviewer and the interviewee) where questions are asked by the interviewer to obtain information from the interviewee. Discuss formally with (somebody) for the purpose of an evaluation; "We interviewed the job candidates. The personal interview is a widely used employee selection technique. Regardless of any other techniques that are part of an organization`s selection program almost every perspective employer want the chance to meet an applicant in person before making the offer of a job.it also offer the opportunities for candidates, if they ask the right question, to determine whether the company and the job are right for them.

FIRST IMPRESSION:First impression (known as primae impressionis in Latin) is a legal case in which there is no binding authority on the matter presented. Such a case can set forth a completely original issue of law for decision by the courts. A first impression case may be a first impression in only a particular jurisdiction. In that situation, courts will look to holdings of other jurisdictions for persuasive authority.

The impression you make during an interview will be a decisive factor in whether the organization offer you a job. I-O psychology research has shown that interviewer’s assessment of job applicant are often influenced more by their subjective impression of applicant than by such specific as work history, academic qualification or extracurricular activities.thus.it is difficult for an organization to verify certain kinds of information provided on an applicant blank.

BIOGRAPHICAL INVENTORIES:Biographical inventory, or biographical information blank, is a more systemized form of application blank. Techniques for scoring application forms or biographical questionnaires to be used for selection of applicants. The questions

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included in the Biographical Inventory ask for information about you and your background. These kinds of questions are often asked during an oral interview. For years, employers have been using interviews to relate personal history, preferences, and attitudes to job success. This Biographical Inventory attempts to do the same and includes questions which have been shown to be related to job success. It has been found that successful employees tend to select some answers more often than other answers, while less successful employees tend to select different answers. The questions in the biographical inventory do not have a single correct answer. Every choice is given some credit. More credit is given for answers selected more often by successful employees.

So, the process of validating the items on biographical inventory is similar to that for any selection technique, each item must be correlated with a measure of job performance.

KINDS OF INTERVIEWS: STANDARD OR UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW

PATTERNED OR STRUCTURED INTERVIEW

SITUATIONAL INTERVIEW

ONLINE INTERVIEW

UNSTRUCTURED INTERVIEW:It can be explain as an interview which doesn’t contain any structure or format to follow the question. Unstructured Interviews are a method of interviews where questions can be changed or adapted to meet the respondent's intelligence, understanding or belief. Unlike a structured interview they do not offer a limited, pre-set range of answers for a respondent to choose the method to gather information using this technique is fairly limited, for example most surveys that is carried out via telephone or even in person tends to follow a structured method. Outside of sociology the use of such interviews is very limited.

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STRUCTURED INTERVIEW:Structured interview is most relevant and more reliable interview. Sometimes referred to as a patterned interview, the structured interview is very straightforward. The interviewer has a standard set of questions that are asked of all candidates. This makes it easier for the interviewer to evaluate and compare candidates fairly. The main purpose of a structured interview is to pinpoint job skills that are essential to the position. There are two possible ways to carry out the structured interview:

1. Asking a set of questions of each and every candidate in a one-on-one interview.

2. Having each and every candidate fill out a questionnaire form.

If you are a candidate, be cognizant of the fact that these questions are prepared in advance and will be asked, or have already been asked, of other candidates so that the answers may be compared.

Research has shown that structured can be as valid predictor of job success as cognitive ability test. Structured are high in reliability as well.

SITUATIONAL INTERVIEW:It is a very unique kind of interview in this type of interview personal characteristic and past experience is not the influencing factor. It’s a very common interview technique. Job applicants need to be aware of the methods, and deal with the questions through preparation.

Interview questions:

Some questions are standard:

* Describe a situation where your communication skills were important in dealing with the problem?

* Describe a situation where you had to deal with a difficult customer?

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* Describe a situation where your mediation and conflict resolution skills solved a problem?

Obviously, these questions are targeting specific skills. There’s a variation on this approach, which is more generalized.

Some of the questions sound similar, but they’re not. Always listen to how a question is phrased.

* Describe how you solved a difficult problem?

*Describe what you did to deal with a customer complaint? Tell us how you manage your workload?

Because the “problem solving” question itself deals with a situation, the applicant must first explain the situation, which requires communication, a description and of both the problem and the solution. It’s an actually a multiple question.

ONLINE INTERVIEWS:An online interview is a form of online research method. Researchers could also consider the relative merits of telephone interviews with those of online interviews.

In this fast paced world, it has become necessary for companies who are hiring to speed up the recruitment process while keeping costs under check. Employers are looking out for newer options to accelerate their employment drives. With advancement and continuous development of technology, hiring processes have undergone tremendous metamorphosis.

Companies are increasingly relying on various technological tools while conducting interviews. These tools enable employers to carry out hiring procedures with minimum efforts and maximum outcome. Initial investments may be heavy but when compared with the benefits these tools reap; it is an incredible option to consider in the long run. Online interviews are one such kind of a tool that companies are resorting to.

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Online interviews are cheap, effective, efficient and a long term option available for employers while recruiting.

Online interviews bridge the gap between the interviewer and interviewee in terms of distance between the two parties. A qualified candidate can still apply to a company that is based across the continent.

A small variation in chat sessions could be by introducing video interviewing as well. Video conferencing kits are set up at the company's local branch where candidates are asked to appear for an interview. However, since online video interviews require candidates to face the interviewer, it is advisable to dress up formally.

Online interview are now conducted routinely by target, MACY`S home depot and other large retailing chains.

INFLUENCE ON INTERVIEWR JUDGMENT:We discuss three factor that can bias an interviewer`s judgment about a job applicant:

Prior information

The contrast effect, and

Interviewers` prejudices.

PRIOR INFORMATION:Interviewer generally have some information about job applicant, such as application blank ,online screening or psychological test the value of prior information is to suggest the whether the candidates is fit for the job or interviewer have generally favorable or unfavorable behavior toward the candidate.

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In one study 90 interviewer from 54 companies conducted on interview campus some of the applicant had been prescreen and some had not and prescreen applicant are more recommended as compare to unscreened applicant. Interviewer favors the applicant who had passed preliminary recruitment over the candidate who have selected by lottery.

Thus, interviewers may prejudge applicant who display certain quality or traits and refuse to consider their other abilities or characteristic. They may also recommend hiring some applicant merely because they display some quality the interviewers like, such as a shared interest in baseball even though it may bear no relation to job performance.

HALO EFFECT:The tendency to judge all aspect of a person`s behavior or character on the basis of single attribute.

"THUS THE INTERVIEW IS AN ART WHICH IS OBTAIN BY EMPLOYEE TO CHECK

THAT THE EMPLOYE PROVE TO BE AN ASSET OR NOT"

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