HUMAN RESOURCE

MANAGEMENT

Prepared by: Teresa Dimaculangan

 Week 3

Selection

What is screening or selection?

Screening and selection is the process of ensuring your organization chooses the
appropriate applicant for the appropriate role. ... The level and extent to which you screen
volunteers is determined by the services you provide and the nature of the role.

Screening and selection is the process of assessing the employees who apply for the job.
The assessment is conducted to understand the relevant skills, knowledge, aptitude,
qualifications, and educational or job-related experience of potential employees.

What Is Pre-Employment Screening?

Pre-employment screening is the process of verifying information that job candidates supply on
their resumes and job applications. It may also be referred to by other names, such as:

 Background Checks
 Criminal Background Checks
 Background Screening

This type of background check is usually initiated to see if a prospective employee is trustworthy
enough to protect confidential or sensitive information, or manage the financial resources of a
business. They may also be used to try to determine if job candidates have any criminal
tendencies or character flaws that might limit their effectiveness or hurt the employer in other
ways, such as endangering the staff or tarnishing the company's reputation.

Most employers conduct a pre-employment screening of job applicants. However, all or part of
the screening process is usually outsourced to private third-party organizations that specialize in
this type of background check.

History of Pre Employment Screening

To discover the history of background checks, we must first understand an employer's

reasoning for managing risk. Employers have a responsibility to keep its employees and
customers safe. In cases where an employee becomes violent or displays criminal behavior, the
employer can be accused of negligent hiring, taken to court, and be responsible for punitive
damages.  

Negligent hiring law first appears in a 1908 case of an apprentice's prank that accidentally killed
a fellow employee. The employer was held liable for the death because they had witnessed the
apprentice's reckless action but kept him employed anyway.  From 1911 - 1933, the law was
expanded to cover acts that occurred outside of employment (hiring someone with a violent
disposition) and violence against customers injured by an employee. A 1951 case tells of a
delivery man who "made an indecent attack" on a housewife. The employer, the court advised,
was to be held responsible for the "reasonable care to select employees competent and fit for
the work assigned to them and to refrain from retaining the services of an unfit employee",
especially since their employees dealt with the public. By the late 1970's, more employers were
being held liable for negligent hiring. 

Types of Pre-Employment Background Checks

Because of the history of negligent hiring, employers now choose to perform due diligence on
candidates, when they are hired and when they are promoted or change jobs to positions that
require more screening. There are many different types of background checks to investigate the
trustworthiness and reputation of a new hire.
The most common background checks for pre-employment are:

 Identity Verification / Social Security Number Trace

 Criminal History Data (records pulled from County, State, and Federal courts)
 Sex Offender Information
 Education Verification
 Employment Verification
 Pre-Employment Drug Test

Theoretical Bases

Selection/Screening Methods

Selection is the process of choosing the most suitable candidates from those who apply for the
job. It is a process of offering jobs to desired candidates.

Once the potential applicants are identified, the next step is to evaluate their qualification,
qualities, experience, capabilities, etc. & make the selection. It is the process of offering jobs to
the desired applicants.

Selection means choosing a few from those who apply. It is picking up of applicants or
candidates with requisite qualifications and qualities to fill jobs in the organization.

Most managers recognize that employee selection is one of their most difficult, and most
important, business decisions.
This process involves making a judgment -not about the applicant, but about the fit between the
applicant and the job by considering knowledge, skills and abilities and other characteristics
required to perform the job Selection procedures are not carried out through standard pattern
and steps in this.

PROCESS / STEPS IN SELECTION

1.    Preliminary Interview: The purpose of preliminary interviews is basically to eliminate

unqualified applications based on information supplied in application forms. The basic objective
is to reject misfits. On the other hands preliminary interviews is often called a courtesy interview
and is a good public relations exercise.
2.    Selection Tests: Jobseekers who past the preliminary interviews are called for tests. There
are various types of tests conducted depending upon the jobs and the company. These tests
can be Aptitude Tests, Personality Tests, and Ability Tests and are conducted to judge how well
an individual can perform tasks related to the job. Besides this there are some other tests also
like Interest Tests (activity preferences), Graphology Test (Handwriting), Medical Tests,
Psychometric Tests etc.
3.    Employment Interview: The next step in selection is employment interview. Here interview
is a formal and in-depth conversation between applicant’s acceptability. It is considered to be an
excellent selection device. Interviews can be One-to-One, Panel Interview, or Sequential
Interviews. Besides there can be Structured and Unstructured interviews, Behavioral Interviews,
Stress Interviews.
4.    Reference & Background Checks: Reference checks and background checks are
conducted to verify the information provided by the candidates. Reference checks can be
through formal letters, telephone conversations. However it is merely a formality and selections
decisions are seldom affected by it.
5.    Selection Decision: After obtaining all the information, the most critical step is the
selection decision is to be made. The final decision has to be made out of applicants who have
passed preliminary interviews, tests, final interviews and reference checks. The views of line
managers are considered generally because it is the line manager who is responsible for the
performance of the new employee.
6.    Physical Examination: After the selection decision is made, the candidate is required to
undergo a physical fitness test. A job offer is often contingent upon the candidate passing the
physical examination.
7.    Job Offer: The next step in selection process is job offer to those applicants who have
crossed all the previous hurdles. It is made by way of letter of appointment.
8.  Final Selection: Making the hiring decision

Who you choose to hire makes a big difference to the success of your organization. A hiring
decision can have a long legacy, so be sure to set the stage for success. Planning, preparation
and more efficient processes will save your company in the long run. A bad hire can be a very
expensive mistake!

1.    Know What You Want

The first step to making a good hiring decision is to know what you are looking for. You need to
take the time to make a thorough job description so that you know exactly what the role
involves. Once you know about the job requirements and essential qualifications, you can adapt
your job search to find the right talent for the role.

2.    Look in the Right Places

To recruit the right talent, you need to look in the right places. One of the most effective means
of making a good hiring decision is to implement an employee referral program. Employee
referrals have a much better success rate in recruiting — the applicant-to-hire ratio for employee
referrals is 10 to 1, whereas it takes 72 applicants from traditional sources to make one hire.

3.    Create a Good First Impression

The efficiency of your recruitment process says a lot about your company. Be sure to make the
best impression by creating a good candidate experience from start to finish. A talented
candidate is also interviewing your organization, judging whether or not it is a good workplace. A
good hiring decision relies on a talented pool of candidates, so do all that you can to ensure that
you don’t turn off potential employees with a poorly run hiring process.

4.    Select the Right Hiring Team

Hiring is best done in teams and the right team is essential. Don’t just put anyone on the hiring
team — create a team that represents both the hiring section and your human resources
professionals. The team should include the direct supervisor of the position you are filling, as
well as someone who has a thorough understanding of the position and the duties involved. As
mentioned, interviews work two ways and when attending an interview, a candidate is getting a
feel for the people they would work with. So ensure that you are also selecting your most
personable staff for the interview team.
5.    Be Objective
Structured interviews are key to making a good hiring decision. You need to set a level playing
field in which you ask each candidate the same questions — this way you are comparing apples
to apples when it comes to decision time.

It is important that you not just strike up a conversation with each candidate and go with your
gut. You need to ask specific recruiting questions that are relevant to the job and its duties. Use
your detailed job description to create realistic scenarios so that you can accurately assess
each candidate’s knowledge, skills and abilities. This will give you insights into how the
candidate would perform on a day-to-day basis.

6.    Be Goal-Driven
Set out a workflow for your hiring process so that you can keep your goals front and center. Set
goals for the must-have qualifications you need to find in a candidate, as well as goals for when
you will complete each step of the hiring process. Delays hurt your hiring process by making it
cost more and giving candidates a poor impression of your company. To make a good hiring
decision, you need to ensure your most talented recruits remain interested and available.

7.    Act Quickly

A hiring process can easily be set off-course if it isn’t given proper attention by the hiring team.
Set up a schedule for your hiring process and ensure that the hiring team sticks to it. A modern
applicant tracking system is a great help, with built in alerts to let you know when you are
approaching a deadline or when candidates are spending too long at one stage in the hiring
funnel.

Metrics in Recruitment and Selection

Recruitment metrics are a standard set of measurements used to manage and improve the
process of hiring candidates into an organization. 

Recruitment metrics are the key to assessing the performance of your recruitment process. It is
extremely important to have measurable recruitment goals and accurate data that tracks your
key performance and tells you where you stand, especially when you’re trying to make game-
changing hires.

Time to Fill
This recruiting metric reveals your hiring speed and boils down to how long a recruiter takes to
fill a vacancy from the time a job requisition was ordered. The different variables that feed into
this computation range from region and employer brand to skills and talent base.

Technically, the time to fill is the total number of days between advertising a job opening and
bringing a candidate onboard. This recruitment metric points out productivity of the recruiter and
reflects the efficiency of the recruitment process.

Digging into this recruiting metric will reveal three important things:

1. You get to know when you are hiring the right fit.
2. Your speed and efficiency when you hired the right candidate.
3. What the existing performance bottlenecks are in your sourcing process.
4. Hiring the right candidates is critical to the future success of your company and
measuring this recruiting metric will prevent you from making mistakes.
Cost Per Hire
The cost per hire measures the average expense incurred on filling a vacancy from sourcing to
onboarding. For big businesses, the recruitment cost has a major impact on the bottom line and
for a small company; it can make or break the annual budget.
This recruitment metric is directly connected with the time to hire. For instance, the faster a
position gets filled; the lower is the cost of talent acquisition.

Quality of Hires
The candidate quality is measured in terms of percentage of candidates who accepted your
offer and those who stayed, divided by 2. The resulting percentage reflects the key performance
of the recruiting team in terms of high-quality candidates that are loyal.

The quality of hire is the distinction between more candidates and top choice candidates. This
recruitment metric reveals if recruiters are wasting their valuable time and effort in search of top
talent or actually making optimum utilization of available resources.

Source of Hire
This recruitment metric reveals where most of your candidates are coming from – job boards,
professional networks, agencies or employee referrals. Applicant tracking software offers a
complete breakdown of the number of applications coming from every source including how
many candidates where shortlisted, selected, and joined.

This valuable information will help you to maximize your efforts on high-performing sources and
shut down the ones that are not delivering desired results. This information also plays a vital
role in helping recruiters plan and budget the recruitment process for maximum conversions.

Conversion Rate
This recruiting metric is a direct comparison between the number of candidates that have been
offered a job and the ones who accept the offer. If you offer acceptance rate is low, it is likely
that your job offer is not competitive.

Rethink your offer in terms of salary, perks or growth opportunities to keep your candidates from
considering your competitors. If your job offers are being rejected due to salary and you are not
in a position to compete with a better package, then think of something else like flexible work
timings, free food or work from home.

Attrition Rate
A high attrition rate is an expensive issue because the cost of employee turnover can be as high
as 200% in case of a highly skilled professional. If your attrition rate is high, the problem could
be a misleading job description or possibly the job role is attracting less committed candidates.

So, if you are constantly hiring not because the company is growing but because your
employees are leaving, then you need to asses why and accordingly optimize your hiring
processes. Get creative with your job description and lure your potential employees or revamp
your onboarding process to ensure a smooth transition.
Candidate Experience

60% candidates have stated that timely communication during the application process makes a
positive impact on their mind and more than 80% candidates say that a single negative
experience can change their decision even at the last minute.

So are you ensuring a positive candidate experience throughout your recruitment process?

Engaging every candidate and ensuring that they remain informed of their progress, increases
candidate satisfaction and keeps them from considering other opportunities.

Hiring Diversity
Diversity recruiting metrics are crucial not simply from a legal standpoint. Equal opportunity
regulations rule out discrimination in the recruitment process based on cast, creed, color, age,
religion, race, ethnicity, gender, national origin, disability, sexual orientation or genetic
information. Also, hiring a diverse workforce has proven benefits, from reduced turnover to
increased innovation.