Report

On
Selection Methods

Submitted to:
Mrs. Sandhya Iyya

Submitted By:
Swati Gupta
 SELECTION
Introduction
The size of the labor market, the image of the company, the place of
posting, the nature of job, the compensation package and a host of
other factors influence the manner of aspirants are likely to respond to
the recruiting efforts of the company. Through the process of
recruitment the company tries to locate prospective employees and
encourages them to apply for vacancies at various levels. Recruiting,
thus, provides a pool of applicants for selection.

Definition
To select mean to choose. Selection is the process of picking
Individuals who have relevant qualifications to fill jobs in an
organization. The basic purpose is to choose the individual who can
most successfully perform the job from the pool of qualified
candidates.

Purpose
The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable candidate who
would meet the requirements of the job in an organization best, to find
out which job applicant will be successful, if hired. To meet this goal,
the company obtains and assesses information about the applicants in
terms of age, qualifications, skills, experience, etc. the needs of the job
are matched with the profile of candidates. The most suitable person is
then picked up after eliminating the unsuitable applicants through
successive stages of selection process. How well an employee is
matched to a job is very important because it is directly affects the
amount and quality of employee’s work. Any mismatched in this regard
can cost an organization a great deal of money, time and trouble,
especially, in terms of training and operating costs. In course of time,
the employee may find the job distasteful and leave in frustration. He
may even circulate ‘hot news’ and juicy bits of negative information
about the company, causing incalculable harm to the company in the
long run. Effective election, therefore, demands constant monitoring of
the ‘fit’ between people the job.

The Process
Selection is usually a series of hurdles or steps. Each one must be
successfully cleared before the applicant proceeds to the next one. The
time and emphasis place on each step will definitely vary from one
organization to another and indeed, from job to job within the same
organization. The sequence of steps may also vary from job to job and
organization to organization. For example some organizations may give
more importance to testing while others give more emphasis to
interviews and reference checks. Similarly a single brief selection
interview might be enough for applicants for lower level positions,
while applicants for managerial jobs might be interviewed by a number
of people.

Steps in Selection Process:

 Reception
 Screening interview
 Application blank
 Selection test
Reception

A company is known by the people it employs. In order to attract

people with talents, skills and experience a company has to create a
favorable impression on the applicants’ right from the stage of
reception. Whoever meets the applicant initially should be tactful and
able to extend help in a friendly and courteous way. Employment
possibilities must be presented honestly and clearly. If no jobs are
available at that point of time, the applicant may be asked to call back
the personnel department after some time.

Screening Interview

A preliminary interview is generally planned by large organizations to

Cut the cost of selection by allowing only eligible candidates to go
through the further stages in selection. A junior executive from the
Personnel Department may elicit responses from the applicants on
important items determining the suitability of an applicant for a job
such as age, education, experience, pay expectations, aptitude,
location, choice etc. this ‘courtesy interview’ as it is often called helps
the department screen out obvious misfits. If the department finds the
candidate suitable, a prescribed application form is given to the
applicants to fill and submit.

Application Blank

Application blank or form is one of the most common methods used to

collect information on the various aspects of the applicants’ academic,
social, demographic, work related background and references. It is a
brief history sheet of employee’s background, usually containing the
following things:
Personal data (address, sex, telephone number)
Marital data
Educational data
Employment Experience
Extra-curricular activities
References and Recommendations

Usefulness of Application Blank or Form

Application blank is highly useful selection tool, in that way it serves

three important purposes:
1. It introduces the candidate to the company in a formal way.
2. It helps the company to have a cross-comparison of the applicants;
the company can screen and reject candidates if they fail to meet the
eligibility criteria at this stage itself.
3. It can serve as a basis to initiate a dialogue in the interview.

Selection Test

In this section let examine the selection test or the employment test
that attempts to asses intelligence, abilities, personality trait,
performance simulation tests including work sampling and the tests
administered at assessment centers- followed by a discussion about the
polygraph test, graphology and integrity test. A test is a standardized,
objective measure of a person’s behavior, performance or attitude. It is
standardized because the way the tests is carried out, the environment
in which the test is administered and the way the individual scores are
calculated- are uniformly applied. It is objective in that it tries to
measure individual differences in a scientific way giving very little room
for individual bias and interpretation. Over the years employment tests
have not only gained importance but also a certain amount of
inevitability in employment decisions. Since they try to objectively
determine how well an applicant meets the job requirement, most
companies do not hesitate to invest their time and money in selection
testing in a big way. Some of the commonly used employment tests
are:

 Intelligence tests
 Aptitude tests
 Personality tests
 Achievement tests
 Miscellaneous tests such as graphology & polygraphy tests

 Intelligence Tests
These are mental ability tests. They measure the incumbent’s
learning ability and the ability to understand instructions and make
judgments. The basic objective of such test is to pick up employees who
are alert and quick at learning things so that they can be offered
adequate training to improve their skills for the benefit of the
organization. These tests measure several abilities such as memory,
vocabulary, verbal fluency, numerical ability, perception etc. E.g.
Standford-Binet test, Binet - Simon test, The Wechsler Adult
Intelligence Scale are example of standard intelligence test.

 Aptitude Test
Aptitude test measure an individual’s potential to learn certain
skills- clerical, mechanical, mathematical, etc. These tests indicate
whether or not an individual has the capabilities to learn a given job
quickly and efficiently. In order to recruit efficient office staff, aptitude
tests are necessary. Aptitude tests are always administered in
combination with other tests like intelligence and personality tests as it
does not measure on-the-job-motivation.

 Personality Test

Of all test required for selection the personality tests have

generated a lot of heat and controversy. The definition of personality,
methods of measuring personality factors and the relationship between
personality factors and actual job criteria has been the subject of much
discussion. Researchers have also questioned whether applicants
answer all the items truthfully or whether they try to respond in a
socially desirable manner. Regardless of these objections, many people
still consider personality as an important component of job success.

 Achievement Tests
These are designed to measure what the applicant can do on the
job currently, i.e., whether the testee actually knows what he or she
claims to know. A typing test tests shows the typing proficiency, a short
hand tests measures the testee ability to take dictation and transcribe,
etc. Such proficiency tests are also known as work sampling test. Work
sampling is a selection tests wherein the job applicant’s ability to do a
small portion of the job is tested. These tests are of two types; Motor,
involving physical manipulations of things(e.g., trade tests for
carpenters, electricians, plumbers) or Verbal, involving problem
situation that are primarily language-oriented or people oriented (e.g.,
situational tests for supervisory jobs). Since work samples are miniature
replicas of the actual job requirements, they are difficult to fake. They
offer concrete evidence of the proficiency of an applicant as against his
ability to the job. However, work sample tests are not cost effective and
every candidate has to be tested individually. It is not easy to develop
work samples for each job. Moreover, it is not applicable to all levels of
the organization.

 Simulation Test
Simulation exercise is a test which duplicates many of the
activities and problems an employee faces while at work. Such
exercises are commonly used while hiring managers at various levels in
an organization. To assess the potential of a candidate for managerial
positions assessment centres are commonly used.

 Graphology Test
Graphology involves using a trained evaluator to examine the
lines, loops, hooks, stokes, curves and flourishes in a person’s
handwriting to assess the person’s personality and emotional make-up.
The recruiting company, may, for example, ask the applicants to
complete the application forms and write about why they want a job.
These samples may be finally sent to graphologist for analysis and the
result may be put use while selecting a person. The use of graphology,
however, is dependent on the training and expertise of the person
doing the analysis. In the actual practice, questions of validity and just
plain skepticism have limited in use.

 Polygraph (Lie-Detector) tests

The polygraph records physical changes in the body as the tests

subject answers a series of questions. It records fluctuations in
respiration, blood pressure and perspiration on a moving roll of graph
paper. The polygraph operator forms a judgment as to whether the
subject’s response was truthful or deceptive by examining the
biological movements recorded on the paper. Critic, however,
questions the appropriateness of the polygraphs in establishing the
truth about an applicant’s behavior. The fact is that the polygraph
records the biological reaction in response to stress and does not
record lying or even conditions necessarily accompanying lying. So the
polygraphs are neither reliable nor valid. Since they invade the privacy
of those tested, many applicants strongly oppose the use of polygraph
as a selection tool.

Tests as Selection Tool:

Tests are useful selection devices in that they uncover qualifications

and talents that can’t be detected otherwise. They can be used to
predict how well one would perform if one is hired, why one behaves
the way one does, what situational factors influence employee
productivity, etc. Tests also provide unbiased information that can be
put to scientific and statistical analysis. However, tests suffer from
sizeable errors of estimate. Most psychological tests also have one
common weakness, that is, we can’t use scales which have a zero point
and equal intervals. An intelligence test, for example starts at an
arbitrary point, where a person may not be able to answer question
properly. This does not mean that the person is totally lacking in
intelligence. Likewise, a person who is able to answer all the 10
questions correctly cannot be called twice as intelligent as the one who
was able to answer only 5. If the test has commenced at some other
point, where there easier questions, their score might have been
different. Test also fails to elicit truthful responses from testees. To
compound the problem further, test results are interpreted in a
subjective was by testers and unless these testers do their homework
well, the results may not be reliable.
Standards for Selection Tests:

To be useful as predictive and diagnostic selection tools, test must

satisfy certain basic requirements:

1) Reliability: Test scores should not vary widely under repeated

conditions. If a test is administered to the same individual
repeatedly, he should get approximately identical score. Reliability is
the confidence that an indicator will measure the same thing every
time.
2) Validity: Validity is the extent to which an instrument measures
what it intends to measure. In a typing test validity measures a
typist’s speed and accuracy. To determine whether it really
measures the speed and accuracy of a typist is to demonstrate its
validity. The question if determining the validity of a selection test,
thus, has a lot to do with later performance on the job.
3) Qualified People: Test require a high level of professional skills in
their administration and interpretation. Professional technicians are
needed for skilled judgmental interpretations of test scores.
4) Preparation: A test should be well prepared. It should be easy to
understand and simple to administer.
5) Suitability: a test must fit the nature of the group on which it is
applied. A written test comprising difficult words would be fruitless
when it is administered on less educated workers.
6) Usefulness: Exclusive reliance on any single test should be avoided,
since the results in such a case are likely to be criticized. To be
useful, it is always better to use a battery of test.
7) Standardization: Norms for finalizing test scores should be
established. There must be prescribed methods and procedures for
administering the test and for scoring or interpreting it.