Selection process

1. SELECTION:
Once an adequate number of applicants have been sourced, the process of
selection begins.
Selection is the process of putting right men on the right job. It is a procedure
of matching organisational requirements with the skills and qualifications
of people.
Effective selection can be done only when there is effective matching. By
selecting best candidate for the required job, the organisation will get quality
performance of employees.
Thus, a systematic selection should be done in the organization to avoid wrong
candidate’s selection and loss of time and money incurred on this process. It is
the process of weeding out unsuitable candidates.

2. The important factors affecting the process of selection are
1. Profile Matching Factor
2. Organizational and Social Environmental Factor
3. Successive Hurdles
4. Multiple Co-Relations

3. Significance of Selection:
 Unsuitable and unqualified persons can be weeded out.
 Suitable persons are selected means decreasing the level of absenteeism
and labour turn over.
 Good selection increases the efficiency of the organization.
 Good selection reduces the wastage of time, energy and money by
selecting the suitable candidates.
 Sound selection of executives can build up the strong managerial structure
of the enterprise.
 Proper selection is very helpful in building up a suitable workforce.
 The productivity of the organization can be improved by good selection.

4. Principles of Selection
There should be sufficient number of applicants.
There should be free flow of communication as to understand each
other better.
The method of selection should be sound.
Some standards should be fixed by which applicants could be rated.
 Authority should be competent and expert on that particular field to
select a right candidate.

5. Selection Process:

6. Preliminary interview:
A preliminary interview is generally planned by large
organisations to cut the costs of selection by allowing only
eligible candidates to go through the further stages in
selection.
A junior executive from the HR department may elicit
responses from applicants from application bank

7. Applications
Applications are highly useful selection tool, in that it serves three
important purposes
1. It introduces the candidate to the company in formal way.
2. It helps the company to have a cross-comparison of applicants.
3. It can serve as a basis for initiating a dialogue at the interview.

8. Employment Tests/ Selection Tests
1. Intelligence Tests:
These are mental ability tests. They measures the learning ability,
decision making skills, learning attitude, vocabulary, verbal fluency and
standard of intelligence.
2. Aptitude Tests:
Aptitude tests measure an individuals potential to learn clerical,
mechanical, mathematical etc
3. Personality Tests:
These types tests will measure the personality such as Motivation,
Emotional balance, self – Confidence, interpersonal behavior, etc

9. 4. Projective tests:
these tests expect the candidates to interpret problems or
situations based on their own motives, attitudes and values.
5. Interest tests:
These are meant to find how a person in tests compare with the
interests of successful people in a specific job.
6. Achievement tests:
These are designed to measure what the applicants can do on the
job currently.
7. Simulation tests:
Simulation tests duplicates many of the activities and problems an
employee faces while at work.

10. • 3. Situation Tests:
8. Situational tests:
These are thought to be very effective in selection process as they exhibit a
candidate’s ability to think, ideate, his/her decision-making ability and many-a-
times a reflection of their attitude and approach. In situation tests candidates are
given scenarios that are close to real-life ones and then tested on how they react to
the same.
• Some examples of situation tests are:
• Role Plays – In ‘role plays’ a group of candidates are provided a situation, usually
a problem, which they have to enact and find solutions for the same.
• Group Discussion – A group of candidates are provided a topic on which they are
supposed to discuss, explore multiple perspectives and comment. In the process
they are expected to develop solution or possible alternatives.
• In-basket Exercises – A candidate is given a series of tasks that he/she has to
complete in a fixed period of time, for example, issuing a warning letter, memo,
writing to supplier, commenting on a new policy by the company, reviewing
requests by some employees, etc. The speed and proficiency with which a
candidate deals with each of such items in the basket are recorded and the data is
used in selection process.

11. 9. General Awareness Test:
• A candidate knowledge about the general economic, social, political
and legal environment may be tested at times by the employers.

12. Interview:
Interview is formal, in-depth conversation conducted to
evaluate the applicant’s acceptability. It is considered to be
excellent selection device. It is face-to-face exchange of view,
ideas and opinion between the candidates and interviewers.
Basically, interview is nothing but an oral examination of
candidates. Interview can be adapted to unskilled, skilled,
managerial and profession employees.

13. Objectives of Interview:
Interview has at least three objectives and they are a follows:
• Helps obtain additional information from the applicants
• Facilitates giving general information to the applicants such as
company policies, job, products manufactured and the like
• Helps build the company’s image among the applicants.

14. Types of interview:
1) Informal Interview:
An informal interview is an oral interview and may take place anywhere. The
employee or the manager or the personnel manager may ask a few almost
inconsequential questions like name, place of birth, names of relatives etc. either in
their respective offices or anywhere outside the plant of company. It id not planned
and nobody prepares for it. This is used widely when the labour market is tight and
when you need workers badly.
2) Formal Interview:
Formal interviews may be held in the employment office by he employment office
in a more formal atmosphere, with the help of well structured questions, the time
and place of the interview will be stipulated by the employment office.

15. 3) Non-directive Interview:
Non-directive interview or unstructured interview is designed to let the interviewee speak his
mind freely. The interviewer has no formal or directive questions, but his all attention is to the
candidate. He encourages the candidate to talk by a little prodding whenever he is silent e.g. “Mr.
Ray, please tell us about yourself after your graduated from high school”.
The idea is o give the candidate complete freedom to “sell” himself, without the encumbrances of
the interviewer’s question. But the interviewer must be of higher caliber and must guide and relate
the information given by the applicant to the objective of the interview.
4) Depth Interview:
It is designed to intensely examine the candidate’s background and thinking and to go into
considerable detail on particular subjects of an important nature and of special interest to the
candidates. For example, if the candidate says that he is interested in tennis, a series of questions
may be asked to test the depth of understanding and interest of the candidate. These probing
questions must be asked with tact and through exhaustive analysis; it is possible to get a good
picture of the candidate.

16. 5) Stress Interview:
It is designed to test the candidate and his conduct and behavior by him under
conditions of stress and strain. The interviewer may start with “Mr. Joseph, we do
not think your qualifications and experience are adequate for this position,’ and
watch the reaction of the candidates.
This type of interview is borrowed from the Military organisation and this is very
useful to test behaviour of individuals when they are faced with disagreeable and
trying situations.
6) Group Interview:
It is designed to save busy executive’s time and to see how the candidates may be
brought together in the employment office and they may be interviewed.

17. 7) Panel Interview:
A panel or interviewing board or selection committee may interview the candidate, usually
in the case of supervisory and managerial positions. This type of interview pools the
collective judgment and wisdom of the panel in the assessment of the candidate and also
in questioning the faculties of the candidate.
8) Sequential Interview:
The sequential interview takes the one-to-one a step further and involves a series of
interview, usually utilizing the strength and knowledgebase of each interviewer, so that
each interviewer can ask questions in relation to his or her subject area of each candidate,
as the candidate moves from room to room.
9) Structured Interview:
In a structured interview, the interviewer uses preset standardized questions, which are put
to all the interviewees. This interview is also called as ‘Guided’ or ‘Patterned’ interview. It
is useful for valid results, especially when dealing with the large number of applicants.

18. 10) Unstructured Interview:
It is also known as ‘Unpatterned’ interview, the interview is largely unplanned and
the interviewee does most of the talking. Unguided interview is advantageous in as
much as it leads to a friendly conversation between the interviewer and the
interviewee and in the process, the later reveals more of his or her desire and
problems. But the Unpatterned interview lacks uniformity and worse, this approach
may overlook key areas of the applicant’s skills or background. It is useful when the
interviewer tries to probe personal details of the candidate it analyse why they are
not right for the job.
11) Mixed Interview:
In practice, the interviewer while interviewing the job seekers uses a blend of
structured and structured and unstructured questions. This approach is called the
Mixed Interview. The structured questions provide a base of interview more
conventional and permit greater insights into the unique differences between
applicants.

19. Placement is the process of assigning specific jobs and work places to the
selected candidates. It involves putting square pegs in to square holes i.e.
matching the individual and the job. Correct placement is in no way less
important than accurate selection. Even a competent employee maybe
inefficient and dissatisfied if put on a wrong job.
Correct placement helps to improve efficiency and satisfaction of employees.
While placing employees on the job the requirements of both the organization
and the employee should be considered requirements of the organization
include nature of job, number of vacancies in a particular branch or unit
degree of difficulty in the job etc. Age, marital status, language patterns,
qualifications and experience of a particular candidate should also be
considered while placing the right man on the right job.

20. Induction, also known as orientation, is a process of making the new employee
familiar with the work environment and the fellow employees.
The new employee can be inducted into the organisation by introducing his job,
fellow workers, supervisors and his subordinates. He should be oriented to the
new organisation and its policies, rules and regulations.
Induction is a socialising process by which the organisation tries to make the
new employee as its agent for the achievement of its aims and objectives while
the new individual employee seeks to make the organisation an agency to
achieve his personal goals. Induction makes the new employee feel at home and
helps him to adjust with the new environment in the organisation.

21. Introducing the new employee who is designated
as a probationer to the job, job location,
surroundings, organisation, organisational
surroundings, and various employees is the final
step of employment process. Some of the
companies do not lay emphasis on this function as
they view that this function will be automatically
performed by the colleagues of the new employees.

22. (i) About the Company:
(a) History, growth, organisation and management, products, market, customers, etc., of the
Company.
(b) Basic conditions of employment — hours of work, shift, holidays, retirement benefits.
(c) Pay, allowances, deductions.
(d) Sickness rules, information — pay — sick leave.
(e) Leave rules — casual, special, earned-holidays, vacation.
(f) Work rules, work-load, use of materials, equipment, and machine.
(g) Disciplinary rules and procedure.
(h) Grievance procedure.
(i) Career path, promotion channel.
(j) Unions, negotiating machinery.
(k) Education, training and development facilities.
(I) Health, safety, medical care arrangements.
(m) Canteen and restaurant facilities.
(n) Social benefits and welfare measures.
(o) Telephone calls and correspondence.

23. (ii) About the Department:
The departmental head concerned introduces the new employee to the
important employees and describes briefly about the department and the
job. Then the supervisor concerned introduces the employee to all the
employees in the section/unit, describes in detail the job or work,
material, machine, equipment with which the worker has to work,
process of the production, place of the employee’s job and its
significance in the process of production, his position in the
departmental organisation structure, work distribution, assignment,
working hours, shift, quality/standard to be maintained, customers/
users of the product/service, etc.

24. (iii) About the Superiors, Subordinates, Etc.:
a. Introduce the new employee to the superior to whom he should report.
b. Introduce to other superiors with whom his work is indirectly related.
c. Introduce the new employee to his subordinates with whom he has to work.
d. Introduce the new employee to the subordinates who will report to him.
e. Introduce the new employee to his colleagues.