Recruitment and selection costs time and money. It costs a lot of money especially when it is outsourced to recruitment agencies. There are lots of recruitment agencies out there; some are exceptional in the discharge of their duties while others are not. This can also be said of Human Resource departments of organizations that carry out their recruitment and selection exercises by themselves. I strongly believe that the bar can be raised to effectively justify the amounts of money and time spent on recruitment and selection.
Recruitment, selection and placement are strategic activities aimed at staffing any organization with people with the right blend of knowledge, skills and abilities (KSAs) that are instrumental to the achievement of the objectives of the organization.
Other than times when organizations have to headhunt, it is important to recruit rightly (internally or externally) by tactically attracting a large pool and probably the best crop of applicants. Recruiting internally (before throwing the recruitment net in the public domain) is very essential because it communicates the importance that organizations place on the career advancement of their staff. If they are eligible and come highly recommended, give them the chance. This will boost their commitment and ultimately strengthen employee retention. If no staff is eligible to fill the vacant role(s), make the job opening public.
It is important that recruitment adverts be balanced and detailed enough to enable applicants make informed and wise decisions. Well, I am not oblivious to the fact that some ineligible applicants send in their applications despite clearly spelt out criteria. As regards recruitment adverts that are balanced, it is crucial I mention an aspect of recruitment that is usually overlooked. This aspect is called realistic job preview (RJP).
Michael Aamodt in his book titled ‘Industrial/Organizational Psychology: An Applied Approach’ defines a realistic job preview as ‘…giving an applicant an honest assessment of a job’. He further mentioned a variant of realistic job preview called expectation-lowering procedure (ELP) which ‘…lowers an applicant’s expectation about work and expectations in general’. These approaches might be considered naive because of the common practice of ‘positive positioning and presentation’. But have you ever thought about what disillusionment does to a staff – its effect on morale and work performance?
The idea behind RJPs and ELPs is to ensure that expectations are effectively managed and there are no negative surprises that trigger counterproductive behaviours and perhaps, turnover and/or attrition. However, it is important to mention that discretion is key. – reveal as much as is necessary for applicants to make balanced analyses and informed decisions. When the application window closes, all applications should be screened and the qualified ones should be invited for the selection exercise(s). Those who did not measure up should also be given feedback – the feedback should be courteous and encouraging. Be humane – show some empathy because job hunting could be exhausting and demoralizing.
Let us shift focus to selection and placement. Central to selection are concepts called predictor and criterion. A good selection exercise takes into consideration the link between selection tests (predictors) and performance on the job (criterion). Also, a good selection test (employment test) should not only discriminate (i.e. differentiate) among test takers, it should predict (with high level of confidence) performance of test takers on the job if employed.
It is paramount to move away from the basic practice of mindless lifting and utilization of only test questions from GMAT and/or GRE study guides etc. and have robust test batteries (a combination of two or more selection instruments) that cover a large scope of the job that assess cognitive abilities, personalities, values, interests etc.
A comprehensive job profile should guide the choice of specific tests to be bought or constructed. The use of a solid test battery not only increases the chances of making sound predictions, it also enhances the conduct of a proper placement exercise. Unfortunately, selection tests used by some organizations fail to capture personality attributes, interests etc. of applicants which have great implications for performance on the job. Interestingly, these aspects (personality, interests, values etc. which are not garments that can be worn or taken off at will) influence human activities and sadly, they are somewhat permanent.
Lest I forget, there are techniques involved in the selection of applicants that help strengthen the process and these can be adopted while using test batteries. I would be remiss if I fail to specifically address job interviews in this piece. A job interview is one out of many selection instruments and by far the most common. Sometimes, it is the only utilized selection instrument. As regards this selection instrument, it is pertinent to ask some questions: how standardized are those questions? How bias-free are the questions? How practical are they? How do you prevent fatigue and emotions from impairing assessments?
It is interesting to note that despite the use of accompanying rating scales, interviews are still subjective. At best they should be used in combination with other test instruments and interviewers must strive to dispense with sentiments during interview sessions.
At the end of the selection exercise, again, all who took part in the exercise (the successful and unsuccessful) should be given feedback. This is basic but it creates positive impressions about organizations in the minds of applicants.
Placement is simply about assigning successful candidates to the vacant positions in the organization. To ensure optimal performance, individuals should be assigned to positions that align with their skill mix. Putting square pegs in round holes spells chaos. It is crucial to effectively manage recruitment, selection and placement exercises because they can guarantee meaningful engagement at work, job satisfaction and minimization of training cost owing to poor performance, a direct fallout of poor selection and placement).
Keep in mind that this article barely scratched the surface because there is more to the topic.
Jude Adigwe
Adigwe is an Industrial-Organizational Psychologist and Certified HRM Practitioner
