Selection as a Strategy:

Testing & Interviews

Steps in Recruitment and Selection Process

The recruitment and selection process is a series of hurdles aimed at

selecting the best candidate for the job.

Selection
Process of choosing individuals with qualifications
needed to fill jobs
Organizations need qualified employees to succeed

Placement
Determining the PERSON JOB fit

Person-Job Fit
Matching knowledge, skills
and abilities (KSAs) of
individuals to characteristics
of jobs (tasks, duties and
responsibilitiesTDRs).
Benefits of good person-job
fit:
Higher employee performance
Lower turnover and absenteeism

KSAs = TDRs = Job Success

4

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South West Airlines

Organizations have become increasingly

aware of making good selection decisions,
since it involves a number of costs:

The cost of the selection process itself,

including the use of various selection
instruments

The future costs of inducting and training

new staff

The cost of labour turnover if the selected

staff are not retained

1. Receiving applications
2. Interviewing applicants
3. Administering tests to applicants

4. Conducting background investigations

5. Arranging physical examinations
6. Placing and assigning new employees
7. Coordinating follow-up of new employees
8. Exit interviewing departing employees
9. Maintaining employee records and reports

Cognitive
Ability
Tests

Physical Ability
Tests

Work Sample
Tests

Psychomotor
Tests

Ability Tests
Aptitude and
Achievement

Situational
Judgment
Tests

Assessment
Centers
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There should be a way of measuring how people

differ
1.

Reliability: refers to the extent to which a

2.

Validity: refers to the extent to which a

selection technique achieves

consistency in what it is measuring over
repeated use.
selection technique actually measures
what it sets out to measure

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Step 1: Analyze the job

Step 2: Choose the tests
Test battery or single test?

Step 3: Administer the test

Concurrent validation

Current employees scores with current performance

Predictive validation

Later-measured performance with prior scores

Step 4: Relate Test Scores and Criteria

Correlation analysis

Actual scores on the test with actual performance

Step 5: Cross-Validate and Revalidate

Repeat Step 3 and Step 4 with a different sample of

employees.

Personality research has lent support to the use of

sophisticated selection techniques such as psychometric
tests that have a good record of reliability and validity.

Ability tests: these focus on mental abilities

(verbal/numerical) and physical skills testing.

Right/wrong answers allow applicants to be placed in
ranked order.

Inventories: self-report questionnaires indicating

traits, intelligence, values, interests, attitudes and

preferences. No right/wrong answers but a range of
choices between possible answers.

 Assessment centres are designed to yield information

that can be used to make decisions concerning
suitability for a job.

They provide a fuller picture by combining a range of

techniques.

General methods used include group discussions, role

plays and simulations, interviews and tests.

Candidates attending an assessment centre will be

observed by assessors who should be trained to judge

candidates performance against criteria contained
within the competency framework.

Applicants have expectations about how the organization

will treat them. Recruitment and selection represent an
opportunity to clarify these. RJPs provide a means of
achieving this.
RJPs can take the form of case studies, shadowing, job
sampling and videos this enables the expectations of
applicants to become more realistic.
RJPs: lower initial expectations, cause some applicants to
de-select themselves, increase levels of organization
commitment.
http://www.realisticjobpreview.net/tsa_final.htm

 Stress

Interviews

Designed to create
anxiety and put
pressure on an
applicant to see
how the person
responds.

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Personality Tests
Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI)
Myers-Briggs
Big 5 Personality Test
Fakability; socially desirable responses
Honesty/Integrity tests
Violence potential tests

Employee Polygraph Tests

18

Watch the Men In Black 3 part videos

Read the section on Selection Tests in your
HRM textbooks.
Comment on which tests mentioned in the
book you can see applied in the movie scenes
This is an ungraded assignment but this
makes for attendance for our missed class of
3-11-2014.
Due date is 10th Nov 2014 in-class. No late
submissions allowed. Non-submission will be
counted as an absence.

Go through the Deloitte Website and have a look at

their 2014 and 2015 Selection Process.
Under the 2014 Selection Process Tab there are
two kinds of test simulations: IN-BASKET and
PSYCHOMETRIC TESTS
You have two tasks:

1. Match Competency areas and selection tools that

Deloitte used in both 2014 and 2015. Critique if Deloittes
selection process is aligned with its recruitment goals
2. Attempt anyone of the two tests and present the results
sheet.
Submission: 12th November 2014. Word count: max
600words
Be Creative. Be original
e.g. http://mycareer.deloitte.com/uk/en/university/applynow/selection-process/etray-exercise-and-examples

 Information elicited interviews have a specific

focus, i.e. facts, subjective information, underlying

attitudes.

Structure ranging from the completely structured

to the unstructured. A compromise between the two

enables the interviewer to maintain control yet
allowing the interviewee free expression.

Order and involvement the need to obtain

different kinds of information may mean the

involvement of more than one interviewer.
Applicants may be interviewed serially or in a panel.

An interview
A procedure designed to obtain information from a
person through oral responses to oral inquiries

Types of interviews
Selection interview
Appraisal interview
Exit interview

Interviews formats
Structured
Unstructured

Unstructured sequential interview

An interview in which each interviewer forms an

independent opinion after asking different questions.

Structured sequential interview

An interview in which the applicant is interviewed

sequentially by several persons; each rates the applicant
on a standard form.

Panel interview

An interview in which a group of interviewers questions

the applicant.

Mass interview

A panel interviews several candidates simultaneously.

2005 Prentice Hall Inc. All rights

reserved.

Structured
Interviews

Biographical
Interview

Behavioral
Interview

Competency
Interview

Situational
Interview

26

Situational Questions:
1. Suppose a co-worker was not following standard work procedures. The co-worker was
more experienced than you and claimed the new procedure was better. Would you use
the new procedure?
2. Suppose you were giving a sales presentation and a difficult technical question arose
that you could not answer. What would you do?
Past Behavior Questions:
3. Based on your past work experience, what is the most significant action you have ever
taken to help out a co-worker?
4. Can you provide an example of a specific instance where you developed a sales
presentation that was highly effective?
Background Questions:
5. What work experiences, training, or other qualifications do you have for working in a
teamwork environment?
6. What experience have you had with direct point-of-purchase sales?
Job Knowledge Questions:
7. What steps would you follow to conduct a brainstorming session with a group of
employees on safety?
8. What factors should you consider when developing a television advertising campaign?

Note: The example assesses both teamwork (1,3,5,7)

and sales attributes (2,4,6,8) for each type of
question.

Conducting an Effective Interview

Plan the
Interview

Control the
Interview

Questioning
Techniques

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Prepare for the interview

Secure a private room to minimize interruptions.
Review the candidates application and rsum.
Review the job specifications

Establish rapport
Put the person at ease.

Ask questions
Follow your list of questions.
Dont ask questions that can be answered yes or
no.

Structure your interview:

1. Base questions on actual job duties.
2. Use job knowledge, situational, or behaviorally
oriented questions and objective criteria to
evaluate the interviewees responses.
3. Train interviewers.
4. Use the same questions with all candidates.
5. Use descriptive rating scales (excellent, fair, poor)
to rate answers.
6. Use multiple interviewers or panel interviews.
7. If possible, use a standardized interview form.
8. Control the interview.
9. Take brief, unobtrusive notes during the interview.

Questions to Avoid

Yes/No questions
Obvious questions
Questions that rarely produce a true answer
Leading questions
Illegal questions
Questions that are not job related

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Interviewer behaviors affecting interview

outcomes
Inadvertently telegraphing expected answers.
Talking so much that applicants have no time to
answer questions.
Letting the applicant dominate the interview.
Acting more positively toward a favored (or similar
to the interviewer) applicant.

Snap Judgments
Negative Emphasis
Halo Effect

Poor
Interviewing
Techniques

Biases and Stereotyping

Cultural Noise
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