Module 8
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTIONLearning objectives
• Describe the various recruitment policies that organisations adopt to make
job vacancies more attractive
• List the various sources from which job applicants can be drawn, their
relative advantages and disadvantages, and the methods for evaluating
them
• Explain the recruiter’s role in the recruitment process, the limits the recruiter
faces and the opportunities available
• Establish the basic scientific properties of personnel selection methods,
including reliability, validity and generalisability
• Discuss how the particular characteristics of a job, organisation or applicant
affect the utility of any test
• List the common methods used in selecting human resources
• Describe the degree to which each of the common methods
used in selecting human resources meets the demands
of reliability, validity, generalisability, utility and legalityRecruitment
• Any practice or activity carried on by an organisation
with the primary purpose of identifying and attracting
potential employees
• Recruitment activities aim to affect the:
– number of people who apply for vacancies
– type of people who apply for them
– likelihood that those applying for vacancies will
accept positions they are offeredFigure 8.1 Overview of the individual job
choice‒organisational recruitment processHuman resource policies
• Organisational decisions that affect the practices
and systems which, in turn, influence employees’
behaviour, attitudes and performance
• Characteristics of the vacancy are important for
recruiters or recruiting sources when it comes to
predicting job choiceVacancy characteristics
• Internal versus external recruiting
• Lead-the-market pay strategies
• Image advertising
• Emerging/new recruiting strategies:
– job customisation
– alumni groupsRecruitment sources
• Internal versus external
• Direct applicants and referrals
• Advertisements
• Internet recruitment
• Public employment agencies
• Private employment agencies
• UniversitiesTop 10 selection criteria for graduates10 least desirable characteristics when recruiting
graduatesRecruiter traits and behaviours
• Recruiter’s functional area
• Recruiter’s traits
– ‘warmth’ and ‘informativeness’
• Recruiter’s realism
– realistic job preview: accurate information about the
attractive and unattractive aspects of a job, working
conditions, company and location, so potential
employees have appropriate expectations
• Enhancing recruiter impactQuotes from recruits who were repelled by
recruitersSelection
• The process by which a company decides who will
or will not be allowed into the organisation
• Employee selection decisions made over the course
of an organisation’s history are instrumental to its
ability to survive, adapt and growSelection method standards
• Reliability
• Validity
• Generalisability
• Utility
• LegalityTypes of selection methods
• Interviews:
– structured,
– standardised
– focused
– situational interview
items: experience-
based and future-
oriented
• References and
biographical data
• Physical ability tests
• Cognitive ability tests
• Personality inventories
• Work samples
• Honesty tests and drug
testsExamples of experience-based and future-oriented
situational interview itemsDimensions of personality inventories
• Extroversion: sociable, gregarious, assertive, talkative,
expressive
• Adjustment: emotionally stable, non-depressed,
secure, content
• Agreeableness: courteous, trusting, good natured,
tolerant, cooperative, forgiving
• Conscientiousness: dependable, organised,
persevering, thorough, achievement oriented
• Inquisitiveness: curious, imaginative, artistically
sensitive, broad minded, playfulSample items from a typical integrity testA summary
evaluating
employee
selection
methodsSummary
• Recruiting creates an applicant pool the organisation
can draw on for recruits
• There are many sources of recruitment
• Selection methods should conform to five critical
standards:
– reliability
– validity
– generalisability
– utility
– legality