Human Resource Management
Recruitment & Selection Lecture
Tessa Owens
Module Leader
1
HRM
Learning Outcomes
1. To be able to produce job descriptions and




specifications and distinguish between them.
Understand the importance of effective
Recruitment and Selection
Analyse some of the methods used in this field in
the UK and elsewhere
Identify the requirements of an interview, typical
interviewer errors and how to avoid them
Examine the need for feedback and evaluation of
this process
2
Job Description
This is a written description of the job
containing the title, reporting relationships,
purpose and main tasks and duties
3
Purposes of Job Descriptions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
to assist in the evaluation of the job
to illustrate the job and its many duties as a
training tool for new incumbents
to be used to determine appraisal criteria
to be the basis of the contract of employment
to provide the information required to
produce person specifications
4
Job Specifications
A job (or person, or personnel) specification sets
out the education, qualifications, training,
experience, personal attributes and
competences a job holder requires to perform
the job satisfactorily.
Within this some requirements may be described
as essential/desirable/ or ‘contra’
5
Models of Job Specifications
 See Rodger (1952) Seven Point Plan







Physical make-up
Attainments
General intelligence
Special aptitudes
Interests
Disposition
Circumstances
 Munro-Fraser (1954) Five fold grading system.





Impact on others
Acquired qualifications
Innate abilities
Motivation
Adjustment
6
Shortlisting
An assessment matrix

Categorise candidates as probable,
possible or unsuitable, by comparing c.v
against pre determined criteria. An
assessment matrix can aid objectivity.
Qualifications
Experience
Evidence of
leadership
ability
Evidence of
reliability
Candidate
1
8/10
2/10
0/10
4/10
Candidate
2
4/10
9/10
7/10
7/10
Candidate
3
8/10
8/10
7/10
10/10
7
Subjective?
Watson (1994) believed that the use of person
specification frameworks may provide a
“cloak for improper discrimination” (p.189)
Why might this be true?
8
Selection Methods
Many methods of selection exist:
 Application forms / C.Vs
 Initial telephone interviews (CIPD 2001, cited
Beardwell et al 2004)
 One-to-one interviews
 Panel interviews
 Psychometric tests
 Assessment Centres
 Testing
 ‘In tray’ exercise
 Presentation
 Trial Project
9
Activity
What are the strengths and weaknesses of the
selection methods used?
10
Making the ‘right’ choice
 The cost of the selection process itself,
including the use of various selection
instruments
 The future cost of inducting and training staff
 The cost of turnover if the selected staff are
not retained.
11
Reliable &Valid Selection?
 Reliability and Validity are 2 statistical concepts which
are important in selection
 Reliability – refers to the extent to which a selection
technique achieves consistency in what it is
measuring over repeated use, e.g. what matters is
how an individual is being measured not by who.
 Validity – refers to the extent to which a selection
technique actually measures what it sets out to
measure. For example where the selection methods
adopted have been used before, did the organisation
get ‘the right’ employees?
12
The trouble with interviews
 Research suggests that traditional interviews
don’t appear to be reliable or valid!
 ‘Pre-selection’ can take place where implicit
discrimination is formed (on the grounds of
gender, race, educational qualifications etc)
 First impressions – and early decisions,
which the interviewer may then look to
support with their questioning.
 Stereotyping – interviewers with little skill can
quickly label individuals
13
Trouble with interviews 2
 ‘The contrast effect’ – interviewers are
influenced by the order in which applicants
are interviewed. An ‘average’ candidate
following a ‘poor’ candidate can appear to be
better than they are. Interviewers may
compare applicants against each other rather
than objective criteria.
 Attraction – interviewers may be biased
towards applicants they ‘like’.
14
International Selection Methods
% use of popular selection methods
1. Interviews still most popular – from 97%
(France) to 84% (Israel)
2. References and Recommendations – from
74% (UK) to 23% (Germany)
Others include: Graphology (France 52%,
Netherlands 24%) Astrology (France 6%,
Israel 1%)
15
Activity – Common interviewer errors
What do you think are the common interviewer
errors which occur?
What would you do to overcome them?
16
Poor Interviewer Skills
 Not having a structure
 Welcome, introductions, description of process,
questions, follow-up questions, discussion, summary,
what happens next……………..etc!
 Asking multiple, leading, embarrassing, provocative
questions
 Poor listening skills – this is as important as
questioning skill!
 Interviewer may have poor recall of information
discussed, or may have difficulty interpreting what
they were told and what that means for whether the
applicant can do the job on offer. So make notes!
 and/or use a Scoring System to help make more
objective evaluations.
17
Training for interviewers
Will typically include
1. Questioning techniques
2. Understanding of Equal Opportunities legislation.
You should research (see Learnwise for resources):





Sex and Race discrimination
Disability discrimination
Age discrimination
Employment of people with criminal records
Human Rights Act 1998, e.g. questioning someone
on what they do in their leisure time could infringe
their right to privacy.
18
Questioning Techniques
 Closed Questions
 Leading Questions
 Open Questions
 Probing questions
 Two types of questions have been shown to
improve the validity and reliability of
interviews:


Situational questions
Patterned behaviour description questions
19
Reliable & Valid Questions
 Arvey and Champion (1982) found that panel
interviews were more reliable and valid when
conducted by a panel and based on job
analysis and information.
 Latham et al (1980) found situational
interviews reliable and valid where interview
questions are derived from systematic job
analysis based on a critical incident
technique, i.e. what an applicant would do in
a variety of situations.
20
Reliable &Valid Questions 2
 Pulakos and Schmitt (1995) compared
situational questioning against experiencebased or behavioural questions.
 They found behavioural questions to be more
predicatively valid as the behavioural
question is asking
“What have you done in a similar situation?”
compared to
“What would you do in the situation?”
21
Evaluation
 Once the recruitment and selection event is
complete an evaluation should be conducted.
 Unless this evaluation occurs then the
organisation will not fully understand whether
the methods they are currently using to select
someone for employment are worthwhile and
whether these methods are getting them the
sort of people they need for their
organisation’s long term health and
sustainability.
22
Bibliography
Armstrong, M (1999) A handbook of Human Resource Management Practice 7th edition, Kogan
Page
Arvey, R D & Champion, J E (1982) The employment interview: a summary of recent research.
Personnel Psychology, 35, 281-322.
Beardwell, I & Holden, L, Clayton, T (2004) Human Resource Management 4th edition, Pitman
Publishing
Bratton, J & Gold, J (2003) Human Resource Management: Theory and Practice 3rd Edition,
Palgrave.
Carling, C (1995) How to run a Voluntary Group How to books, Plymouth
Carter, S & Jones, D (2000) Enterprise and Small Business Principles Practice and Policy
Financial Times , Prentice Hall
Foot, M & Hook, C (1999) Introducing Human Resource Management 2nd edition, Longman
Herriot, P Manning, W E G & Kidd, J M (1997) The content of the psychological contract. British
Journal of Management, 8(2):151-62
Legge, K (1995) Human Resource Management. Rhetorics and Realities Macmillan Business
Pulakos, E D & Schmitt, N (1995) Experience- based and situational questions: studies of
validity. Personnel Psychology, 48, 289-309.
Scott, M et al (1989) Management and Industrial Relations in small firms Research Paper No.
70, London: Dept of Employment
Sparrow, P & Hiltrop, J M (1994) European Human Resource Management in Transition. New
York: Prentice Hall
Torrington, D & Hall, L (1998) Human Resource Management 4th Edition, Prentice Hall
Watson, T (1994) Recruitment and selection. In Sisson, K (ed.), Personnel Management. Oxford:
Blackwell.
23