Chapter 6: Staffing and Human Resource Management
Section 6.2 – Recruitment and Selection
Key Terms
 Recruitment
 Selection process
 Reliability
 Validity
 Performance-simulation tests
 Realistic job preview (RJP)
 Orientation
Summary
By combining the knowledge gained through job analysis and knowing their current
staffing levels, managers can recruit new employees or initiate downsizing or layoff
activities. During the recruitment process the concern is locating, identifying, and
attracting capable applicants.
Using sources that reflect the local labor market, the type or level of position, and the size
of the organization, candidates can be located. Employee referrals generally produce the
best candidates but may not increase the diversity and mix of the employees desired. The
explanation for this is intuitively logical. First, those employers prescreen applicants
referred by current employees. Second, because current employees often feel that their
reputation in the organization is at stake with a referral, they tend to make referrals only
when they are reasonably confident that the referral won’t make them look bad.
Once a decision is made to recruit new employees, managers go through a selection
process to predict which candidate will be the most successful if hired. Using selection
procedures that are both reliable and valid reduce the probability of making reject errors
or accept errors with increasing the probability of making correct decisions.
Reliability addresses whether a selection device measures the same characteristic
consistently while management must also make sure the selection device demonstrates
validity as related to successful job performance. More to the point, validity represents a
proven relationship between a selection device and some relevant criterion.
Performance simulation tests are selection devices based on actual job behaviors; work
sampling and assessment centers. The best-known performance simulation tests are work
sampling and simulating real problems one may face on the job. Because of the nature of
the content and the methods used to determine content, well-structured performance
simulation tests are valid predictors.
The interview, along with the application form, is an almost universal selection device.
Interviews can be reliable and valid selection tools, but often they are not. It is important
that interviews are structured and well organized, and interviewers are held to relevant
questioning. Providing a realistic job preview (RJP) to candidates should increase job
satisfaction and reduce turnover. RJP provides both positive and negative aspects of the
job and the company during the selection process.
Through orientation and training, new hires become acclimated to the organization’s
culture and are trained to perform the job in a manner consistent with the organization’s
objectives. Employee training is a learning experience that seeks a relatively permanent
change in employees such that their ability to perform on the job improves. The training,
for both new hires and current employees, could involve changing skills, knowledge,
attitudes, or behavior and may mean changing what the employee knows, how they work,
their attitudes toward their job, co-workers, managers, and the organization.
At least four major questions must be answered to determine training needs:
1. What are the organization’s strategic goals?
2. What tasks must be completed to achieve organizational goals?
3. What behaviors are necessary for each jobholder?
4. What deficiencies do jobholders have?
There are many different types of training methods available. Most are grouped
according to on-the-job or off-the-job training programs. Examples of off-the-job training
methods include classroom lectures, films and videos, simulation exercises and vestibule
training. On the job, training methods include job rotation, understudy and assignments.
Training is evaluated based on how much the participants learned; how well they use
their new skills on the job; and whether the training program achieved its desired results.
Section Outline
I.
Recruitment and Selection
A. Where does a manager recruit candidates?
1. Are certain recruiting sources better than others?
2. How does a manager handle layoffs?
3. What are a manager’s downsizing options?
B. What is the basic method of selecting job candidates?
1. What is reliability?
2. What is validity?
C. How effective are tests and interviews as selection devices?
1. How do written tests serve a useful purpose?
2. What are performance simulation tests?
3. Is the interview effective?
4. How can you close the deal?
II.
Orientation, Training, and Development
A. How do we introduce new hires to the organization?
B. What is employee training?
1. How are employees trained?
2. What are some of the typical methods used?
3. How can managers ensure that training is working?