HUMAN Resources Assignment

© 2007 SHRM. Marc C. Marchese, Ph.D.

of who he/she knows (e.g., my dad is the boss, so I got the job) or taking the first person who walks through the door to a get a “body” on the sales floor as soon as possible. Employee selection is a formal process in which the organization (1) identifies the tasks, duties and responsibilities (TDRs) associated with the job; (2) assesses applicants’ readiness to successfully perform these TDRs; and (3) offers the job to the most qualified applicant for the position.

Organizations that adopt an employee selection approach to hiring must make a series of decisions to develop an effective process that identifies the most-qualified applicant.

1. Review and Revise the Job Description The first step to establish an employee selection process is to review and possibly revise the job description for the position. An accurate job description contains a job specification section, which includes the knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics (e.g., college degree, driver’s license, relevant work experience), or KSAOs, needed for the job incumbent.

2. Choose the Appropriate Selection Methods After identifying the significant KSAOs, the next step is to choose the selection methods. Selection methods may include an employment interview, a personality inventory, submission of a résumé, etc. These selection methods are used to assess the identified KSAOs.

3. Create an Implementation Schedule Once the selection criterion and methods are decided, an implementation schedule must be created. An implementation schedule determines the order in which selection methods are administered. After the schedule is determined, selection methods are applied to the applicant pool. As a result, some applicants will no longer be considered for the opening. In addition, a scoring system may be used to identify the strongest candidates. At the end of the selection process, the “best” applicant is selected and offered the job.

4. Assess the Effectiveness of the Selection System Once the top applicant accepts the job, the selection process itself is complete. It is recommended, however, that the process be evaluated from time to time to ensure its effectiveness. When evaluating the selection system, two approaches can be used: an adverse impact analysis and/or a study to assess decision-making accuracy.

Even if a selection process treats applicants equally, a discrimination lawsuit may still result if the equal treatment had an unequal effect on a particular protected class. An adverse impact analysis can be conducted to determine if the selection system has an unequal effect based on a protected class of applicants.

The selection system can also be evaluated to assess its predictive accuracy for job success or decision-making accuracy. Even if the selection system is working properly in terms of nondiscrimination, it does not make sense for an organization to use a hiring approach that is not effective at predicting successful employees. In this exercise, you will have an opportunity to conduct both of these evaluation approaches.

Many people without a background in human resource management mistakenly equate hiring with employee selection. Hiring is a broad concept that can take several approaches, such as offering a job to someone because

Employee Selection—Structured Exercise

Background for Assignments 1, 2 and 3

© 2007 SHRM. Marc C. Marchese, Ph.D.

Outline of the Three Major Assignments

Background for Assignments 1, 2 and 3

Assignment 1: Part A Employee Selection Exercise Assignment 1: Part B Operationalizing Your Assessment Assignment 1: Part C Apply Your Assessment Systems

Assignment 2: Part A Selection Strategy Assignment 2: Part B Weighted Compensatory Approach

Assignment 3: Part A Evaluating Disparate Impact Discrimination Assignment 3: Part B Reflection on Employee Selection