Recruiting and Selecting Employees

• Understand approaches to matching labor supply and demand

• Weigh the advantages and disadvantages of internal and external recruiting

• Distinguish among the major selection methods and use the most legally defensible of them to provide the best ‘fit’ for your firm

• Understand the legal constraints on the hiring process

In This Section…

Human Resource Supply and Demand

• Labor Supply • The availability of workers with the required skills

to meet the firm’s labor demand.• Labor Demand

• How many workers the organization will need in the future.

• Human Resource Planning (HRP) • The process an organization uses to ensure that it

has the right amount and the right kind of people to deliver a particular level of output or services in the future.

Human Resource Supply and Demand (Cont.)

Human Resource Supply and Demand (Cont.)

Forecasting Supply and Demand

• Quantitative Techniques rely on past data and previous relationships between staffing and other variables

• Qualitative Techniques rely on experts’ judgments

Recruitment •Process of generating a pool of qualified candidates for particular job

Selection •Process of making a ‘hire’ or ‘no hire’ decision regarding each applicant for a job

Socialization •Orienting new applicants to the organization and the departments to which they will be working

The Hiring Process

Challenges to the Hiring Process

• Determining the characteristics most important to performance

• Measuring the characteristics that determine performance

• The motivation factor: • performance = ability x motivation

• Who should make the decision?

Meeting the Challenges of Effective Staffing - Recruiting

• Sources of Recruiting• Current employees• Referrals from current employees• Former employees• Print and radio advertisements• Internet advertising and career sites• Employment agencies• Temporary workers• College recruiting• Customers• Military

Meeting the Challenges of Effective Staffing – Recruiting

(Cont.)

• Advantages• Foreknowledge of

candidates’ strengths and weaknesses

• More accurate view of candidate’s skills

• Candidates have a stronger commitment to the company

• Increases employee morale• Less training and orientation

required

• Disadvantages• Failed applicants become

discontented• Time wasted interviewing

outside candidates who will not be considered

• Inbreeding of the status quo

Hiring from Within:


(Cont.)

Job postingPublicizing an open job to employees (often by literally posting it on bulletin boards) and listing its attributes.Rehiring former employeesAdvantages:

They are known quantities.They know the firm and its culture.

Disadvantages:They may have less-than positive attitudes.Rehiring may sent the wrong message to current employees about how to get ahead.

Finding Internal Candidates:


(Cont.)Finding External Candidates:

• Employee referrals• Applicants who are referred to the organization by current

employees• Referring employees become stakeholders.• Referral is a cost-effective recruitment program.• Referral can speed up diversifying the workforce(but

could also cause EEO problems)



• Advertising• The Media: selection of the best medium depends on the

positions for which the firm is recruiting.• Newspapers (local and specific labor markets)• Trade and professional journals



Recruiting via the Internet - More firms and applicants are utilizing the Internet in the job search process

• Advantages of Internet recruiting:• Cost-effective way to publicize job openings• More applicants attracted over a longer period• Immediate applicant responses• Online prescreening of applicants• Links to other job search sites• Automation of applicant tracking and evaluation


(Cont.)Finding External Candidates (Internet):


(Cont.)

Employment agencies:• Public agencies operated by federal, state, or local

governments• Agencies associated with nonprofit organizations• Privately owned agencies


(Cont.)Employment agencies:• Reasons to Use:•When a firm does not have an HR department and is not geared to

doing recruiting and screening.•The firm has found it difficult in the past to generate a pool of

qualified applicants.•The firm must fill a particular opening quickly.•There is a perceived need to attract a greater number of minority or

female applicants.•The firm wants to reach currently employed individuals, who might

feel more comfortable dealing with agencies than with competing companies.

•The firm wants to cut down on the time it is devoting to recruiting.


(Cont.)

• Benefits• Paid only when

working• More productive• No recruitment,

screening, and payroll administration costs

Costs• Fees paid to temp agencies• Lack of commitment to

firm

Temporary Workers


(Cont.)Recruiting a Diverse or Nontraditional Workforce• Single parents

• Providing work schedule flexibility.• Older workers

• Revising polices that make it difficult or unattractive for older workers to remain employed.

• Recruiting minorities and women• Understanding recruitment barriers.• Formulating recruitment plans.

• Welfare-to-work• Developing pre-training programs to overcome

difficulties in hiring and assimilating persons previously on welfare.


(Cont.)Recruiting a Diverse or Nontraditional Workforce

• Minority student associations• College organizations of students with disabilities• Targeted radio announcements • Professional organizations • Minority organizations

Meeting the Challenges of Effective Staffing – Selection

Selection tools (tests, interviews, etc.) must meet criteria for:

• Reliability = consistency of measurement, usually across time, but also across judges

• Validity = extent to which scores on a test, interview or other selection process correspond to actual job performance


(Cont.)Two types of validity:• Content validity = degree to which the content of the

selection method (test) is representative of the job content

• Empirical (criterion related) validity = The extent to which the technique measures the intended knowledge, skill, or ability. In the selection context, it is the extent to which scores on a test or interview correspond to actual job performance.

• Concurrent: correlation between selection and performance when measured at the same time

• Predictive: extent to which selection scores correlate with performance scores when performance is measured later in time


(Cont.)A organization must be able to prove:

• That its tests are related to success or failure on the job (validity)• That its tests don’t unfairly discriminate against minority or non-

minority subgroups (disparate impact).

EEO guidelines and laws apply to all selection devices, including interviews, applications, and references.


(Cont.)Selection tools as predictors for job performance:

• Letters of recommendation:• Not highly related to job performance (too positive)• Can look at traits letter writer attributes to the job candidate

• Application forms

• Ability tests:• Cognitive• Physical/mechanical• Emotional intelligence



• Personality Tests (Big Five)• Extraversion• Emotional stability/neuroticism• Openness to experience• Agreeableness.• Conscientiousness

• Conscientiousness most related to job performance and is a valid indicator

• Myers-Briggs (MBTI)



Honesty tests• Psychological tests designed to predict job applicants’

proneness to dishonesty and other forms of counter productivity.

• Measure attitudes regarding things like tolerance of others who steal, acceptance of rationalizations for theft, and admission of theft-related activities



Job Interviews:• Most common selection tool

• Criticized for poor reliability and low validity

• Interviewers don’t agree

• Bias

• Experience is different from candidate to candidate



Job Interviews – using a structured interview – based on job analysis, job related questions and consistency• Situational Interview Questions

• Supervisors and workers rewrite critical incidents of behavior as situational interview questions then generate and score possible answers as benchmark

• Job Knowledge Questions• Assess whether or not candidate has the basic knowledge needed

to perform the job• Worker Requirements Questions

• Assess whether or not worker is willing to perform the job under prevailing job conditions



Job Interviews – questions can and can not ask…• Marital Status

• Inappropriate:• Are you married?• Is this your maiden or married name?• With whom do you live?

• Appropriate:• After hiring, marital status on tax and insurance forms



Job Interviews – questions can and can not ask…

• Parental Status• Inappropriate:

• How many kids do you have?• Do you plan to have children?

Are you pregnant?• Appropriate:

• After hiring, asking for dependent information on tax and insurance forms



Job Interviews – questions can and can not ask…• Age

• Inappropriate:• How old are you?• What year were you born?• When did you graduate from high school?

• Appropriate:• Before hiring, asking if you are over the legal minimum age for the hours or

working conditions, in compliance with state or Federal labor laws. • After hiring, verifying legal minimum age with a birth certificate or other ID, and

asking age on insurance forms • National Origin

• Inappropriate:• Where were you born?• Where are your parents from?• What's your heritage?

• Appropriate:• Verifying legal U.S. residence or work visa status



Job Interviews – questions can and can not ask…Race or Skin Color

Inappropriate:What race are you?Are you a member of a minority group?

Appropriate:Generally indicate equal opportunity employment. Asking race only as required for affirmative-action programs Religion or Creed

Inappropriate:What religion are you?Which religious holidays will you be taking off from work?Do you attend church regularly?

Appropriate:Contact religious or other organizations related to your beliefs, that you list as employers or references



Job Interviews – questions can and can not ask…Criminal Record

InappropriateHave you ever been arrested?Have you ever spent a night in jail?

Appropriate:Questions about convictions by civil or military courts, if accompanied by a disclaimer that answers will not necessarily cause loss of job opportunity. Specific convictions, if related to fitness to perform the job. Generally, employers can ask only about convictions and not arrests, except for law-enforcement and security-clearance agencies. Disability

Inappropriate:Do you have any disabilities?What's your medical history?How does your condition affect your abilities?

AppropriateAsk if you can perform specific duties of the job.



Assessment Centers:• Simulated tasks or exercises candidates (usually

managerial) are asked to perform

• Expensive, but a valid indicator

Drug Tests:• Correlate to job performance



Reference Checks – best defense against negligent hiring

•Background Checks - To verify factual information provided by applicants, to uncover damaging information

Legal Issues in Staffing

Discrimination Laws (Best Defense):• Evidence of the validity of the selection process

• For ADA “essential job functions”

• Knowing what questions to ask and not to ask

Affirmative Action

Negligent Hiring

Recruiting and Selecting Employees

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