6 – Selection, Induction and Placement

Introduction

The hiring procedure establishes a contractual relationship between the employer and the employee.

6.1 Definition

It is a method of separating applicants to find (and hire) those who have a better chance of succeeding in a job.

It entails taking steps to hire people with the aptitude and qualifications to fill open company positions.

It’s a matching procedure in which a “FIT” between a person and a job is sought.

6.1.1 Recruitment vs. Selection:

Criteria	Recruitment	Selection
Definition	The process of attracting a pool of qualified candidates for a job opening.	The process of choosing the most suitable candidate from the recruited pool.
Focus	Broad and inclusive, aiming to generate interest and applications from potential candidates.	Narrow and specific, aiming to evaluate and choose the best fit for the job.
Objective	To create a diverse and qualified candidate pool.	To identify and hire the best candidate for the specific job.
Scope	Precedes selection, a continuous process that builds a talent pipeline.	Follows recruitment, a focused process to assess and make the final hiring decision.
Activities	Job posting, advertising, networking, and employer branding.	Resume screening, interviews, assessments, reference checks, and job offers.
Timing	It starts before a job vacancy is available, often as part of workforce planning.	It begins when a specific job opening needs to be filled.
Decision-Making	Involves creating interest in the organization and encouraging applications.	It involves evaluating candidate’s qualifications and suitability for the job.
Involvement	It involves HR professionals, recruiters, and sometimes hiring managers.	It involves HR professionals, hiring managers, and interviewers.
Outcome	A pool of interested and potentially qualified candidates.	The selection of the best-qualified candidate for the job.
Emphasis on Fit	Emphasizes fit with the organization’s culture and values.	Emphasizes fit with the specific job requirements and skills.
Long-Term Perspective	Focuses on building relationships with potential candidates for future openings.	Focuses on immediate hiring needs and the specific requirements of the current job opening.
Legal Considerations	Ensures compliance with equal opportunity and anti-discrimination laws.	Ensures fairness, objectivity, and compliance throughout the selection process.

6.2 Selection Procedure: Steps in the Process

1. Screening or Preliminary Interview

When there are many applicants, a preliminary interview is advantageous for both the firm and the applicant. The major goal of such an interview is to eliminate unsuitable/unqualified candidates immediately. It’s important to ensure that the “weeding out” procedure doesn’t result in losing attractive employees. Six criteria have been suggested as knock-out considerations in the preliminary screening procedure for sales executives. They are as follows:

1. Residence insecurity
2. Business failure within two years
3. Within two years, divorce or separation
4. Personal indebtedness that is excessive
5. An excessively high level of living
6. There is an unexplained gap in your employment history. This is also known as a courtesy interview.

2. Form of Application

It is customary and well-accepted to serve material from a prospective candidate in this manner. Many businesses design their application forms based on the required data, which depends on the size, nature, and level of the company’s position. They also create various application forms for multiple jobs at multiple levels. It contains the following items:

1. Personal information: It contains a person’s name, current and permanent address, gender, date of birth, marital status, nationality, height, weight, and the number of dependents. It also includes information on the applicant’s socioeconomic history and family status and how these factors affect the employee’s behaviour. Management can use this information to determine the candidate’s suitability.
2. Educational Achievements: Education (subjects offered and grades earned), special field training, and information gained from professional/technical institutes, evening classes, or correspondence courses.
3. Work Experience: Prior work experience, number of jobs held, nature of duties and responsibilities, length of various assignments, reason for leaving prior employer
4. Salary: Expected, as well as additional benefits.
5. Personal items: Association membership, personal likes and dislikes, and hobbies are all examples of individual items.
6. References: Previous employer’s name and address, as well as references.

Designing the Application Form: Key Issues

An application form should contain a genuine and essential set of questions. Unnecessary questions should be avoided. By their very nature or language, they should not encourage dishonest responses. The form should be filled out to relieve the interviewer of any additional work.

Four types of information should be acquired from the application form based on the analysis above:

1. To begin, one can make substantive decisions such as “Does the candidate have the necessary education and experience to execute the job?”

2. Second, inferences about the applicants’ previous success and growth can be drawn.

3. Third, based on the applicant’s previous job history, one can form assumptions regarding his steadiness.

4. Fourth, the application data may be used to forecast which candidates will be successful on the job and which will not.

Assessment of the Application Form

The clinical method enlists the aid of psychology. A well-designed form can reveal information about a person’s ability to lead, emotional stability, aggressiveness, writing ability, and attitude toward his superiors, among other things.

Weighted Method:

The applicants’ answers on the application form are assigned specific points or weights. High marks are generally given to elements that have a solid link to job success. Each applicant’s overall score is calculated by adding the weights of the various item replies. The scores obtained are then used to make a selection decision. It’s excellent for jobs with many employees, such as sales and technical occupations, and especially for jobs with a high turnover rate. There are several issues with the Weighted Application Blank. If they have numerous operational levels with unique features, the expense of designing a Weighted Application Blank could be excessive.

The usefulness of the Application Form

1. It provides a formal introduction to the candidate.
2. It can be used to start a conversation in the interview.
3. It allows the company to compare applicants and filter and reject candidates who do not fulfil the eligibility criteria at this level.

3.  Workplace Assessment

They are used to obtain information about an applicant that is not available in the application blank or during the interview. They assist in matching individual traits to open positions to hire the right people.

The following tests are used:

1. Intelligence assessment
2. Performance evaluations
3. A test of aptitude
4. Personality assessment
5. Evaluation centre
6. Graphology examinations
7. Polygraph examinations
8. Integrity exams

Intelligence tests are examinations of mental ability. They assess your capacity to learn, comprehend instructions, and make decisions. Memory, vocabulary, verbal fluency, numerical aptitude, and perception are among the talents tested. Competitive examinations for entry-level management positions in the banking, insurance, and other financial services sectors use these assessments. Stanford-Binet, Binet-Simon, and other tests are among them.

Achievement Tests determine what an applicant can do on the job right now. A typing test, for example, demonstrates typing proficiency, whereas a shorthand test assesses a person’s ability to take dictation. They’re also known as work sampling tests and consider a job candidate’s ability to perform a small section of the job. They entail:

1. Motor-related physical manipulation of objects
2. Verbal

Aptitude Test:

Determines a person’s ability to master specific skills, such as clerical, mechanical, or mathematical. These exams determine whether or not a person has the ability to learn a new job fast and effectively.

Personality Test:

Assesses an individual’s personality traits and the relationship between those traits and job requirements. Motivation, emotional equilibrium, self-confidence, and interpersonal behaviour are among the personality traits that are assessed. Minnesota Multiphase Personality Inventory (MMPI), California Psychological Inventory, and Manifest Anxiety Scale are some available assessments.

The assessment centre is a significant work sample. It incorporates both group and individual exercises. A team of 6 to 8 professional assessors evaluates a group of applicants.

Techniques

1. Reports, memoranda, and letters are gathered in baskets.
2. Group Discussions: to assess interpersonal skills, group acceptance, leadership, and individual sway.
3. Business simulations
4. Personal Presentation.
5. Interview that is structured.

Graphology tests determine a person’s personality and emotional makeup by analysing lines, loops, hooks, strokes, and curves in their handwriting.

Polygraph tests, sometimes known as lie diction tests, use a moving roll of paper to record physical changes in the body, such as breathing, blood pressure, and perspiration while answering a series of questions. Suitable for government entities looking to fill roles in security, police, fire, and health.

Issues: Is it possible to prove that the polygraph responses were obtained solely due to a lie being told? What about cases where a person lies without feeling guilty (pathological liar) or lies because they believe the response is correct?

Integrity tests assess employee honesty and forecast which employees are more likely to steal from their employers. These kinds of inquiries are common.

Do you regularly bring office supplies home with you? Do you also keep track of your co-workers’ attendance?

Have you ever lied to someone?

4. Selection Test Standards

1. Reliability: Test scores should not vary significantly under repeated situations.

a. Test-retest reliability: when techniques are performed on the same person, they produce the same results.

b. Inner-rater reliability: when two or more distinct rates are utilised, the results are the same.

c. Intra-rater reliability: a technique that produces consistent findings when the same rater is asked to rate the same behaviour or attitude at different times.

2. Validity: This refers to how well an instrument measures what it claims to measure. Consider typing speed as an example.

a. Content validity refers to how closely the test’s content matches the reality of the workplace. Typing tests, for example, have high content validity for typists.

b. Construct validity refers to the degree to which a particular feature is linked to good work performance. For example, honesty is crucial for a bank teller.

3. Qualified People

4. Preparation

5. Suitability

5.  Employment Interview

It is the process of interviewing candidates for a job. In this step, the interviewer compares the information he has gathered about the candidate through various ways to the job requirements and his observations during the interview.

It allows recruiters to do the following:

1. Ask questions not addressed in the tests.
2. To assess the candidates’ motivation and intelligence.
3. To judge uneasiness, appearance, and facial emotions.
4. To inform the candidate of the company’s policies and programmes and promote the company’s goodwill.

The interview may address the following topics:

1. Experience and education
2. Previous Employment
3. Work history inconsistencies
4. Health, financial, and household information
5. Relationship status
6. Favourite and least-favourite things
7. Expected level of success
8. After-school activities.

6.3 Different Types of Interviews

1. Review interview: After the performance appraisal, the superior and subordinate sit together to discuss the subordinate’s rating and possible remedial steps.
2. The interview for selection.
3. Conduct an exit interview.

6.3.1 Different Types of Selection Interviews

1. Non-directive Interview: In this type of interview, the recruiter asks questions as they arise. There isn’t a set format, and the questions can be interpreted in any way.

2. Patterned Interview: The employees are asked a set of questions in a planned order—questions on their technical ability, personality qualities, attitudes, and motivation, among other things.

3. Structural Interview: These are pre-determined job-related questions each candidate asks. They are expected to perform a specific task.

4. Panel Interview: In this sort of interview, a group of panellists representing various stakeholders in the hiring process interview the candidate. There are multiple ways to conduct the interview using this style. The following are some examples of formats:

a. Format of the presentation: The candidate is given a general topic and requested to present to the panel. This expression is frequently employed in academic or sales-related interviews.

b. Role format: Each panellist is responsible for asking questions about a certain role within the position. For example, one panellist may ask technical questions, another may ask managerial questions, and yet another may inquire about customer service.

c. Skeet shot format: A panel of experts asks the candidate questions in fast succession to assess his or her ability to handle stressful situations.

In a standard panel interview, the applicant meets with three to five interviewers, each asking questions. Following the interview, the interviewers pool their observations to reach an agreement on the applicant’s eligibility. Based on their skills and experience, panel members can offer unique and intelligent questions to elicit deeper and more meaningful responses from candidates. An interview like this could also reduce the impact of any interviewer’s prejudices. Conversely, a panel interview may pressure you more than a typical job applicant.

5. Stress Interview: A stress interview is one in which the candidate is made uncomfortable by a series of typically unpleasant, obnoxious, or embarrassing questions designed to test the applicant’s confidence and ability to stand tall in a challenging environment.

6.4 Steps in Interview Process

It’s a performance. Interviewees must be treated to give a positive picture of the organisation.

Take Extra Care to Avoid Making Interview Errors

1. Give preference to applicants who share their viewpoints.
2. Not asking the proper questions and receiving pertinent answers.
3. Could be swayed by ‘cultural noise,’ which refers to comments that the applicant believes are socially acceptable rather than facts.
4. They may be unduly influenced by stereotyping, which is identifying a certain personality trait with a person’s origin or cultural background.
5. He may allow his personal preferences to influence the ratings (bias).
6. A candidate who is poorly dressed is not clever; pretty females are good for public transactions and so on. Athletes make good salespeople, according to the ‘Halo effect.’
7. Incorrect candidate order.
8. Have been under time constraints to fill a position on short notice.
9. Have been impacted by his or her behaviour (body language), clothing (particularly in the case of a female candidate), and other physical features unrelated to the job.

It isn’t a foolproof selecting strategy. It could have some flaws:

1. It is costly equipment.
2. It can only assess a candidate’s personality, not his talents or capacity to perform the job.
3. It is based on the interviewer’s judgement, which may or may not be correct.
4. The interviewer may be unable to get the most information from the candidate.

6.4.1 Reference Checking

In the application blank, an applicant may be asked to provide two types of references:

1. Character citations
2. References from previous experiences

The absence of standardisation and objectivity in this procedure is a drawback. Even after assuring that the material provided will be accurate, it is rare to obtain the right assessment about the candidate.

6.4.2 Medical Check-Up

A thorough medical check will ensure that the employee maintains a higher level of health and physical fitness and lower the rate of accidents, labour turnover, and absenteeism.

The following are some of the benefits of a medical examination:

1. It determines the applicant’s physical capabilities to meet the employment requirements.
2. It protects the company from unjustified claims under workers’ compensation legislation and lawsuits for damages.
3. It helps to keep communicable infections out of the workplace.

6.4.3 Job Opportunity

It’s done with a letter of appointment, which includes a deadline for the appointee to report to duty. Decency requires that he inform rejected applicants of their non-selection.

6.4.4 Assessment of the Selection Process

Review of the Program

1. Does the selection process adhere to HRM theory and practice?
2. Have clear policies and procedures for selection been established?
3. Are the employment policies in line with the government’s goals?
4. How well are the program’s objectives and processes communicated to everyone involved in or affected by it?
5. How well is the programme being carried out?

Feedback

1. How many people have turned down the company?
2. What image does the university and institute project to the public?

Analysis of the Findings

1. How well do those who are employed on the job perform?
2. What percentage of applicants are hired?
3. How much of employee turnover can be due to poor hiring decisions?
4. What impact does each of the selection techniques have on the outcome?

6.5 Induction of New Employees

The first step after selecting personnel is to familiarise them with organisational life. An organization’s induction or orientation programme is a procedure that guides and counsels workers to familiarise them with their jobs and the organisation. This procedure aids an organisation in clarifying employment terms and conditions, as well as specific job needs, and instilling trust in new employees.

Induction Training in India, for example.

1. Aptech:

The organisation follows a planned induction training programme for new employees. The one-day session includes a briefing about the company’s market position, business, operating style, organizational structure, and HR policies. Before being assigned to their departments, the entrants know what others do. A six-month behavioural training programme in team building, self-development, customer sensitivity, and other topics is also available. Finally, the recruits are evaluated to see how well they fit in and how far they’ve progressed.

2. Maruti Udyog: The corporation tailors its initiation programmes to the needs of each new hire. The programme is divided into four segments for engineers:

(i) familiarise themselves with various functions and meet division heads;

(ii) work on the shop floor;

(iii) work in various other departments; and

(iv) work for around two months in departments where they will eventually work.

3. Standard Chartered Bank:

Management trainees are selected from top B-schools and undertake a 6-month induction programme. During this time, the trainees spend time in the bank’s many divisions to understand the bank’s operations and meet each of the bank’s business leaders. Following that, a two-day team-building session will take place. The recruits must attend a job review session after taking over the position.

6.5.1 Objectives

The following are the general goals of such a programme:

1. To familiarise new employees with the organisational environment, including the organisation’s mission, history, and traditions, its accomplishments and future difficulties, as well as its personnel policy and expectations from employees.
2. Instil a positive mindset in the minds of new employees.
3. To instil proper understanding in new personnel, allowing them to grasp the organization’s operations.
4. To allow employees to interact with their co-workers and the organization’s management.

A good induction programme should include the following topics, which are neatly divided between the organisation’s and the employees’ perspectives.

The Point of View of the Organization

1. The organization’s history, mission, goals, and philosophy.
2. Its product, manufacturing process, operations involved, and technological state.
3. Its past accomplishments, current state, and long-term growth strategy.
4. The organization’s structure and the various departments’ functions.
5. Authority delegation and decision-making process
6. Personnel policies, practises, and regulations, as well as miscellaneous policies, practises, and regulations.
7. Responsibilities and job descriptions
8. New employee expectations

From the Employee’s Perspective

1. Job duties and obligations.
2. Administrative procedures.
3. Procedures for dealing with complaints.
4. Salary and benefits.
5. Service regulations affecting working hours and overtime.
6. Probation, confirmation, promotion opportunities, transfer, and other rules
7. Benefits from retirement and superannuation.
8. Employee services and welfare activities are number eight on the list.
9. Employee participation in small group activities and questioning techniques.
10. Evaluation of performance.

6.5.2 Induction Program Steps

The following are the steps that make up an induction programme:

1. General Orientation:

This consists of guided tours of various departments within an organisation, introductions with coworkers, supervisors, and executives, as well as information about the organization’s mission, philosophy, accomplishments, and plans, among other things. Some companies have printed manuals that they send to new workers to help them get acquainted with their induction training programmes for a week or so. A general orientation programme like this aims to instil a sense of pride in new employees and pique their interest in the organisation.

2. Specific Orientation:

This is designed to assist new employees in acclimating to their new workplace. The employee’s supervisor or departmental leader drives him to work and provides vocational counselling for his particular line of work. He is also informed about the organization’s technology, environment, other facilities, existing norms and customs, and unique employee expectations. Executives and managerial personnel are given targets and key result areas to help them understand what the company expects of them.

3. Follow-up Orientation:

This orientation occurs after an employee has been inducted for the first time, ideally within six months. It aims to provide employees with direction and advice to ensure that they are reasonably content and gradually settle into the organisation.

6.6 Placement

After completing the basic programme, an employee is assigned a specific task for which he has been chosen. Most firms place new employees on probation for a set time before confirming or making them permanent, assuming they meet the company’s requirements. The personnel department monitors the growth of such individuals regularly, receiving comments on their performance from their superiors. Some companies have a system to prolong the probationary period if employees fail to meet the company’s expectations. Differential placement is the term for this type of placement.

The term “placement” refers to allocating individuals to occupations they have been determined suitable using various selection processes. However, such a definition would be nonsensical if a specific person is hired to fill a particular position. When a group of trainees is recruited, the placement topic usually arises. Organizations establish provisions for short-term placement in such instances to determine an employee’s genuine potentiality. Employees can work in various occupations during this period through a systematic job rotation programme. Permanent placement is done later, based on the employees’ competence, knowledge, skill, and job interest.

6.7 Requirements and Issues in Induction and Placement

Labour has been transformed into an item for competitive sale and purchase as a result of the widespread use of higher technology, increased levels of knowledge and skills among new job entrants, production restructuring and flexibility, and a shift in perception about human resources, which is now considered the most important resource of an organisation. Despite India’s unemployment crisis, there is still a scarcity of knowledge and qualified workers, executives, and managers. The government of India’s recent economic liberalisation initiative has now prepared the door for multinationals and foreign enterprises to enter the country. The competition has become even more intense as a result of market globalisation. For example, developing a whole quality management philosophy necessitates a significant shift in product and service mix. All of this has enhanced the possibility for career mobility for employees with the necessary type and degree of knowledge and abilities.

Unfortunately, in the Indian business sector, retaining personnel after recruitment and selection is a wholly disregarded issue. Many organisations spend millions of rupees on job advertisements, exams and interviews, engaging consultants and psychologists, and so on selecting a managerial staff. A poor induction programme, which does not focus enough on instilling confidence and a sense of belonging in new employees, leads to rapid separation and waste of a large amount of money for the company. In the public sector, this type of encounter is highly prevalent. Recently, a major Tata corporation lost hundreds of talented engineers and experts who left in masse to pursue other opportunities.

On the other hand, some firms do not monitor the development of new employees who, although unproductive, become permanent after completing their probationary period. As a result, a successful induction and placement programme must ensure employee retention by keeping their motivation high while removing unproductive personnel from the workplace.