Selection Assessment Methods

Organizations compete fiercely in the war for talent (Pulakos, 2005). Many invest an enormous amount of money, time and other resources in advertising and recruiting strategies to attract the best candidates. This is because today’s executives understand that one of the most important resources in organizations, if not the most important, is human resources (Pulakos, 2005).

The aim of selection is to assess the suitability of candidates by predicting the extent to which they will be able to carry out a role successfully (Armstrong, 2010).

This blog will present and summarize about the value of different types of formal assessment methods that are used to select employees in organizations.

 

The best employee selection methods for choosing top talent

Assess cognitive ability

Cognitive assessment tests evaluate a person’s ability to think and solve problems. Cognitive ability (also called intelligence or the g factor) refers to the capacity to reason, plan, and solve problems (Burke, Cooper and Routledge, 2003).

Schmidt & Hunter, J. (1998), when a person's cognitive ability is measured, employers better understand their ability to:

•           Think abstractly

•           Comprehend concepts

•           Learn from experience

•           Apply new information

•           Adapt to new situations

•           Find solutions to problems

 

A person’s cognitive abilities impact job performance and therefore, cognitive ability plays a crucial role in an employee’s job suitability and success (Burke, Cooper and Routledge, 2003).

 

Evaluate learning agility

The concept of learning agility is much more recent and has more to do with the application of learning and performance success than simply making a connection automatically between a stimulus and a response (De Meuse et.al., 2010).

Columbia University and the Centre for Creative Leadership defined learning agility as “a mindset and corresponding collection of practices that allow leaders to continually develop, grow and utilize new strategies that will equip them for the increasingly complex problems they face in their organizations.”

Lombardo and Eichinger (2000), defined learning agility as “the willingness and ability to learn new competencies in order to perform under first-time, tough, or different conditions”

Organization cannot change if people cannot learn. Leaders frequently see this in terms of new technology. People may resist a new system implementation even when the new system is clearly better than the old one (Howard, Gerald, & Michael, 2003).

Test job knowledge

A job knowledge test is an assessment used to judge an individual's knowledge about the various aspects of a specific job (Ashcraft & Kirk, 2001).

While most of the time that knowledge can be learned on the job and other factors are more important, there are certain roles that require applicants to possess specific job knowledge and skills already (Bangerter, 2012).

Job knowledge tests are used in situations where candidates must already possess a body of knowledge prior to job entry (Pulakos, 2005). Job knowledge tests are not appropriate to use in situations where candidates will be trained after selection on the knowledge areas they need to have (Hunter, 1986).

Biographical Data

Biographical data (biodata) inventories, which ask job candidates questions covering their background, personal characteristics or interests, have been shown to be effective predictors of job performance (Boselie, 2009). The idea is that the best predictor of future performance is past performance. Thus, biodata questions focus on assessing how effectively job candidates performed in the past in areas that are identical or highly related to what they will be required to do on the job for which they are being considered (Armstrong, 2010).

Interviews

The interview is the most common selection device used in organizations (Boselie, 2009).

According to Kvale, (1996) an interview is “a conversation, whose purpose is to gather descriptions of the [life-world] of the interviewee” with respect to interpretation of the meanings of the ‘described phenomena’.

Most selection interviews are unstructured. That is, the questions to be asked are left up to the interviewer to decide, and there are no agreed-upon standards for evaluating an applicant’s performance   during the interview and research has shown that unstructured interviews are not particularly useful for predicting job performance (Boselie, 2009).

Structured interviews, on the other hand, consist of a specific set of questions that are designed to assess critical KSAs (knowledge, skills, abilities) that are required for a job (Campion, Palmer, & Campion 2000). Structured interview questions can be developed to assess almost any KSA, but they are used most frequently to assess softer skills such as interpersonal skills, communication skills, leadership, planning, organizing and adaptability, among others (Judge, Higgins, & Cable, 2000).

Work Sample Tests

Work sample tests consist of tasks or work activities that mirror the tasks that employees are required to perform on the job and work sample tests can be designed to measure almost any job task but are typically designed to measure technically-oriented tasks, such as operating equipment, repairing and troubleshooting equipment, organizing and planning work, and so forth (Burke, Cooper and Routledge, 2003).

Assessment Centres

An assessment center is a type of work sample test that is typically focused on assessing higher-level managerial and supervisory competencies (Gaugler, 2000). Candidates are asked to complete a series of exercises that simulate actual situations, problems and tasks that they would face on the job for which they are being considered, and they are asked to handle these as if they were in the real situation (Thornton, 2004).

 

Criteria for Selecting and Evaluating Assessment Methods

(Pulakos, 2005), It is important for HR professionals to understand the implications and tradeoffs involved in using different types of assessment methods and there is no simple, formulaic approach for selecting “one best” assessment method, because all of them have advantages and disadvantages.

The following tables defines and discusses the four criteria for evaluating assessment methods in detail to help HR practitioners make good decisions about which methods will be most appropriate and practical for their situations (Pulakos, 2005).

Table 1.0 Evaluation of Selection Assessment Methods

(Source: Pulakos, 2005)

  

Challenges of Selection Process

According to Kaplan and Norton (2004), and Zinyemba (2013), there are many challenges that the resource division of an organisation may encounter in its selection process.

-     Poor Human Resource Planning: Kaplan and Norton (2004) are of the opinion that a good human resource planning translates the major organizational goals into specific human resource objectives, policies and practice. However, poor planning for human resource affects the effectiveness of the recruitment and selection process.

-     Nepotism and Favouritism: Management sometimes use their power by virtue of their position to influence the recruitment and selection by recruiting family members, friends and close allies instead of recruiting the most suitable candidate.

-     According to Morrel (2002), Unreliable selection test scores, in competencies on the part of applicants, delays in giving feedback to applicants, among others.

-     Cost of the Recruitment Process: Zinyemba (2013), in order to have a large number of applicants an organisation will have to incur costs in advertising. Advertising is a major method used to attract a greater pool of applicants.

 

 

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