8.3 Employee Selection

3. How do firms select qualified applicants?

After a firm has attracted enough job applicants, employment specialists begin the selection process. Selection is the process of determining which people in the applicant pool possess the qualifications necessary to be successful on the job. The steps in the employee selection process are shown in Exhibit 8.6. An applicant who can jump over each step, or hurdle, will very likely receive a job offer; thus, this is known as the successive hurdles approach to applicant screening. Alternatively, an applicant can be rejected at any step or hurdle. Selection steps or hurdles are described below:

1. Initial screening. During initial screening, an applicant completes an application form and/or submits a résumé, and has a brief interview of 30 minutes or less. The job application includes information about educational background, previous work experience, and job duties performed.

2. Employment testing. Following initial screening, the applicant may be asked to take one or more tests, such as the Wonderlic Personnel Tests. Wonderlic offers a suite of pre-employment tests for each phase of the hiring process. Used individually or together, the tests can assess cognitive ability (ability to learn, adapt, and solve problems), motivation potential (attitude, behavior performance, and productivity), and knowledge and skills (math, verbal, data entry, software proficiency).⁵

   HR Senior Vice President Martha LaCroix of the Yankee Candle Company uses personality assessments to make sure that prospective employees will fit the firm’s culture. LaCroix was helped by Predictive Index (PI) Worldwide in determining Yankee Candle’s best- and worst-performing store managers for developing a best practice behavioral profile of a top-performing store manager.⁶ The profile was used for personality testing and to develop interview questions that reveal how an applicant may behave in certain work situations.

   Exhibit 8.6 Steps of the Employee Selection Process (Attribution: Copyright Rice University, OpenStax, under CC BY 4.0 license.)

3. Selection interview. The tool most widely used in making hiring decisions is the selection interview, an in-depth discussion of an applicant’s work experience, skills and abilities, education, and career interests. For managerial and professional positions, an applicant may be interviewed by several persons, including the line manager for the position to be filled. This interview is designed to determine a person’s communication skills and motivation. During the interview, the applicant may be presented with realistic job situations, such as dealing with a disgruntled customer, and asked to describe how they would handle the problem. Carolyn Murray of W.L. Gore & Associates (maker of Gore-Tex, among other products) listens for casual remarks that may reveal the reality behind applicant answers to her questions. Using a baseball analogy, Murray gives examples of how three job candidates struck out with her questions. See Table 8.2.⁷

   Striking Out at the Interview Game
   The Pitch (Question to Applicant)	The Swing (Applicant’s Response)	The Miss (Interviewer’s Reaction to Response)
   “Give me an example of a time when you had a conflict with a team member.”	“Our leader asked me to handle all of the FedExing for our team. I did it, but I thought that FedExing was a waste of my time.”	“At Gore, we work from a team concept. Her answer shows that she won’t exactly jump when one of her teammates needs help.”
   “Tell me how you solved a problem that was impeding your project.”	“One of the engineers on my team wasn’t pulling their weight, and we were closing in on a deadline. So I took on some of their work.”	“The candidate may have resolved the issue for this particular deadline, but they did nothing to prevent the problem from happening again.”
   “What’s the one thing that you would change about your current position?”	“My job as a salesman has become boring. Now I want the responsibility of managing people.”	“He’s probably not maximizing his current territory, and he is complaining. Will he find his next role ‘boring’ and complain about that role, too?”

   Table 8.2

4. Background and reference check. If applicants pass the selection interview, most firms examine their background and check their references. In recent years, an increasing number of employers, such as American Airlines, Disney, and Microsoft, are carefully researching applicants’ backgrounds, particularly their legal history, reasons for leaving previous jobs, and even creditworthiness.

5. Physical exams and drug testing. A firm may require an applicant to have a medical checkup to ensure they are physically able to perform job tasks. Drug testing is common in the transportation and health care industries. Southwest Airlines, BNSF Railway, Texas Health Resources, and the U.S. Postal Service use drug testing for reasons of workplace safety, productivity, and employee health.

6. Decision to hire. If an applicant progresses satisfactorily through all the selection steps (or jumps all of the selection hurdles), a decision to hire the person is made; however, the job offer may be contingent on passing a physical exam and/or drug test. The decision to hire is nearly always made by the manager of the new employee.

An important aspect of employee recruitment and selection involves treating job applicants as valued customers; in fact, some applicants may be customers of the firm.