Selection methods: general characteristics

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

One of the characteristics of any company is the need to staff it with the right people. This allows you to perform one of the central tasks of this area, which consists in the selection (selection) of personnel.

The significance of this work is difficult to overestimate. The fact is that the efficiency of fulfilling the tasks facing the entire company, as well as the use of all the resources necessary for the production process, directly depends on the quality of existing specialists. In this regard, mistakes made in the selection process are costly to the organization. At the same time, recruiting good specialists is a good investment.

Basic concepts

How to competently and effectively approach the issue of recruitment for the organization? It is necessary to go to the set goal professionally and consistently. We all know the wise expression "Cadres decide everything." Not only the well-being of the company, but also the prospects for its development, as well as the atmosphere that will develop within the team will directly depend on the personnel.

What do we mean by recruitment? This term refers to the purposeful work carried out to attract candidates who have the skills and qualities that are needed for the current as well as long-term needs of the company. In other words, recruitment is the search, testing and hiring of people who are able to work and want to do it, while at the same time possessing the competencies necessary for the employer. At the same time, applicants must share the values of the organization.

Importance of doing work for hire

If the selection of employees is carried out qualitatively, then this will allow:

• increase company profits;
• increase productivity;
• get the company on the path of development.

In the event that an unprofessional approach to hiring has taken place, its result is a decrease in company income, failure to meet deadlines for work, and failures in business processes. All this brings the organization back to the starting point, and it again resumes the search for employees, while wasting time and money. Thus, systemic errors made in the application of personnel selection methods lead to a significant increase in company costs.

Dial Sources

How do you find the right people for your company? To do this, recruiters use various sources of recruitment, which, in turn, are divided into two types: external and internal.

The first of them allows you to find the right specialists from among those people who already work in the company. The second type of set is carried out withusing external resources.

Of course, internal sources have limited resources. It is simply impossible to solve the personnel problems that have arisen in the enterprise with their help. That is why the most common when hiring employees are external sources. Conventionally, based on the proposed investments, they are divided into two types, one of which is budgetary, and the second is expensive.

Without significant costs, you can select the right personnel using the services of public employment services and establishing contacts with colleges and universities. High-value sources include recruiting professional agencies, as well as media publications.

Today, there are also free sources that help the company's specialists to hire staff. Their list includes specialized Internet sites that publish resumes and vacancies of the applicant.

There are also a number of types of external sources that allow recruitment. Among them:

1. Recommendations. This is one of the oldest methods of personnel selection, which is also very effective. In this case, candidates are attracted on the recommendation of acquaintances, friends and relatives working in the company. This method is great for organizations with a small staff. However, its main disadvantage is the significant risk of hiring an unqualified specialist.
2. Direct work with applicants. Staffing services in the enterprise can contact those people who are employedindependent search for work, without applying to special organizations. Such applicants themselves call, send resumes, and are also interested in existing vacancies at the enterprise. As a rule, this happens when the company occupies a leading position in the market. And even if the organization does not currently need this specialist, his data should be stored and used if necessary in the future.
3. Advertising in the media. This method, which allows you to attract applicants, is the most common. Announcements about the recruitment of relevant specialists are given on the pages of newspapers, on television and on Internet portals. After that, interested candidates themselves call the company and come for an interview. In this case, specialized websites and publications are also used, which focus on individual industries or on a wide range of professions. But still, the most popular and effective tool used to attract candidates are print publications and online resources. But at the same time, it should be borne in mind that in order for the ad to achieve its goal, it must set out as accurately as possible the requirements that the company makes for the applicant, and give a list of his future job functions.
4. Contacts with educational institutions. Many large corporations working for the future are attracting college and university graduates who do not yet have practical work experience. To this end, representatives of the company hold various events in educational institutions. In this case, evaluatecandidate's professional skills are not possible. In this regard, recruiters consider the personality characteristics of a young specialist, his ability to plan and analyze.
5. Working with labor exchanges. The state always has an interest in eliminating unemployment and in increasing the level of employment of its citizens. In this direction, there is a work of specially created services that have their own databases and often work with large companies. In the list of external methods of recruitment and selection of personnel, this one has one significant drawback. The fact is that not all organizations apply to state employment agencies.
6. Working with recruitment agencies. In recent years, this area of activity has become one of the most actively developing sectors of the economy. Employment agencies have a constantly updated database. In addition, they carry out an independent search for candidates to fulfill the tasks set by customers. For the work they do, recruitment agencies take an impressive remuneration, sometimes reaching up to 50% of the annual salary of the specialist they have found. There are also companies engaged in mass recruitment or, on the contrary, carrying out an "exclusive search" for executives.

With the right selection of external sources, the success of the started business of hiring competent employees who would correspond to the spirit of the company and its profile will be ensured. Moreover, each of the above types of recruitment has its own financial andtime costs that are necessary not only for organizing, but also for conducting a search.

Stages of recruitment

After a successful search for applicants for vacant positions, the following methods of personnel selection are applied: recruitment, selection of personnel and hiring of suitable specialists. Let's take a closer look at these concepts.

Recruitment is understood as the creation of the necessary reserve of suitable candidates who have been found with the help of internal or external sources. Such work is carried out by specialists of the personnel department literally in all speci alties available at the enterprise - production and clerical, administrative and technical. The amount of work that needs to be done in this direction will directly depend on the difference between the available labor resources and the future need for them. In this case, factors such as employee turnover, retirement, dismissals at the end of the contract, as well as the expansion of the organization's field of activity are taken into account.

After creating the necessary base of candidates, the organization should consider the possibility of applying for a vacant position in order to make an appropriate decision. This allows you to make a personnel selection procedure. How is everything going? To do this, after using the selection methods, the selection of personnel is carried out. The following may have a significant impact on the course of this process:

1. The specifics of the organization's activities. Considering its dimensions(small, medium, large), public or commercial, whether it is engaged in production or provides services.
2. Location of the business. If it is large and located on the territory of a certain region, then most of the staff will live near it.
3. Culture that is characteristic of the enterprise. Different companies maintain their own traditions, norms and values, on the basis of which the main orientation occurs in the selection of personnel. After all, it is important that the candidate not only possess the skills to perform the work entrusted to him, but also quickly join the team without violating the existing psychological climate in it.

In order for the company to decide on the admission of an applicant for a vacant position, the necessary candidates are identified.

Selection methods include:

1. Preliminary conversation. Its purpose is to assess the appearance and defining personality traits of a person. Such a conversation is a preliminary screening, allowing you to select from 30 to 40% of candidates for the next stage.
2. Filling out the questionnaire. Of all the methods of personnel assessment and selection, this one is present in the recruitment procedure of any organization. It is desirable that the questionnaire contains a minimum number of items and requests only information that is significant for the employer (about the mindset, about past work, about major achievements).
3. Interview. They are interviews for hire, sometimes conducted by in-house psychologists.firms.
4. Testing. This is one of the personnel selection methods that allows you to obtain data on the professional abilities of the applicant, learn about his attitudes and goals.
5. Conduct review of references and track record of applicant.
6. Passing the candidate a medical examination. This method of personnel selection is used when certain he alth requirements are imposed on the employee.
7. Management's decision to hire a candidate.

Only after a person consistently goes through all of the above stages, we can say that he successfully overcame all the tests and went to work. Up to this point, the company's management continues to carry out activities using various methods of personnel selection. A lot of documents are studied and the results of each applicant are analyzed.

Let's consider the methods of personnel assessment and selection in more detail.

Traditional ways

Such types of personnel selection methods in an organization are a preliminary interview, resume and interview, questionnaires and assessment centers, as well as testing. Their use allows you to get the most complete information about the candidate, as well as learn about his main character traits. Such methods of personnel selection in the organization allow the employer to understand, even before the conclusion of the contract, whether this person is suitable for the enterprise. This allows you to make the right decision. The analysis of personnel selection methods, as a rule, is carried out by a professional psychologist, who is necessarily included in their staff by largecompanies. After all, only after analyzing the data obtained, all the positive aspects of the applicant and his shortcomings can be identified.

Let's consider the methods of primary selection of personnel, which are traditional.

Pre-talk

This is the first step in applying recruitment and selection methods. During a preliminary conversation, a HR specialist finds out general information about the applicant, which is necessary for the initial determination of the suitability of the proposed vacancy. As a rule, such a dialogue takes place over the phone. It is at this stage of applying the methods of professional selection of personnel that the main screening of applicants occurs. At the same time, the personnel officer must carefully listen to each of the callers to the organization. Regardless of whether the applicant is invited for a personal interview in the future, he should have a good impression of the company.

The initial contact that occurs during a telephone conversation allows you to form mutual ideas about both the company and the applicant for a vacant position. An indifferent or irritable tone, incorrectly asked questions, sharp objections lead to the fact that the candidate for a personal interview, most likely, will not come. If this happens, then his attitude towards the employer will initially be negative. In this case, he may well spoil the mood of the personnel officer and negatively set the rest of the applicants.

CV

The next of the applied methods of selection and admission of personnel is the study of the applicant'sself-characterization that can tell a lot about who wrote it. A resume is submitted even before a personal meeting between the employer and the applicant is scheduled. As a rule, it is a short story about yourself. In the summary, the applicant indicates the brief information that he considers appropriate to provide to the company.

These should be the most concise and reliable facts, located on one or two pages. Only after reading the resume, the manager decides whether to invite the applicant for an interview. Sometimes he immediately refuses him a job.

Interview

If after talking on the phone and studying the CV, the HR officer understands that the candidate is suitable for work in the company, then the transition to the next stage of recruitment takes place using basic personnel selection methods. The person is invited for an interview. At the same time, he should explain in detail how to get to the office, and specify not only the day, but also the hour when they are waiting for him.

Interview as a method of personnel selection is used in almost every company. After all, in this case, the employer in a short period of time can get enough impression about the candidate to make a further decision.

Sometimes interviews are held in several stages, which requires the candidate to visit the office more than once.

Analysis of a person's abilities and capabilities begins from the moment when he has just stepped on the threshold. At the same time, his manner of speech and behavior, gestures andclothes, expression of eyes and face, gait and voice. It is important for the HR specialist to assess the applicant's self-confidence. For this, such actions of a person are analyzed: he knocked on the door or opened it immediately, declared himself or waited for attention to be paid to him, the voice during the greeting was pleading and quiet or confident, etc.

In the appearance of a candidate, a defiant non-business style of clothing, a mismatch in the colors of wardrobe items, flashy shoes, expensive jewelry, a bag that does not match the occasion, etc. can alert you. All this is very significant, as it will clearly indicate how the applicant will refer to the job offered to him.

Start the interview by making contact. The employer is usually the first to speak. This part of the interview should not exceed 15% of the time. The applicant then speaks. The employer should listen to him carefully, focusing on important points for himself. The interview ends with an explanation of further actions and the course of hiring. It is important that the conversation ends on a positive note. Negative decision will be announced later.

Questioning

Using professional principles and methods of personnel selection, specialists continue the recruitment process, offering the applicant to fill out a form with questions of interest to them. Most of the time they are simple. These are questions regarding the last name and first name, address and age of the candidate, etc. In most cases, such a survey is only intended to confirm the data that was previouslylisted in resume.

But sometimes firms offer applicants to answer more complex questions. With their help, HR specialists identify the level of effectiveness of a candidate in a vacant position. Most of these questions relate to the previous place of work, but some of them may be a description of various life situations. All this will allow you to identify the applicant's reaction to possible circumstances and predict his actions that he will take in this case.

Special narrowly focused questionnaires are filled in by university graduates. After all, these young professionals do not yet have work experience. That is why the employer learns about them only as far as studies in their chosen profession are concerned.

Evaluation Centers

Unlike other principles and methods of personnel selection, this one is used by few companies. This method is a kind of training game. In it, the candidate finds himself in conditions close to the working environment. In the course of applying this method, the applicant must express his attitude or opinion on what is happening. Sometimes he is asked to analyze the proposed event.

Assessment centers help in determining a person's ability to publicly express their own opinions and speak to people. This is one of the personnel selection methods in personnel management, which allows you to quickly identify the candidate's compliance with the requirements of the profession.

Testing

This direction refers to modern methods of personnel selectionand is used by employers relatively recently due to the influence of Western firms. From there came to us the criteria that are used in the selection of personnel with the use of testing. Using this technique, the employer receives the most reliable data about the professional qualities of the applicant and his skills to perform certain duties.

If we consider the characteristics of personnel selection methods, then testing can be classified as an auxiliary tool. At the same time, the applicant is invited to answer questions that are subsequently analyzed by psychologists.

For example, it could be a test to do a job. The applicant is asked to do certain tasks. All of them must certainly be similar to those that he will have to fulfill upon taking office. With the help of such a test, the skills and abilities that the candidate possesses in this area are revealed.

Unconventional methods

Recently, more and more companies are trying to go beyond the study of resumes and interviews. In the process of hiring candidates for existing vacancies, they also resort to non-traditional methods of selecting employees. In most cases, a person has no idea what awaits him either at the interview or after it.

For example, a method such as the "Brainteaser Interview". It is used in cases where personnel, in order to perform their direct duties, need to be creative and have the ability to display analyticalskills. During the conversation, the applicant needs to find the answer in the proposed logic puzzle. Also, the manager may suddenly ask him about something that does not relate to the topic of their conversation. It is important that the person's response is unusual and original. This will indicate his out-of-the-box thinking and the ability to go beyond the usual vision of the problem in search of its solution.

Another modern method of personnel selection is physiognomy. It is used mainly as an auxiliary. The essence of this method lies in the study of facial expressions and facial features of the candidate. The data obtained allow us to draw a conclusion about the abilities of the individual, his type and creative orientation. But it should be borne in mind that the use of this method is possible only if the researcher has impressive practical experience.