12 Selection Decision Outcome and Barriers in Selection

Dr Anurodh Godha

epgp books

 

 

1. Learning Outcome:

 

After completing this unit, you will be able to:

  • Understand the difference between recruitment and selection
  • Know the purpose and importance of selection for an organization
  • Point out the outcomes of selection decision.
  • Come across the barriers to effective selection
  • Understand in brief about placement and orientation.
  • Develop a selection decision process.

 

2. Introduction

 

Source: https://scientificmanagement101.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/choosing2.jpg

 

 

The ability of an organization to attain its goals effectively and to develop in a dynamic environment largely depends upon the effectiveness of its selection programs. The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable candidates who would best meet the requirements of the job and the organization. The needs of the job are matched with the profile of candidates and the most suitable person is picked for job after eliminating the less suitable applicants through successive stages of the selection processes. Effective selection, therefore demands constant monitoring of the fit between the person and the job.

Selection decision outcome may be conceptualised in terms of either choosing the fit candidates, or rejecting the unfit candidates, or a combination of both. Selection involves both because it picks up the fits and rejects the unfits. In fact, in Indian context, there are more candidates who are rejected than those who are selected in most of the selection processes. Therefore, sometimes, it is called a negative process in contrast to positive programme of recruitment.

Dale Yoder says, “Selection has long held a high rank in the priority of problem areas in management. Investments in good people produce a very high rate of return. A good choice of people can provide a basis for long, sustained contributions.”

 

Source: http://www.morethanasundayfaith.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/RightFit-Selection.jpg

Decenzo and Robbins write, “Proper selection of personnel is obviously an area where effectiveness – choosing competent workers who perform well in their position-can result in large saving.” According to them, selection has two objectives: (1) to predict which job applicants would be successful if hired and (2) satisfaction of employee needs and wants as well as the fullest development of his potential are important objectives of selection.

3. Difference between Recruitment and Selection

 

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Difference between recruitment and selection has been described by Flippo as, “Recruitment is a process of searching for prospective employees and stimulating and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organisation. It is often termed positive as is stimulates people to apply for jobs, selection on the other hand tends to be negative because it rejects a good number of those who apply, leaving only the best to be hired.” Recruitment and selection differs in following manner:

Source: Designed by Author

(i) Difference in Objective: The basic objective of recruitment is to attract maximum number of candidates so that more options are available. The basic objective of selection is to choose best out of the available candidates.

(ii) Difference is Process: Recruitment adopts the process of creating application pool as large as possible and therefore. It is known as positive process. Selection adopts the process through which more and more candidates are rejected and fewer candidates are selected or sometimes even not a single candidate is selected. Therefore, it is known as negative process or rejection process.

(iii) Technical Differences: Recruitment techniques are not very intensive, and not require high skills. As against this, in selection process, highly specialised techniques are required. Therefore, in the selection process, only personnel with specific skills like expertise in using selection tests, conducting interviews, etc., are involved.

(iv) Difference in Outcomes: The outcome of recruitment is application pool which becomes input for selection process. The outcome of selection process is in the form of finalising candidates who will be offered jobs.

4. Purpose and Importance of Selection for an Organization

Selection means to choose a person from the prospective candidates fit for the vacant posts in the organisation or choosing a person fit with the existing work groups and culture of the organization. Poor selection procedures and processes lead to various unnecessary costs in the organization. In a situation where the right personnel is not selected, the remaining functions of human resource management will not be effective. At the other hand if the right person is selected, then he will be a valuable asset to the organization. Thus selection of personnel is the most important function of the personnel management. The importance of selection may be judged from the following facts.

 

Source: Designed by Author

A. To Procure the Qualified and Skilled Employees: Effective selection process facilitates the procurement of well skilled and qualified workers in an organisation. Selection of skilled and qualified personnel who is for the job will reduce the labour cost and increases the efficiency.

B. To reduce the Employee Turnover Rate and Absenteeism: Employee is an asset for the organization. Retention of employees is important to an organization, as the costs of hiring and training new employees are very high. Effective selection process ensures that only the most qualified individual is chosen to fill a vacant job position. Employees who are satisfied with their jobs lead to a low employee turnover rate. Proper selection of personnel reduces personnel problems in the organisation. Labour relations will be better because workers will be fully satisfied by the work. Skilled workers help the management to expand the business and to earn more profits and management in turn compensate the workers with high wages, benefits etc.

C. Saving in Time: A good selection procedure will save time in the recruitment and orientation or socialization processes. Less time is wasted trying to inculcate the new recruit with various aspects of the organization’s culture and norms. The employees are given an adequate picture of what the new job entails, and this eliminates wastage of time.

D. To Reduce Cost of Training and Development: As qualified personnel have better grasping power, so proper selection of candidates may reduces the cost of training and development. They can understand the work environment easily. Further, the organisation can develop different training programmes for different persons on the basis of their individual differences, thus reducing the time and cost of training considerably.

E. To Assess Behaviour: Oganization takes particular notice of the personal flexibility and adaptability of a candidate, which assures that such an individual can adjust rapidly to the tough demands of the job. A good selection procedure gives managers an opportunity to assess potential employees’ character and personality and accordingly most suitable candidate is given the job.

5. Selection Decision Outcomes

Consider, for a moment, that any selection decision can result in four possible outcomes. As shown in Figure 12.1, two of these outcomes would indicate correct decisions, but two would indicate errors.

 

Correct decisions are those where the applicant was predicted to be successful and later did prove to be successful on the job, or where the applicant was predicted to be unsuccessful and would have performed accordingly if hired. In the former case, we have successfully accepted; in the latter case, we have successfully rejected. Thus the purpose of selection activities is to develop outcomes shown as “correct decisions” in Figure 12.1.

Problems occur when we make errors-by rejecting candidates who would later perform successfully on the job (reject errors) or accepting those individuals who subsequently perform poorly on the job (accept errors). These problems are, unfortunately far from insignificant. Reject errors historically meant that the costs in performing selection activities would be increased. Accept errors, on the other hand, have very obvious costs to the organization including the cost of training the employee, the

costs generated (or profits forgone) due to the employee’s incompetence, the cost of severance and the subsequent costs of further recruiting and selection screening. The major thrust of any selection activity, therefore, is to reduce the probability of making reject or accept errors while increasing the probability of making reject or accept errors while increasing the probability of making correct decisions.

In summary, selection has two objectives: (1) to predict which job applicants would be successful if hired and (2) to inform and sell the candidate on the job and the organization. Unfortunately, these two objectives are not always compatible Putting a job candidate through hours of filling out forms, taking tests, and completing interviews rarely endears the organization to the candidate. These are tiresome and often stressful activities. Yet if the selection activities place too great an emphasis on public relations, obtaining the information needed to make successful selection decisions may be subordinated. Hence a manager’s dilemma in selection is how to balance the desire to attract people with the desire to gather relevant selection data.

6. Barriers to Effective Selection

The main objective of selection process is to hire people who have competence and commitment for the assigned job. This objective is often defeated because of certain barriers. As we have understood the process of selection, it would be important to have an insight into the barriers in effective selection. The various barriers to effective selection of human resource at work are explained as under:

A. Ineffective Recruitment Initiative:

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Sometimes selection process gets affected due to ineffective recruitment initiatives taken by the organization. If the recruiting organization fails to attract qualified candidates in recruitment process then it is obvious that right candidate will not be selected in the selection process, therefore, ineffective recruitment will definitely influence selection and selection outcome.

B. Perception:

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Selection demands an individual or a group to assess & compare the respective competencies of prospective candidate, with the aim of choosing the right persons for the jobs. Our inability to understand others personality is probably the most fundamental barrier to selecting right candidate. Incorrect perception of a candidate who has come for interview may bias the interviewer and may result into inappropriate selection. We all perceive the world differently. Our limited perceptual ability is obviously a stumbling block to the objective and rational selection of people. For instance, an interviewer may not interpret the answers correctly leading to inappropriate decision in perception.

C. Fairness: Effective selection requires that no prospective candidate should be discriminated against on the basis of his or her religion, region, race or gender. In many selections, religion, region, gender of the candidates are considered rather than their skills, abilities or experiences. This leads to bias selection. Gender issue also hampers effective selection. In early days, men predominately held managerial jobs and if those jobs are viewed as being primarily masculine in nature, such stereotyping may produce negative reaction in selecting right candidates. Less number of women, people belongs to less privileged sections of society at the middle and senior management positions shows that all the efforts to minimize inequity have not been very effective.

D. Validity: Validity is a test that helps in predicting the job performance of an incumbent. Validity is a test that can differentiate between the employees who can perform well and those who will not. However, it is found that a validated test does not predict job success accurately. It can only increase possibility of success.

E. Reliability: A reliable method is one, which will produce consistent results every time it is conducted in similar situations. Like a validated test, a reliable test may fail to predict job performance with precision.

F. Pressure: Pressure brought on selectors by politicians, bureaucrats, relatives, friends and peers to select particular candidate are also barriers to selection. Candidates selected because of compulsions are obviously not the right ones. Appointments to public sector undertakings generally take place under such pressure.

G. Quota System: Quota system also influences effective selection. Due to this sometimes an inappropriate candidate is selected in place of most suitable candidate.

H. Nepotism/Favourism: This is also very common barrier to effective selection in both public and private sectors.

I. Cost and Time: Sometimes due to insufficient time and less budget, right person cannot be selected for the post.

J. Stereotyping:

 

 

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This is one of the most common barriers to selection. An interviewer may have incorrect perception about a particular set of people which may sway the decision to the other side while short listing a candidate in the interview process. In stereotyping, we generally categorize the candidates such as:

  • All professors and teachers are absent minded
  • Back benchers in the class are poor attention payers
  • All females are basically sincere and honest
  • All civil servants are boring
  • Candidates with Science background are intelligent etc.
  • Obese people do not make good salesmen

Statements written above are called “stereotypes”, which may leads to biased selection of candidates. Stereotype, therefore is also a kind of perceptual error. At times during an interview, it may so happen that an interviewer among a panel of interviewers, may rate a candidate much higher because the interviewer sees his projection of personality in the candidate. The interviewers should be free from such bias while conducting the interview.

K. Halo Effect: Another barrier to selection is halo effect, which can be negative or positive. In hallo effect the personal characteristics influence or overwhelms the interviewers and this lead to wrong selection. In other words, a single characteristic of an individual or a trait of a candidate may cast its influence over all other traits of that individual, resulting in a biased selection/rejection of a candidate.

 

7. Placement – Orientation – Socialization

After an employee has been recruited he is provided with basic background information about the employer, working conditions and the information necessary to perform his job satisfactorily. The new employee’s initial orientation helps him perform better by providing him information of the company rules, and practices.

 

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According to Pigors and Myers, “Placement consists in matching what the supervisor has reason to think the new employee can do with what the job demands (job requirements), imposes (in strain, working conditions, etc.), and offers (in the form of pay rate, interest, companionship with other, promotional possibilities, etc.)” They further state that it is not easy to match all these factors for a new worker who is still in many ways an unknown quantity. For this reason, the first placement usually carries with it the status of probationer.

A few basic principles should be followed at the time of placement of an employee on the job.

These may be enumerated as below:

  • The job should be offered to the man according to his qualifications. The placement should neither be higher nor lower than the qualifications.
  • While introducing the job to the new employee, an effort should be made to develop a sense of loyalty and cooperation in him so that he may realise his responsibilities better towards the job and the organisation.
  • The employee should be made conversant with the working conditions prevailing in the industry and all things relating to the job. He should also be made aware of the penalties if he commits a wrong.
  • Man should be placed on the job according to the requirements of the job. The job should not be adjusted according to the qualifications or requirements of the man. Job first; man next, should be the principle of placement.
  • The placement should be ready before the joining date of the newly selected person.
  • The placement in the initial period may be temporary as changes are likely after the completion of training. The employee may be later transferred to the job where he can do better justice.

In the words of John M. Ivancevich, “Orientation orients, directs, and guides employees to understand the work, firm, colleagues, and mission. It introduces new employees to the organisation, and to his new tasks, managers, and work groups.”

According to John Bernardin, “Orientation is a term used for the organizationally sponsored, formalized activities associated with an employee’s socialisation into the organisation.”

Billimoria has defined orientation as, “Induction (orientation) is a technique by which a new employee is rehabilitated into the changed surroundings and introduced to the practices, policies, and purposes of the organisation.”

Orientation is one component of the new employee socialization process. Socialization is the ongoing process of instilling in all new employees prevailing attitudes, standards, values, patterns of behaviour that are expected by the organisation and its departments.

Thus, orientation is a process through which a new employee is introduced to the organisation. It is the process wherein an employee is made to feel comfortable and at home in the organisation. The new employee is handed over a rulebook, company booklets, policy manuals, progress reports and documents containing company information which are informational in nature. It is responsibility of the human resource department to execute the orientation programme.

8. Summary

  • Selection process involves mutual decision making. The organization decides whether or not to make a job offer and how attractive the job offer should be. The candidate decides whether or not the organization and the job offer are according to his goals and needs. Selection of proper personnel helps the management in getting the work done by the people effectively.
  • To be an effective predictor, a selection device should be

a. Reliable

b. Valid

c. Predict a relevant criterion

  • Selection decision outcome may be conceptualized in terms of either choosing the fit candidates, or rejecting the unfit candidates, or a combination of both. Selection involves both because it picks up the fits and rejects the unfits. In fact, in Indian context, there are more candidates who are rejected than those who are selected in most of the selection processes. Therefore, sometimes, it is called a negative process in contrast to positive programme of recruitment.
  • The importance of selection may to procure the qualified and skilled employees, to reduce the employee turnover rate and absenteeism, to save time, to reduce cost of training and development and to assess behaviour
  • The various barriers to effective selection of human resource at work are ineffective recruitment initiative, perception, fairness, validity, reliability, pressure, quota system, nepotism, cost & time, stereotyping and halo effectOrientation is a process through which a new employee is introduced to the organization. It is the process wherein an employee is made to feel comfortable and at home in the organization. The new employee is handed over a rulebook, company booklets, policy manuals, progress reports and documents containing company information which are informational in nature. It is responsibility of the human resource department to execute the orientation programme
  • In India the selection process on hiring skilled and managerial personnel are fairly well defined and systematically practical.
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References

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