In today’s competitive job market with all of legal precautions employers must take in the workplace environment, employers face the challenge of attracting, developing, and retaining the best employees. Personnel assessment is a systematic approach to gathering information about individuals (Dessler, 2011). This information is used to make employment or career-related decisions about applicants and employees. Any test or procedure used to measure an individual’s employment or career-related qualifications and interests can be considered a personnel assessment tool (Dessler, 2011). There are many types of personnel assessment tools that help in the selection process. Human resource management and employers can use various tests as well as the personal interview to aid in the employee selection process.
There are hundreds of employment tests on the market that measure attributes, from basic personality traits to specific skills, such as analytical, clerical and technical. General cognitive ability tests measure a job candidate's aptitude or ability to quickly acquire job knowledge and perform job-related tasks (Barclay, 1999). Personality and reasoning tests measure an individual's pattern of thinking, feeling, and behaving (Barclay, 1999). Pre-employment integrity tests are designed to identify job applicants who are likely to steal, lie, or use illicit substances (Barclay, 1999). Management tests predict a person's potential for success as a supervisor, middle manager, or senior executive. (Barclay, 1999). All of these tests serve a elemental purpose for the employer in the selection process.
There are many tests that are used by employers in an effort to ensure they are adding a beneficial addition to their employment forc...
... middle of paper ...
...fair assessment, it is essential to take all assessment tools into consideration. No candidate should be hired solely based on the outcome of one of these tools but a combination of all of them.
Works Cited
Barclay, J.M. (1999). Employee selection: a question of structure. Personnel Review, 28(1/2), 134-151. Retrieved February 24, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 116360242).
Dessler, G. (2011). A Framework for Human Resource Management (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Lombardi, L. (2009, October). A LEARNING LESSON IN SELECTING TALENT. LIMRA's MarketFacts Quarterly, 28(4), 69,77. Retrieved February 28, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 1949104241).
McGinn, D. (2003, June). Testing, testing: The new job search. Newsweek, 141(23), 36-37. Retrieved February 25, 2011, from ABI/INFORM Global. (Document ID: 349514251).
Mathis, R. L., & Jackson, J. H. (2010). Human resource management (13th ed.). Mason, OH: Thomas/South-western
Noe, Raymond A., et al. Human Resource Management: Gaining a Competitive Advantage. 7th ed. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2010. Print.
Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2014). Fundamentals of human resource management (5th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill Education.
Employers have the right to know many things about their employees. Job skills and training can even be investigated by the employer. The employee is to perform services and these services must be done in a certain manner. Someone who is incoherent because of drug abuse cannot be a pilot, for example. This is why employers can test to see if characteristics or tendencies would affect performance.
Zarowin, S. (1991). How to find and keep the best employees in the 21st century. Journal of
Managers should understand an employee’s skills and abilities to make an informed decision on whether or not to hire him. Once hired a manager uses skills and abilities as a deciding factor for an employee’s job placement within the corporation. Secondly, an evaluation of an employee’s personality helps the manager in his leadership approach of that employee. Thirdly, perceptions can be the deciding factor of whether or not a candidate is hired and or promoted. An individual perceived as fitting in may be hired to negotiate business deals. Particularly, if the individual shows a favorable attitude through actions and deeds and has strong values and behaves
According to Noe (2012), most experts believe that the most important human resource decision makes by a leader is deciding who to hire. Manager manages the recruitment and selection process. Selection for the best candidates for the job is very important in an organization because the performance always depends on employees, the recruiting and hiring is costly and the legal obligations like mismanaging hiring has legal consequence. The main aim of employee selection is to achieve person-job fit which is identifying the knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), and competencies that are central to performing the job. The objective of effective selection is to decide who the right people are, by matching individual characteristics (ability, experience, and training) with the requirements of the job (DeRue & Morgeson, 2007; Kristof -Brown, Zimmermam, & Johnson, 2005). The manager will do checking for reliability and validity of the interviewer. In PPNJ Poultry & Meat Sdn Bhd, the people who manage the recruitment and selection process is the Human Resource department or staffs.
Psychometric tests are designed to measure the behaviour and capabilities of possible employees. (Johnstone, 1999). Employers use these tests to measure two categories of qualities – abilities and preferences (Mills et al., 2011). This provides an effective and efficient way to find the best person for the job as the tests give a true reflection of how an employee can accomplish assigned tasks which is completed online as part of the application process. Candidates are chosen for the next stage of the process through the comparison of test scores, resulting in grouping candidates into high and low percentile scoring categories. The higher scoring applicants are put through to the next stage of the process. This would normally be the interviewing stage. The lower scoring applicants would be declined. This is a form of filtering down the number of applicants, although the interviewing stage provides the means of selection, despite its subjectivity the tests provide a uniform set of standards to measure one candidate objectivity against another (Johnstone,1999). Psychometric
In the “War for Talent” where technological change has created a demand for new jobs that require specialised technological knowledge that many workers don’t have; having positions going unfilled is expensive (PNC, 2015). A Career Builder survey found that in the United States having a position unfilled for three months or more costs a company on average around fourteen thousand dollars (PNC, 2015). According to Chamber of Comerce and industry Queensland (n.d.) the primary impediment to business expansion has been a shortage of employees possessing the requisite qualifications and
Risavy, S., & Hausdorf, P. (2011). Personality Testing in Personnel Selection: Adverse Impact and Differential Hiring Rates. International Journal of Selection and Assessment, 19(1), 18-30. doi: 10.1111/j.1468-2389.2011.00531.x
Selection is an integral part of every organizations functioning, as it is the process by which suitable individuals are chosen, from a pool of applicants, of whom HR officers predict will most successfully perform within their job, as set out in the job description and person specification [Torrington, et al., 2002: 188]. While the duration and method of the selection process is versatile and may vary depending on the type of job and type of organization, there tends to be a common 5 stage process by which individuals are chosen. Using current HR models and economic theory on job description and person specification, this essay will examine the main characteristics of the selection process and how these are applied in organizations, such as “Lloyds TSB,” “ScottishPower,” and “Enterprise Rent-A-Car.”
One way employers can act ethically toward job candidates is to preserve the privacy and confidentiality of personal information and/or the results of any assessments taken as part of a selection process. This may be accomplished by maintaining test security and making reasonable efforts to establish the integrity of test materials or other assessment resources in an ethical manner (American Psychological Association [APA], 2010). In addition to privacy and confidentiality, employers should obtain consent from applicants prior to administering any form of test or assessment (APA, 2010; Cascio & Aguinis, 2011). Although employers may have certain policies or guidelines outlining acceptable behavior toward job candidates, these would be in addition to ethical guidelines of HRM or I/O practitioners who may take part in the process. Any type of assessment that is involved with the selection process should directly
The difference between the skills needed on the job and those possessed by applicants, sometimes called the skills-gap, is of real concern to human resource managers and business owners looking to hire competent employees. While employers would prefer to hire people who are trained and ready to go to work, they are usually willing to provide the specialized, job-specific training necessary for those lacking such skills. Most discussions concerning today’s workforce eventually turn to employability skills. Finding workers who have employability or job readiness skills that help them fit into and remain in the work environment is a real problem. Employers need reliable, responsible workers who can solve problems and who have the social skills and attitudes to work together with other workers. Creativity, once a trait avoided by employers who used a cookie cutter system, is now prized among employers who are trying to create the empowered, high performance workforce needed for competitiveness in today’s marketplace. Employees with these skills are in demand and are considered valuable human capital assets to companies. Employability skills are those basic skills necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job. These are the skills, attitudes and actions that enable workers to get along with their fellow workers and supervisors and to make sound, critical decisions. Unlike occupational or technical skills, employability skills are generic in nature rather than job specific and cut across all industry types, business sizes, and job levels from the entry-level worker to the senior-most position. Job readiness skills are clustered into three skill sets: basic academic skills, higher order thinking skills, personal qualities Employability skills are those basic skills necessary for getting, keeping, and doing well on a job. Employability skills are teachable skills.
This test can also be used for companies trying to employee new hires through what is called employment assessment test for the right candidates, which entails that a person requiring the job have high skills with dealing with people and being able to deal within a stressful environment. It has also bee...
Selecting the right personnel is crucial for any organization's success. There is therefore, the need for the recruitment process to be accurate for the success and performance of the employees being chosen, as productivity depends on experienced and qualified workers in predictive job performance (Ekuma, 2012). With fierce competition in the global market place, and matters concerning employee branding and candidate appeal, organizations need to carefully review their recruitment and selection processes. This will ensure that employee selection methods contribute towards enhancing organization appeal, but also predicting the future job performance of the employees being recruited (Ekuma, 2012).