One of the biggest challenges facing firms lies in the process of testing and selection of employees. A firm that fails to lay emphasis on this process will find itself experiencing a high employee turnover. The purpose of this lesson is to show you how to use various tools and techniques to select the best candidates for the job.
Why careful selection is important
With a pool of applicants, the next step is to select the best candidates for the job. This usually means whittling down the applicant pool by using the screening tools: tests assessment centers and background and reference checks. Then the prospective supervisor can interview likely candidates and decide who to hire.
Selecting the right employees is important for three main reasons. First, your own performance always depends in part on your subordinates. Employees with the right skills and attributes will do a better job for you and the company, employees without these skills or who are abrasive or obstructionist wont perform effectively, and your own performance and the firm’s will suffer, the
time to screen out undesirables is before they are in the door not after.
Second, it is important because it’s costly to recruit and hire employees. Third its important because of the legal implications of incompetent hiring.
Negligent hiring
This is hiring workers with questionable backgrounds without proper safeguards. Negligent hiring underscores the need to think through what the job’s human requirements really are.
Employers protect against negligent hiring claims by;
- Carefully scrutinizing all information supplied by the applicant on his or her employment application. For example, look for unexplained gaps in employment
- getting the applicant’s written authorization for reference checks and carefully checking references
- saving all records and information you obtain about the applicant
- rejecting applicants who make false statements of material facts or who have conviction records for offences directly related and important to the job in question
- keeping in mind the need to balance the applicant’s privacy rights with others “need to know”, especially when you discover damaging information
- Taking immediate disciplinary action if problems develop.
