Ateneo de Davao University

Human Resource Management and Development

Written Report on Chapter 1:

An Overview of Selection

Submitted by:
Ancheta, Shekina
Cabug-os, Jeson Paul
A.

I. Definition of Selection
Selection is the process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in
order to extend an offer of employment. Such employment could be either a first
position for a new employee or a different position for a current employee. The selection
process is performed under legal and environmental constraints and address the future
interests of the organization and of the individual.
Employee selection may be described as a screening or sifting process. It involves
gathering information about each applicant for a position, and then using that
information to choose the most appropriate applicant. Interviews, tests, physical
examinations, and referee and reference checks are all part of this process. In selecting
staff, the idea is to choose the most appropriate person with the qualifications that best
match the position, rather than the applicant with the most qualifications.
A. Distinction between Selection and Hiring
Hiring is the process of making intuitive decisions regarding a candidate. This includes
interviews without standardized questions and intuitive technical interviews. It is the
most ineffective, inaccurate, and most common
method that is used by business.
Selection is a formal process of standardized technical interviews, structured behavioral
interviewing, and testing to predict whether the candidate will successfully engage in the
role being hired and in the organizational culture. Selection may be a single group of
assessments or multiple-hurdle with cut scoring.
B. Distinction between Selection for Initial Job and Promotion
Selection for Initial Job involves applicants who are external to the organization. These
applicants are usually recruited through formal mechanisms such as media

advertisement, internet contact, use for employment agencies and urging from present
or former employees of the organization. These recruitment mechanisms frequently
produce a large number of applicants. When there is a large number of participants, the
cost of selection become an important factor for an organization.
Selection for Promotion Candidates are already internal to the company. Usually those
who are interested are in the same functional area as the promotion position and
possess commonly accepted backgrounds for the position. Much information about the
applicants already exist because they are already members of the organization.

II. Selection and Strategic Human Resource Management

Firms regularly set goals for future performance and develop plans to reach those
goals.
SHRM Definition:
Link all HR Activities to the Organizations Strategic Objectives
Strategic HRM is an approach that defines how the organizations goal will be achieved
through people by means of HR strategies and integrated HR policies and practices.
(Strategic human resource management: a guide to action, Michael Armstrong, 4 th ed.)
Strategic Planning
- is a process that involves describing the organizations destination, assessing barriers
that stand in the way of that destination, and selecting approaches for moving forward.
(Performance Management, Herman Aguinis, 3 rd ed.)

The activities that are used to align the number of employees and their
performance with the goals of the firm constitute strategic human resource
management (SHRM)

SHRM requires that the HR systems of the firm are coordinated and interact
smoothly with one another

A. Interaction of Selection and Other HRM Systems

In addition to selection, other HR systems important for employee performance

are recruitment, training, compensation, and jib performance review.

Firms must design the systems so they greatly enhance employees work

performance
Selection should be coordinated with the activities the firm carries out under
recruitment, training, compensation, and job performance review.

Selection is more closely related to recruitment because both are concerned with
placing individuals into jobs

Recruitment defined as those organizational activities that influence the number

and types of individuals who apply for a position and that also affect applicants
decisions about whether or not to accept a job offer.

B. Effects of Strategic Human Resource Management

Mark Huselids in one of his first studies:

- HR practices he called high-performance work systems were related to turnover, accounting profits, and firm market value
Dr. Mark Huselid is the Distinguished Professor of Workforce Analytics and
Director of the Center for Workforce Analytics at the DAmore-McKim School of
Business at Northeastern University. His research, teaching, and consulting
activities are focused on the development of balanced measurement systems to
reflect the contribution of the workforce, workforce management systems, and
the HR management function to strategy execution and business success.

Additional evidences across various industries:

a. productivity and quality in a sample of worldwide auto assembly plants
b. operational performance indicators among a sample of manufacturing firms
c. a survey of corporations in New Zealand's HR practices were related to
turnover and profitability

Because correlation does not indicate casualty, it is not possible to say that HR
practices definitely led to increases in firm performance.

Patrick M. Wright and his colleagues tried to examine possible casualty by

collecting data on both HR Systems and six measures of organizational
performance (namely: Workers compensation, Quality, Shrinkage, Productivity,
Operating expenses and Profitability) for 45 food service units over different
periods of time.

Six measures of performance were provided from archival company records.

These measures represent the major performance measures tracked by the
corporate headquarters as indicators of a businesss success
Workers Compensation was the one of the reviewers correctly
noted that a number of problems exist with using ratio measures in
regression. The preferred method for controlling for the denominator is by
entering it in to the regression equation rather than computing it as a
denominator. However, the corporation only provided us with data in its
already computed ratio form. The Relationship Between HR Practices and
CAHRS WP04-06 Page 22 workers compensation expenses incurred
during the six months divided by sales; the lower the number the better.
Quality was measured as number of pieces per error where
each piece represents a carton of product.
Shrinkage was measured as inventory loss including loss due to
spoilage, warehouse outs, inventory adjustments, cycle count
adjustments, warehouse damage, delivery shorts, delivery damage,
samples shrinkage, and sales return damage as a percentage of sales.
Productivity was assessed as payroll expenses for all
employees divided by the number of pieces; the lower the number the
better (i.e., it measures payroll per piece).
Operating Expenses consisted of all relevant business
operating expenses including warehouse, occupancy, delivery, selling,
data processing, and G&A expenses as a percentage of sales.
Finally Profitability was assessed as the operating pre-tax profit
of the business-unit as a percentage of sales where operating pre-tax
profit was calculated as Sales (Cost of Goods Sold + Operating
Expenses + Cash Discounts).
Patrick M. Wrights The Relationship Between HR Practices and Firm
Performance: Examining Causal Order

The results indicate that correlations with performance measures at all three
times are both high and invariant, and that controlling for past or concurrent
performance virtually eliminates the correlation of HR with future performance.
Implications are discussed. Significant research attention has been devoted to
examining the relationship between HR practices and firm performance, and the
research support has assumed HR as the causal variable. Using data from 45
business units (with 62 data points), this study examines how measures of HR
practices correlate with past, concurrent, and future operational performance
measures.

Murray Barricks Reducing Voluntary, Avoidable Turnover through Selection

The authors investigated the efficacy of several variables used to predict

voluntary, organizationally avoidable turnover even before the employee is hired.
Analyses conducted on applicant data collected in 2 separate organizations
confirmed that biodata, clear-purpose attitudes and intentions, and disguisedpurpose dispositional retention scales predicted voluntary, avoidable turnover

C. Developing a Selection Program

The crucial issue is whether the organization can collect information from
applicants that is closely related to job performance and effectively use this
information to identify the best applicants.

Developmental steps of the selection program make the selection successful

1. Job Analysis Information

The gathering of information about a job in an organization

Information includes:
*Tasks
*Results (products or services)
*Equipment
*Material used
*Environment (working conditions, hazards, work schedule, and etc.)

Two main purpose of information:

1. To convey to potential applicants about the nature and demands
of the job
2. To provide a database for the other steps in the developmental
process
2. Identifying Relevant Job Performance Measures

How job performance is measured and what level of performance is regarded as

successful

The main purpose of selection is to identify those applicants who will be

successful on the job.

3. Identification of Worker Characteristics

HR specialist must identify the KSAs and other employee characteristics that a
worker

should

possess

in

order

to

perform

the

job

successfully

4. Development of Assessment Devices

The instruments can be classified into following groups:

*application blanks
*biographical data forms
*reference checks
*selection interview
*mental and special abilities test
*personality assessment inventories
*simulation
*performance measures

Two requirements for choosing selection devices to be used:

1. The device must measure the KSAs the selection specialist has
identified as needed for the job

2. The assessment device should be able to differentiate among

applicants

Selection specialists use test construction principles to determine the matching of

KSAs with the selection device

The assumption in selection is that applicants possess different amounts of the

KSAs necessary for job performance.

Choosing a few applicants from a large group of equals is tenuous or in simplest

terms, it is very weak.

5. Validation Procedures

The purpose of validation is to provide evidence that data from the selection
instruments are related to job performance.

III. Constraints in Developing a Selection Program

A. Limited information on Applicants

The quality of selection decisions depends in part on the accuracy and

completeness of data gathered from the applicants.

The greater the amount of accurate data obtained, the higher the probability of

making an accurate selection decision.

B. Measurement of Jobs, Individuals, and Work Performance

By measurement we mean quantitative description, the use of numbers.

Numbers are used to represent information such as the amount of time an

applicant has spent in a job activity, or the level of mathematical knowledge an applicant
needs to perform a task, or an applicants score on a verbal skills test, or the quality of a
workers performance in preparing an advertisement.

The problem of measurement for the HR specialist, however, is to ensure that

numbers generated are accurate descriptions of the characteristics of the applicant, the
job, or the job performance under study.
C. Other Factors Affecting Work Performance
It is apparent that the KSAs of those hired are not the sole determinants of job
performance.
Among these organizational factors are training programs for employees,
appraisal and feedback methods, goal-setting procedures, financial compensation
systems, work design strategies, supervisory methods, organizational structure,
decision-making techniques, and work schedules.
D. Selection Research vs. Selection Practice
Evidence-based management is a term that means managing by translating
principles based on evidence into organizational practice.
E. Selection and Staffing
Staffing is a broad concept that can refer to the various HR programs and
techniques used to manage the employees of an organization.
It defines the process of systematically filling positions within the organization
and then monitoring the performance of individuals in those positions.
It is not possible to practice effective staffing without a complete
understanding of selection

Sources:

Aguinis, H. (2012). Performance management = Ji xiao guan li, ying wen ban, di 3 ban.
Beijing: Zhongguo ren min da xue chu ban she.
Armstrong, M. L. (2008). Strategic human resource management: A guide to action (4th
ed.). London: Kogan Page.
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http://www.markhuselid.com/
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