EMPLOYEES’ SELECTION AND INDUCTION

The selection process has a particular economic impact on the organization’s activity not only
through the problems that a poor employee can create him/herself, but also by creating friction
between management and other employees who must recover the backwardness generated by
the employee and can even lead to leaving of the organization by valuable employees who will
seek other jobs.
Selection can be defined as the decision-making process to hire (or not) a candidate for a
particular job or the mechanism that determine the quality of human resources of a company
There is a variety of tools used in the selection process, but they all must meet two requirements:
reliability and validity.
Reliability - the extent to which the information obtained during the process is repetitive.
Situations that can lead to low reliability: the ambiguous selection tool (e.g. certain requirements
from a job application are insufficiently specified, unclear questions in an interview or ambiguous
questions in a test may lead to random answers that cannot be used in the evaluation of a
particular characteristic of the applicant), the person using a particular selection tool may not have
a clear understanding of the measured behaviour or do not have a well-defined standard to use
in the candidate evaluation process, the behaviour to be assessed may be an unstable
phenomenon that change periodically (e.g. feelings) rather than a characteristic of the candidate's
personality
Validity – the extent to which a particular process used to evaluate the candidate for a particular
job is related to that job. An invalid procedure is unnecessary and may create legal problems
(e.g., discrimination problems).
The selection process is generally based on two principles.

The first principle is that past achievements are the best predictor for future ones. Although
this indicator is often not an absolute indicator (someone who has had exceptional achievements
in a previous activity and job can only have mediocre achievements in the new position), it remains
an important indicator in human resource decision-making.

The second principle is that an organization must collect only as much information about
the candidates as it is economically and then use it in selecting the most suitable candidate
for the job. The greater the difficulty and importance of the job collecting such information
becomes more and more important.

Selection is a sequential procedure involving performing some or all the steps illustrated in the figure
5.1.
Each stage shall be set up in a "sieve" which shall “sieve” the number of candidates to participate
in the next stage:
1. Past achievements analysis - information is obtained from various sources such as:
application form, which mainly includes information on the level of studies, aptitudes and
other biographical data, CV and motivational letters, letters of recommendation from
former jobs, etc.
 Fig. 5.1. Steps of selection process
2. Preliminary interview - how the candidate’s aptitudes and knowledge, his/her
preferences for a specific job correspond to the jobs available in the organization, explain
to the candidate the requirements of these jobs and answer any questions the candidate
has about the jobs available. It is strongly recommended to used specialists in human
behaviour.

3. Testing, one of the most important stages, but also costly. Whatever the tests used, they
must be appropriate to the level of training of the candidate and highlighting the essential
aptitudes required in the profession concerned. By processing results as graphs into a
conventional scale of 0-50 or 0-100, a psychodiagnosis is obtained. This is the practical level
of skills of a person in the profession and it is than compared with the professional profile.
The professional profile is the concrete level of skills necessary to carry on in good
condition a profession. By making this comparison, one may find whether a candidate fits
for the profession/ job.

4. Diagnostic interview - used to gather additional information to determine the most suitable
candidate for a particular job. There are several types of interviews that can be used in the
selection process: structured, unstructured, in front of a panel, group, annoying, etc. During
this stage some problems can occur:
• stereotypes of the person who leads the interview. It often develops a specific pre-
defined profile of the ideal candidate for a particular job, leading to situations where
the candidates best fit these profiles and not the most qualified for that job are
accepted
• premature decision. Many times, the decision on a candidate is taken within the first
10 minutes of the interview, which leads to neglecting or ignoring some information
that occurs afterwards
• bias based on prejudices related to sex, age, nationality, external aspect, etc. Applicants
who have certain similarities with the person who leads the interview are often judged
favourably
 • the halo effect in which the interviewer allows that a certain prominent characteristic of
the interviewee to dominate the judgment of the other characteristics, leading to an
alteration of the decision. For example, it is quite easy to neglect other characteristics
of a person with a pleasant way of presenting himself, even if this does not mean that
the person will be a good employee

5. Physical exam is one of the conditions that must be met on a compulsory basis in
employment (according to current Romanian legislation) to see if the person is qualified
also from the physical point of view for carrying out a specific activity

6. Finally, for those who have successfully passed all the other stages, the question arises
of the employment decision subject to negotiation of the terms of the employment contract,
in particular the salary

The staffing of the organization process cannot be considered complete once the employment
decision has been made. To retain and maximize the potential of the HR, their integration
(induction) must be ensured.

This process is often informal, but it must not be unplanned, left to chance.

Without an integration program, new employees can misunderstand or fail to understand the
organization's mission, internal relationships, and the way they work within the company.

The integration process has three stages:

• Anticipation: employees have a range of expectations about the organization and job
based on information from different sources (media, public relations, word of mouth, etc.)
that, if not really matched, can lead to dissatisfaction, low performance. Therefore, realistic
information on the job requirements, what the organization expects of them, the working
environment, etc. must be provided before starting work

• Matching: the new employee faces the job reality. Even with useful information from the
first phase and experience in similar positions, there is a need for additional information
on policies and procedures, the relationships that they should establish, rules, etc.
Systematic information about the organization and the job can be a positive sign to new
employees that they are considered valuable members of the organization.

• Settle: the employee begins to feel that he or she is part of the organization. If this phase
is a success, the employee feels comfortable in the workplace as to the role he or she
plays in the department. If not, he or she will get away from work and not have the sense
of belonging to the organization. A mentoring program is required

Induction is too important to be left to chance. Even the best organized such processes will fail
without the help of the line manager during the period of accommodation.