“The performance of employees is a major determinant of how successful an organisation is in reaching its strategic goals and developing a competitive advantage over rival firms”.(Gatewood, 2011: 3) Hence, it is easy to understand why organisations exercise so much time and effort on their recruitment and selection processes. The term selection can be interpreted in numerous ways. The definition of selection I will use in this essay is the one of Gatewood (2011: 3): “Selection is the process of collecting and evaluating information about an individual in order to extend an offer of employment… The selection process is performed under legal and environmental constraints and addresses the future interests of the organisation and of the individual.” The academic world has made it clear that the selection process is a very important part of an organisation’s success, or a big reason for its failure (M.Sutherland and A.Woke, 2011). What separates a good selection process from a bad is, among other things, the process’s characteristics. All organisations use different processes which are adapted to their special requirements. What should be a common denominator is the characteristics used to design the process. To accomplish a good selection process and hence a good outcome, I would suggest focusing on characteristics such as: individual differences and predictions, methods of assessment, reliability and validity, fairness and legality, pre-employment activities and effectiveness.
Newell (2005) identified a good selection process as a process which assesses both individual differences and organisational requirements. She argued that a bad selection process will end in the organisation hiring the “wrong” people, which will become a liability rather than an asset, and which may even cause harm to the organisation instead of creating value. Armstrong (2014: 229) supports this view when arguing that a good selection process will predict the applicant’s ability to carry out a role successfully. He states that the process must involve assessing the candidate’s characteristics in terms of ability, personality, motivation and emotions that influence how well the candidate can perform the demands of the job. Bratton and Gold (2012: 216) suggested that the individual and the environment should match in order for their commitment and performance to be enhanced. Hence, individual differences can determine who the right or wrong candidate for a job is. Newell (2005) adds that selection involves making predictions of the future behaviour of the candidates so that the organisation can make a well based decision of who the most suitable applicant is.
In order for the organisation to effectively assess the applicants for a vacancy, they use different methods to assess the candidate’s suitability.
The methods used to assess the candidates will be a very important success factor, since it is the techniques used that will gather the information needed to assess the applicants and make the decision. Bratton and Gold (2012: 226) argue that the methods chosen to assess candidates will depend on a number of factors, such as the characteristics of the work and the level of pay and training. The organisation will not go through as many stages of assessment when hiring a line worker as e.g. a financial director. Care should also be taken to ensure that only techniques relevant to the job and the objectives of the organisation are being used. (Newell, 2005). Gatewood (2011) claims that the key is to collect job related information systematically so that the organisation can do a direct comparison between the candidates. He adds that it is the development steps of the selection program that make selection useful. Furthermore, Hsu and Leat (2000) suggest that managers should recognise that the types of assessments they use to recruit employees are critical to the firm’s success. Plumbey (1991: 91) argues that the assessments used need to be handled by a