Introduction
In any given company, there are some techniques that are usually employed by the employers during the selection of the right personnel. Several factors are usually put into consideration during the selection of the employees.
Given the difference in needs in each organization, the factors considered while selecting the workers vary widely in each. Procedures are in essence followed during the evaluation of a member of the organization and questions are usually asked at this stage.
Questions are asked basing on the type of the job. The validity of the questions is usually low if there is not any connection between the questions and the job.
This manuscript will argue out that cancelling an interview and replacing it with paper-and-pencil measures is not the best elucidation to the jeopardy of interview validity and go further to discuss the factors that management should consider while choosing the staff.
Unstructured interviewing
Whenever the validity of questions asked in choosing of the staff of a certain organization is low, the concerned individuals who are the employers need to find a substitute to the appraisal center. Since the right personell need to be found to help in boosting the profits in the companies, bias should not be entertained.
According to (Lowry 1994: 34) “unstructured interview has a lower validity and reliability and therefore when assessment is done, the alternative will be a structured interview.
The alternative is valid and less costly”. “Personnel selection for managerial and supervisory positions is important for efficient and effective conduct of business in both the private and public sectors” (Bernreuter 1933: 45).
According to (Lowry 1994), an interview is a modus operandi that is premeditated to acquire information from a group of people basing on their verbal answers to verbal questions.
However, (Allport 1937 p.4) states that a “job selection interview aims at predicting future job performance based on applicant’s oral responses to oral inquiries”. (Seegal 2003: 32) states that,”it will be very unusual for an employer to hire someone without conducting an interview. Even though it has a low validity it should still remain an indispensiblbe tool”.
Interviewing is as a method of selection of staff is used worldwide. Research proves that seventy percent of companies in the Northern Ireland employ the unstrructured method of interview in order to aid in promotion of verdicts (Butcher 1995).
In (Segal & Coolidge 2003), it is stated that the numbers of individuals who employ the unstructured method in their companies are even higher in other countries.
For instance, a percentage of ninety of the British in Europe employ this method with an additional percentage of four totaling to ninety four percent of french managers who use this method in managerial selection.
Structured interviewing
Since the reliability as well as the validity of unstructured method of interviewing is very low, there was need for determining means of establishing efforts as well as standards to aid in improvement of this interview process (Aguinis 2004).
The suggested procedures which have led to the structured interview have helped to improve the interview process. Replacement of one type of interview by the other may assist in resolving the interview validity predicament.
Structural interview and assessment center method
The structural interview method of managerial selection plus the paper and pencil method are nowadays on great demand. The paper and pencil method is nearly the same as the structural interview method. According to (Lowry 1994), it is important to also look at the assessment center method.
The assessment center method was mostly used in fire as well as police departments. In the early 1982, “over 44 percent of 156 European federal, state, and local governments used the assessment center.
By the year 1984, 32 of 73 East Ham County Borough departments employed the assessment center method especially for promotion to supervisory and managerial positions” (Thayer 1992: 31).
Structural interview and paper and pencil method
However, Meta-analytic studies have proved that there are some similarities in the paper and pencil method and the structured interview method.
Wiesner & Cronshaw accounted that “the 95% confidence interval for the validity coefficient for structured employment interviews was. 34 -. 86 using the criterion of potential job success” (Sussman & Robertson 1986: 88).
Conversely, Gaugler, Rosenthal, Thornton III, & Bentson testified that “the paper and pencil 95% confidence interval was. 15 -. 91 for the similar criterion of management potential” (Schmidt, Viswesvaran & Ones 2000: 64).
Despite the diverse view from various individuals about the similarity between the paper and pencil method and structured interviews method, the unswerving as well as the circumlocutory costs vary. Characteristically, “the paper and pencil method does not necessarily encompass direct association between the two people.
On the other hand a structural interview may be conducted with only one situation requiring direct observation. Thus the time required to test using a structured interview could be reduced by as much as 25% – 50%” (Thayer 1992: 32).
The greatest demerit of the structured interview method is that there is the absence of principles and procedures. “Structured interview in essence is the process of asking interviewers similar questions, offering the necessary information as well as specifying all the necessities concerning the job to be taken and also offering the accepted code of conduct by the management to the employee” (Ghiselli 1973: 20).
The description of structured interviews as presented may be satisfactory to a certain group of individuals but to other persons, it may not be satisfactory.
Wiesner argues out that the explanation also embraces’ situational’ interviews. “On a primary contextual, structured vinterviews are founded on the standards as well as guiding principles enclosed in the validation codes” (Butcher 1995: 38).
Outsourcing vendors
There are some factors that need to be considered while selecting the staff in any given company. These factors considered depend on the type of job an individual is going to undertake in the company.
Conversely, there are many companies dealing with different products and thus diverse jobs. For an individual seeking to be a vendor in a company, (Tehrani 2009), explains the factors to be considered before choosing the vendor.
The existence of a vendor earlier on should not be put into consideration. According to (Smith 2003), continuity of the service offered by the employees is never related to the existence of other vendors.
(Autry 2001) backs up the statement that before a vendor is selected by the managers, there is need for holding a debate with the vendor in which they will talk about the vendors service as well as his endless support for the services offered in the past.
This was usually done by the British Wind Energy Association in the UK after recruiting her workers. The manager should be able to track some of the services that can be offered by the employee. This will give the manager an idea of the expertise that will be offered.
In (Ackerman 1989) it is stated that whenever several changes in the lists of the services to be offered are realized, then this is as a result of the lack of self confidence as well as wrong planning techniques in description of his services.
The managers should therefore look for straightforward vendors who are strong and capable of establishing a steady and undoubtable service towards the company as it was done by the CFD Research Corporations in the UK.
A ccording to (Aguinis 2004), the manager should also confirm from the accessible clinteles. This will specifically guide the boss and management as a whole in arriving to the most powerful decision.
The current customers will give a clue on the index of satisfaction that may have a great impact in empowerment of the boss to make the best and expectable decision. This helped the Software and Engineering Associates, Inc. Company in South Croydon in the UK to accrue larger profits from this as the vendor was selected basing on the demand.
The intensification plan for the vendor should be put in greater consideration. Thomas explains in (Cizek 2001) about the Naval Electric Power Propulsion in the UK that the boss should gauge to determine whether it is satisfactory and at pur with the desired needs of the company.
According to (Cohen 1988: 34), “some vendors have the worst plans that base on specialization. With this type of vendors, the business will never grow. The vendors to be added should be those who have the ability, mind and urge to diversify and intensify too in the business”.
This criterion was used by the Smallsat Propulsion and Power in the UK especially by improving the technological equipments in the organization. The infrastructure should also be richly provided so that whenever the business diversifies, then there is room for the employment of other new and qualified vendors.
Cook and Campbell (1979) explain the evaluation of the services offered by the vendor on top of the delegated duty by the manager. The Johnson Partners Ltd Transport company confesses to have employed this criterion after recruiting her workers before succeeding.
This will prove whether the vender is good or not as a keen vendor will be the one who will be offering the best services ever. (Davis 1989: 29) expands and verifies that the boss should “check how often he is coming up with value additions to his services and delivering more to his existing customers”
Concerning the miniature businesses, (Ghiselli 1973) talks about the sophisticated acquaintance transfer progression. These businesses experience a superior jeopardy of trailing qualified resources devoid of sufficient acquaintance relocation.
This greatly affected GER 3568G – Dry Low NOx Combustion Systems for GE Heavy Duty Gas in the UK before recognizing this as a factor.
Basing on Ghiselli’s perspective, the management of GE Power Systems (Heavy Duty Gas Turbines) needed to ensure that plans are put consequently so that there is not any situation where a single individual is the one accountable for the significant practices.
In (Ghiselli 1966), the creation of manuscripts while the necessary procedures are followed alleviates the transition of knowledge after turnover of the employees. These important factors need to be considered since the outsourcing vendors are extensions who can not allow an individual’s business to go down with discrepancy.
Real estate salesperson
As mentioned earlier, the factors considered while selecting the staff depend on the type of job that should be done. For an individual who wants to be a real estate salesperson, there are different and unique factors that are usually considered while choosing these personnel.
According to (Landy 1986), the job concentrates in suburban sales as well as listings plus intermittent transactions that are related to the universal factual estate.
An individual who can make a good salesperson depends on the attitude. Mailer in (Maier 1988) states that the best people who can make good sales persons are those who have a very optimistic as well as a passionate attitude.
The Vertex outsourcing corporation, one of the largest productive companies in the UK emerged to have used this criterion of employing members of staff who were not only hopeful but also fanatical before succeeding. Daniel in the (McDaniel 2007) advances on the statement that the individual person should not be a complainer.
According to SoftElegance Company in Ukraine, the person should face risks as they come but should not have excuses. A good salesperson should be an independent person who judges perspectives as he views by himself but does not accept any ideas that do not make sense.
The work habits of the person should be considered before allowing him or her to be a member of staff. According to (Messick 1998), he should be able of starting or rather building on ideas by himself. According to the e-Zest Solutions Company Ltd in the UK, the person should be a hardworking worker while performing his given tasks.
He should also work perfectly and ensure that the job that he performs is as expected. The Elix-IRR Corporation used to employ workers who were time concious before thriving to be at the top.
When an event is organised, the best employee arrives an earlier day before the planned day and goes ahead to assign the given tasks in precedence.
According to (Motowidlo 2003), he should be time concious by only spending sufficient time in handling the issues of admintration but the remaining time should be employed in performing industrious activities outside the office.
Another aspect that should be put into consideration is the judgement. The person should always make sound judgement when faced with two different ideas that need to be tackled at the same time.
The person should be able to channel her efforts and be highly commited to areas that are probable to have the prevalent prospective suborn for her benefit as well as for the benefit of the firm itself. This is done while suspending the other idea that was competing the sound decision that has been made.
According to the Softheme Company in the Ukraine, the total time that should invested in unnecessary tassel activities should be less as compared to the time used in any other given activity.
The appearance of the person also matters. In (Ryan & Sackett 1987) the person should be physically fit and spruce too. This can basically be achieved through exercises. However, being spruce, the person needs to be well groomed.
She should have etiquette in dressing thus being among the role model professionals in the society. Such a person will ensure that clarity is highly maintained in the company.
In (Schmidt, Viswesvaran & Ones 2000), Professionalism is mentioned as one of the qualifications of the right staff. Schmidt mentions that professionalism should also be contemplated.
Ones, delineates professionals as individuals who are considered to have undergone through a relatively higher standard in terms of education in a particular field.
These individuals are known to be of greater knowledge and wisdom. A person who is a professional is one who scrutinizes the uppermost moral standards in working with his or her patrons, clientele as well as acquaintances (Malowe 2003).
Job knowledge is a major factor that should basically be put into consideration first. An individual can never work perfectly if he does not have some either knowledge or facts about the job (Schneider 1987). For instance, if the person should be joining a company in sales and marketting, first he should have studied the Realtors Institute (GRI).
The individual person legible for the job should be recognized by the inhabitants and know how to use all the assets in the region (Ashford 1998). There will also be a capability of him keeping the entirety accommodation record as well as the listings of the office up to date.
The creative ability of the person also determines whether a person is legible to work in any given company as a member of staff or not.
Creativity is applicable in various fields of a company. First creativity is applicable in the making up of decisions and building on them in any given company. Creativity can also help a cetain individual to intensify a certain business.
An individual who has a high level of creativity should be able to emerge with inventive criteria of resolving the predicaments encountered. The persons also respect tradition but not bound by superseded notions.
According to (Sussman & Robertson 1986) human relation on a larger basis determines the attitude of a person towards his fellow collegues at work. This is the main factor in the field of sales.
In (Terpstra & Rozell 1993) it is explained that one has to have a good relationship with his fellow persons before being able to associate well with this people while carrying out his activcity of sales.
“A good person gets along well with individuals of diifferent backgrounds associates appreciate the wilingness to help if the help was needed. All persons are also linked to receiving equal opportunities and favours” (Thayer 1992: 56).
The communicative ability matters a lot. According to (Motowidlo 2003), people who can deserve to join the panel of those great workers need to be able to speak and write with clarity. This person should be succinct and always act in a personalized.
The person should also have the urge and possibly could have mastered the imperative part of listening. The person answers questions in a reasonable and fair perspective according to his knowledge depending on the questions that have been asked (Aguinis 2004). The growth potential should be very high.
The anticipated employee is supposed to have immense aptitude to be a leader with exceptional negotiation and be versed with a higher proficiency in technology that can help him surpass in the dedicated service that he is to offer.
Since the person is an inhabitant sales person, he is proposed to have the ability to attain the company’s expectations due to his diversification in the commotions while performing his duty (Davis 1989).
Residential drug rehab
While looking at the residential drug rehab, the staff members at the residential drug treatment center are the best trained persons who have a lot of experience in matters concerning the addiction to drugs.
This was usually employed as recruitment strategy by the Narconon Drug and Alcohol Rehab and the Private Detox Drug and Alcohol Rehabilitation Clinic in the UK.
Concerning the factors to be considered before choosing the staff, it is better and safe for one to recognize whether he is to choose his personnel from any provided agency or decide the choose the employees by himself. The decision to the choice of the pannel lies in the hands of the boss.
Annete Roberts explains on the existence of certain factors that should be put into consideration while choosing the right staff. Annete verifies the possibility of hiring friends as well as freelancers due to absence of cash especially in marketting.
Annete proves that this would be a source of great dangers as one will tend to have a lot of burdens to deal with or rather to tackle. The person in charge will tend to act as a manager but at the same time act as a point of contact among the friends.
Annete further states that the manager’s friends will tend to lack insurance and thus in cases of an accident then the company will be liable for that. He therefore terms this as being dangerous and of greator risks. Annete Roberts has therefore tried to explain the significance of choosing the right staff.
In (Cizek 2001), it is recommendable to hire members of staff from an agency. The agency offers qualified personnel who are experts and competent too. The Barking Borough Corporation applied this criterion as the employees were said to have been partitioned and undergone severe training.
Cizeki brings out the idea of substandard customer service. “Whenever an indivividual has received the substandard customer service, he is not only left unsatisfied but he is also turned off to using his brand and products” (Cizek 2001 p. 21).
Hosting of people on promotion as an attention move towards the needs of clienteles is also mentioned. He goes further to talk about promotional hosting which is a form of the customer service. At this point, it is expected that the personnel should be reliable and efficient.
He is also expected to be always ahead of time. That is carrying out his duties earlier than expected. The member of staff should also be highly knowledgeable about the product as well as the event. The type of staff needed will depend on the agency and but the choice will depend on the manager.
When hiring a quality staff, “The quality benefits far exceed the cost difference when hiring premium staff” (Cohen 1988: 34). This method was employed by the Beckenham Borough Corporation in the London as a recruitment strategy before appearing on the media as one of the highly productive companies.
This is because the boss is relying on the staff to have his products sold to the market which is expected to be an enjoyable experience to the viewers. According to (Cook & Campbell 1979: 132), “The better they can do that, the more effective your campaign and the further your dollar goes. ”
Caliber compares the staff to the agency. He states that the better the agency the better the personnel too. The manager should therefore be very keen on whom to choose to act as the representative in selling of his products to the market.
He recommends the bosses to try and be exclusive in choosing of the staff. The personnel needed is anticipated to be thoroughly shaped in the specialized field (Thayer 1992).
In (Maier 1988), an agency as well as the personnel should be flexible and accessible. The member of personnel should always be eager to take her time especially in determining the needs of anybody who needs help.
Caliber explains in a case where the members of staff are nurses and pysicians, the first requirement is that they should be all licensed.
He further explains that these persons should have credible experience. They should nevertheless have their specialization in being addicted to medicine as well as treatment. Roberts explains this to be staff qualifications in an alcohol recovery program.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the choosing of the best staff can be related to a seedling whose seed was planted in a fertile soil and watered daily. The organization is taken as a garden and the manager as a gardener. An employer will have options in choosing employees.
For instance, one who grows faster and better than the rest and in the same case isolating others and helping some other persons to blossom best through formal training programs.
Most of these factors to be cosidered while selecting a member of staff can only be met through interviewing. However, if the paper and pencil method is used then most factors will not be achieved.
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