Employee testing & selection

Mahmoud FawziAhmed Essam Abd El-wahid

Mohamed KhairyAhmed Al-Sa’ed

Omar Ehab

Introduction:

What?

Why?

How?

Reasons for testing:

Testing leads to savings in the decision-making process

The costs of making a wrong decision are high

Hard-to-get information can be obtained more easily and efficiently

The job requires attributes that are hard to develop or change

Individuals are treated consistently

There are a lot of applicants.  Sometimes the sheer number of individuals to consider for an employment decision leads an employer to choose testing as the most efficient and fair means of making a decision in a timely manner.  

Types of employment tests

1. Assessment Centers: are often used to assess interpersonal skills, communication skills, planning and organizing, and analytical skills.  For example, individuals might be evaluated on their ability to make a sales presentation or on their behavior in a simulated meeting

2. Biographical Data: may include such areas as leadership, teamwork skills, specific job knowledge and specific skills (e.g., knowledge of certain software, specific mechanical tool use), interpersonal skills, extraversion, creativity, etc.

Types of tests (Cont’d)

3. Cognitive Ability Tests: use questions or problems to measure ability to learn quickly, logic, reasoning, reading comprehension, mathematical reasoning and other enduring mental abilities

4. Integrity Tests: assess attitudes and experiences related to a persons honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, reliability, and pro-social behavior.   These tests typically ask direct questions about previous experiences related to ethics and integrity. Integrity tests are used to identify individuals who are likely to engage in inappropriate, dishonest, and antisocial behavior at work. 

Types of tests (Cont’d)

5. Interviews: Interviews vary greatly in their content, but are often used to assess such things as interpersonal skills, communication skills, and teamwork skills, and can be used to assess job knowledge.  Well-designed interviews typically use a standard set of questions to evaluate knowledge, skills, abilities, and other qualities required for the job.  The interview is the most commonly used type of test.  Employers generally conduct interviews either face-to-face or by phone

6. Physical Ability Tests: Physical ability tests typically use tasks or exercises that require physical ability to perform. These tests typically measure physical attributes and capabilities, such as strength, balance, and speed.

Types of tests (Cont’d)

7. Personality Tests: Some commonly measured personality traits in work settings are extraversion, conscientiousness, openness to new experiences, optimism, agreeableness, service orientation, stress tolerance, emotional stability, and initiative or proactivity.  Personality tests typically measure traits related to behavior at work, interpersonal interactions, and satisfaction with different aspects of work.  Personality tests are often used to assess whether individuals have the potential to be successful in jobs where performance requires a great deal of interpersonal interaction or work in team settings.   

Selection:

Employee Selection is the process of putting right men on right job. It is a procedure of matching organizational requirements with the skills and qualifications of people. Effective selection can be done only when there is effective matching. By selecting best candidate for the required job, the organization will get quality performance of employees

Organization will face less of employee turnover problem

By selecting right candidate for the required job, organization will also save time and money

Recruitment & Selection:

selection must be differentiated from recruitment, though these are two phases of employment process. Recruitment is considered to be a positive process as it motivates more of candidates to apply for the job. It creates a pool of applicants. While selection is a negative process as the inappropriate candidates are rejected here. Recruitment precedes selection in staffing process. Selection involves choosing the best candidate with best abilities, skills and knowledge for the required job.

Employee selection steps:

1. Inviting applications: The prospective candidates from within the organization or outside the organization are called for applying for the post. Detailed job description and job specification are provided in the advertisement for the job. It attracts a large number of candidates from various areas.

2. Receiving applications: Detailed applications are collected from the candidates which provide the necessary information about personal and professional details of a person. These applications facilitate analysis and comparison of the candidates

selection steps (Cont’d)

3. Scrutiny/screening of applications: As the limit of the period within which the company is supposed to receive applications ends, the applications are sorted out. Incomplete applications get rejected; applicants with un-matching job specifications are also rejected.

4. Written tests: As the final list of candidates becomes ready after the scrutiny of applications, the written test is conducted. This test is conducted for understanding the technical knowledge, atti tude and interest of the candidates. This process is useful when the number of applicants is large.

Many times, a second chance is given to candidates to prove themselves by conducting another written test.

selection steps (Cont’d)

5. Psychological tests: These tests are conducted individually and they help for finding out the indi vidual quality and skill of a person. The types of psychological tests are aptitude test, intelligence test, synthetic test and personality test

6. Personal interview: Candidates proving themselves successful through tests are interviewed per sonally. The interviewers may be individual or a panel. It generally involves officers from the top management. Their strengths and weaknesses are identified and noted by the interviewers which help them to take the final decision of selection.

selection steps (Cont’d)

7. Reference check: Generally, at least two references are asked for by the company from the can didate. Reference check is a type of crosscheck for the information provided by the candidate through their application form and during the interviews

8. Medical examination: Physical strength and fitness of a candidate is must before they takes up the job. In-spite of good performance in tests and interviews, candidates can be rejected on the basis of their ill health.

selection steps (Cont’d)

9. Final selection: At this step, the candidate is given the appointment letter to join the organization on a particular date. The appointment letter specifies the post, title, salary and terms of employment. Generally, initial appointment is on probation and after specific time period it becomes permanent

10. Placement: This is a final step. A suitable job is allocated to the appointed candidate so that they can get the whole idea about the nature of the job. They can get adjusted to the job and perform well in future with all capacities and strengths.

Any questions?