Selection

Selection is the next process after recruiting. Once the organisation has this pool of people, it is then time to get the relevant applicants and eliminate the ones that don't have the necessary skills to go through with the job. This process is time consuming, however worth it as the best applicant needs to be selected carefully.



Selection Method:

1. Interviews are one selection method that is commonly used by most organisations, when employing staff or even to go into universities. The advantage of this method is that the interviewer has full contact withe applicant, and is able to make judgements, during the interview period and would be able to make a conclusion. However the downside is that the judgment will be made over on interview, and if the applicant had a bad day and didn't so weel it doesnt mean he/she is not good enough for the job. The same way a person that is alright may do a little better and get the job.


2. Psychometric tests are another way of selecting the right applicant. this method is mainly used when the organisation has a group of people with similar skills that are hard to compare. This method consists of tests to measure inteligence, apptitude for specific tasks, to see which member of the group use their skills efficiently and so on. they'll be also tested on decision making skills, problem solving skills and so on. This method is really good on finding out who is better in a group of similarly skilled applicants. However this method dosen't always shows if the selected applicants will perform well in the future; It can only be used if it is proven that it needs to be used and only a qualified member can monitor the test. Its also costly and therefore could be a waste of money if no suitable applicant has been found.


3. Another method would be assessment centres, this would include activities such as working in teams, doing written axercises, presentations, they could even go through a psychometric test. This method could take a couple of days to complete. This method would only be used by big organisations to select really senior staffs such as managing directors. This is a really god way of selecting, However it is really expensive to set an assessment centre and this method is mainly used for groups of applicants and won't be suitable for only one or two applicants. Another problem with this method, is that it is time consuming and and managers have so much to do aswell as monitoring the assessment and they might get to point where they don't take account, which would result in a waste of money on the assesment centre.

(businesslink [2010]) (hrmguide [2010])

My interview to get in BP:

When i applied for a job in BP i had to call their recruitment line, where they took my details and asked me in which area i wanted i job. after that they put me trough a phone test straight away. They would ask me questions such as: "what would you do if a customer asked you for milk when you are in the middle of something?". Fortunatly i passed and i was told that my details would be passed on to the stre that had vacancies.couple of months later i was called for an interview which I attended. There the manager asked me simple questions such as where i worked before if i have any experience and so on. And at one he asked me hw i heard about the job and i told him that my mate told me and i stated his name; and as soon as he eard the name he closed the books n i told me that i had the job. Apparently my mate worked for him previously and he used to do excellent jobs and always complete every tasks on time and due to that i must have assumed that i would be the same since i was his mate and he gave me the job. This interview was really innefective as the manager that was interviewing me wasn't really paying any attention on the interview, and him assuming that i would be the same as my mate costed him quite a few pounds.

Personality Test in a selection procedure?

I asked a member of my familly whether organisations should include a personality test in a recruitment and selection procedure. He replied saying that it would be discrimination. In his point of view an organisation needs labour to do work and complete tasks for them, so why would they want to know about your personality. He replied saying that having a personality would make the process unfair as managers may favorise with applicants that have similar personality. However he is not against a personality test within the organisation. But one before would be unfair on the applicants.

Recomendation to BP on its selection process:

i personnally would recomend BP to improve its selction process, by maybe allowing applicants to participate at the store for a day or two to see their abilities. I would mainly recomend them to stop assuming that a freind of an excellent employee, would be good a good employee.

Conclusion:

Selection is a very expensive process aswell as an expensive one, it is therefore crucial for an organisation to select the right applicant for the right job. Labour is very hard to find now days and therefore organisations should select a person that is willing to progress in that organisation. Overall the selection process is very costly and time consume; the results are not always successfull but when they are succesfull, good results can be seen.

Reference:

• (businesslink [2010] recruiting and interviewing [online] available at: http://www.businesslink.gov.uk/bdotg/action/detail?itemId=1073793824&type=RESOURCES [accessed:29/04/2010])


• (hrmguide [2010] other selection method [online] available at: http://www.hrmguide.co.uk/hrm/chap8/ch8-links6.htm [accessed:29/04/2010])