Staffing defined, страница 4

Step 1: The Application Blank. Prospective employees are requested to complete an application blank, which provides the manager with information on the education and experience of an applicant. In addition, it provides information about the applicant's previous growth and progress on the job as well as employment stability. It can also show, simply by its requirements, a person's ability to follow instructions and his or her command of the language.

Step 2: Preliminary Interview. This step attempts to screen out the obviously unqualified from the pool of applicants. This interview may be conducted by the manager or a personnel specialist, using the information supplied on the application blank, job description and job specification.

Step 3: Testing. The purpose of employment testing is to determine the candidate's ability to perform the job. The kinds of tests used by employers vary and are subject to certain limitations. Aptitude tests attempt to measure a person's ability to learn concepts and to master physical skills. Performance or achievement tests prove what a person can do at the time of testing. Personality tests measure individual characteristics and traits as well as particular motivations. They attempt to pinpoint particular strengths and weaknesses in order to match them to the prerequisites considered important in the jobholder for successful performance. Most tests need the expert administration and interpretation available only in testing agencies or by professionals, such as psychometrists and psychologists. For this reason, testing is expensive and should be used only when it is absolutely indispensable.

To avoid discrimination or charges of it, most companies use tests that have been approved or recognized as nondiscriminatory. Managers should be concerned with four points in testing: (1) Court decisions and federal agency rulings demand that lesl users must be able to show that their tests actually predict success on a job it those tests are used to make the decision to hire. (2) The tests must be valid—test what they are supposed to test and not some other area of performance. (3) The test should be reliable: it should provide approximately the same score each time it is administered to an individual. (4) The test must not exclude a significantly greater number of minority members than it does nonmi-nority persons. Because of the difficulty in meeting these criteria, organizations are minimizing the use of testing in the selection process.

However, a recent phenomenon is the rapid increase in the use of integrity or honesty tests. In response to the virtual outlawing of polygraph tests by a federal ruling, corporations switched to written integrity tests. The tests are designed to identify a person's tolerance for dishonesty. Despite the fact that the tests have come under question, if you wish to be hired you cannot refuse to take one, unless you live in Massachusetts.

Step 4: In-Depth Interviews. The in-depth interview will provide the applicant's prospective manager or managers (the candidate may have more than one person interview him or her) the opportunity to verify information on hand and to find out more about the applicant's interests, aspirations, and expectations. In addition, it will provide the opportunities share information about the company, the job, and its environmental conditions. The aim is to have a two-way communication that is mutually beneficial.

In-depth interviews may be structured or unstructured. In a structured interview, little flexibility is allowed to the manager. All candidates are asked the same questions in the same order, with limited time to chat. An unstructured interview allows a free-flowing conversation; only overall в topics are prepared for discussion by the interviewer.

Regardless of the type of interview format adopted, the effectiveness of the interview is directly related to the ability of the interviewer. The good interviewer does not spend more time talking than listening. In addition, the interviewer must be guided by what are acceptable inquiries. He or she must never forget that inquiries about age, marital status, ethnic background, and religion are illegal.