What is the typical sequence in which the following selection devices are used by the company? a) Reference checks b) Physical examination c) Application Blank d) Hire e) Conditional Offers f) More interviews g) Screening interviews h) Tests Choose the correct answer from the options given below

What is the typical sequence in which the following selection devices are used by the company? a) Reference checks b) Physical examination c) Application Blank d) Hire e) Conditional Offers f) More interviews g) Screening interviews h) Tests Choose the correct answer from the options given below Correct Answer c) → g) → h) → f) → a) → e) → b) → d) 

Selection is the process of choosing an appropriate candidate from the obtained application to match the requirements of the job. It is the process of matching the qualifications of applicants with the job requirements, weeding out unsuitable candidates, and finally identification of most suitable candidates. The Business Dictionary defines employee selection as the “process of interviewing and evaluating candidates for a specific job and selecting an individual for employment based on certain criteria.”

Following steps are involved in the selection process: 

1. Application Blank:  Application blank or form is one of the most common methods used to collect information on the various aspects of the applicants’ academic, social, demographic, work-related background, and references. It is a brief history sheet of a candidate’s background.

2. Screening Interviews: A preliminary interview is generally planned by large organizations to cut the cost of selection by allowing only eligible candidates to go through the further stages in selection. A junior executive from the Personnel Department may elicit responses from the applicants on important items determining the suitability of an applicant for a job such as age, education, experience, pay expectations, aptitude, location choice, etc.

3. Tests: Selection test attempts to assess intelligence, abilities, personality trait, and performance through simulation tests including work sampling and the tests administered at assessment centers. A test is a standardized, objective measure of a person’s behavior, performance, or attitude. It tries to measure individual differences in a scientific way giving very little room for individual bias and interpretation. Some of the commonly used employment tests are:

• Intelligence Tests: These are mental ability tests. They measure the incumbent’s learning ability and the ability to understand instructions and make judgments.
• Aptitude Test: Aptitude test measures an individual’s potential to learn certain skills, clerical, mechanical, mathematical, etc.
• Personality Test: It refers to methods of measuring personality factors and the relationship between personality factors and actual job criteria.

4. More Interviews:  Interview is the oral examination of candidates for employment. This is the most essential step in the selection process. In this step, the interviewer matches the information obtained about the candidates through various means to the job requirements and to the information obtained through his own observations during the interview. The interview gives the recruiter an opportunity to examine the personality of the candidate. The interview is an art. It demands a positive frame of mind on part of the interviewers. Interviewees must be treated properly so as to leave a good impression of the Company in their minds.

5. Reference Checks:  Once the interview of the candidate is over, the personnel department will engage in checking references. Candidates are required to give 2 or 3 names for references in their application forms. These references may be from the individuals who are familiar with the candidate’s academic achievements or from the applicant’s previous employer, who is well versed with the applicant’s job performance, and sometimes from the co-workers. In case the reference check is from the previous employer, information in the areas such as job title, job description, the period of employment, pay and allowances, gross emoluments, benefits provided, rate of absence, candidate’s regularity at work, character, progress, etc. can also be obtained. Reference checks are taken as a matter of routine and treated casually or omitted entirely in many Organizations. But a good reference check, when used sincerely, will fetch useful and reliable information for the Organization.

6. Conditional Offers: A conditional offer of employment is a job offer that is based on the applicant meeting certain requirements before starting the job or to continue the job.

7. Physical Examination:  Certain jobs require physical qualities like clear vision, perfect hearing, unusual stamina, tolerance of hard working conditions, clear tone, etc. Medical examination reveals whether or not a candidate possesses these qualities.

8. Hire: The interviewer has to make the final decision – whether to select or reject a candidate after soliciting the required information through different techniques. A careless decision of rejecting a candidate would impair the morale of the people and they may suspect the selection procedure.

Thus, the current sequence is c) → g) → h) → f) → a) → e) → b) → d).