CHAPTER 5.

SELECTION

Recruitment is a function of attracting the best possible candidates to filI-up a

vacant position. The hardest part is to select from among the best. How to select and what
criteria will be used as basis in the selection are central to the discussion of this chapter.
Selection is a critical component to the growth of your organization. The
responsibility of effective selection rests on the partnership between the human resource
professionals and the line managers. The human resource department takes initial
responsibility in selecting the candidates which includes the administration of selection
devices such as testing up to short-listing. The operating or line manager makes the hiring
decision.
The dilemma facing most companies is how to select and hire the most appropriate
candidate. Organizations at some point hired somebody not working out, costing time and
money. Hiring the first candidate that meets most of the requirements may not be the best
option. Sometimes, it may work out well but more often than not, it results in a bad hire
and an anticipated termination.
For that reason, it is best to form a candidate pool of qualified talent of at least three
people to allow the best hiring decision to be made. Rather than hiring a candidate
because of the ease it represents, an offer instead can be made to the most appropriate
candidate based on careful deliberation of each of the talent pool to determine who would
make the best fit.
This author recalls what his boss in the Pacific Division of a multinational company
once told him: “You should be ruthless in your selection of the best among the best
candidates.” Selection is too important a job that top executives of successful companies
despite their busy schedules involve themselves in.
Microsoft's Gates considers personnel selection and placement as so central that
despite all his other pressing concerns, he makes himself available to interview
prospective job candidates. He feels that intelligence and creativity are reasonably innate
so the company cannot do much to change people along these lines after they are hired.
Gates was quoted to have said, ‘Take our 20 best people away, and I will tell you that
Microsoft would become an unimportant company." (Emphasis from Author)
Authors Larry Cassidy and Ram Charan, in their best-seller book37 "have this to
say on selection:
"Given the many things that business can't control, from the uncertain state of the
economy to the unpredictable actions of the competitors, you'd think companies would
pay much attention to the one thing they can control - the quality of their people, especially
those in the leadership pool. x x x the same leaders who exclaim that "people are our
most important assets" usually do not think very hard about choosing the right people for
the right jobs. x x x What they are overlooking is that the quality of their people is the best
competitive differentiator.
If you look at any business that's consistently successful, you'll find that its leaders
focus intensely and relentlessly on people selection. Whether you're the head of a
multibillion- dollar corporation or in charge of your first profit center, you cannot delegate
the process for selecting and developing leaders. Il's a Job you have to love doing."
(Emphasis from Author)
This concern is echoed by an article in Harvard Business Review (HBR) that bewails
that "current hiring practices are haphazard at best and ineffective at worst. And even
when companies find the right people, they have difficulty retraining them." In the authors'
survey of 50 CEOS of global companies, fully half of the companies relied primarily on
the hiring manager's gut feel, selecting a candidate believed to have "what it took" to be
successful in any job. "Given the ad hoc quality, lack of specified criteria, and
inconsistency of practices among the companies we studied, it's no wonder that usually
about a third of promising new hires depart within three years of being recruited."
The HBR article decries that despite a universal acknowledgment that hiring good
people is a key source of competitive advantage, we could find only a few companies that
excel at one or more aspect of the hiring process that come anywhere close to hiring a
"gold standard." It cited as some few good examples the Southwest Airlines, McKinsey,
Intuit, TCS, and Service Master. The authors said companies have to approach hiring
from a rigorous, strategic, and objective point of view. They need to educate their line
managers so they can hire effectively. And they have to ensure that their HR managers
provide the right support. The authors also recommend the obvious: the right interviewers
should typically be the hire's prospective boss, the boss' boss, and the top HR Manager.
As a prerequisite in choosing the right people for the right job, you have got to have
precise ideas about what the job requires and what kind of people you need to fill those
jobs.
The selection process covers the following:
 Screening applications and resumes
 Conducting test of the applicants
 Interviewing
 Performing reference checking/ background investigations
 Deciding whether to hire or not
APPLICATIONS AND RESUMÉS
The application letter is the common starting point in the selection process. Enclosed
with the application is the bio- data of the applicant. The biodata includes, but is not limited
to, his education, career interest or goals. Unless the applicant is a fresh college graduate,
the resume includes work experience.
 Some companies place more emphasis on education. In Microsoft, for example,
general intelligence or cognitive ability is often valued more heavily than experience.
Since its core business is software development, Microsoft would rather go to major
universities' math or physics departments to get people who are highly intelligent even
if they have little direct programming experience.
Generally, however, companies look at experience as an important criterion in
selection. It is the experience working in a specific field of discipline since it may
provide an insight into the candidate's level of competency.
Even when candidates submit resumes, most organizations still require
Applicants to fill out company application forms. In the U.S. and other western
countries, questions about age, gender, marital status, number of children, race and
religion are prohibited. They are considered as not job-related. In our country,
information sheet required of applicants to fill out includes all these data.
Accomplishing company application forms in addition to submitting resumes is
not without reason. It is considered good practice since resumes often contain
exaggerated information about the applicant. The application form is more accurate.
Also, before the applicant affixes his signature, he attests to the truthfulness and
correctness of the information. He agrees that any information that is later found to
be untrue could be a cause for termination.
CONDUCTING TESTS OF APPLICANTS
More and more companies are conducting employee testing than be- fore.
Caution should be taken on employee tests. First, they are just one of the tools in the
selection. Hence, results of the tests should not be the sole basis in selecting the best
fit candidate. Second, some tests need to be validated by interview, reference and/or
background checks. Third, some tests need interpretation by qualified
psychometricians. Fourth, ethics must be observed in the utilization of these tests.
Some companies copy test questionnaires from some sources unmindful of infringing
copy- rights of institutions like Philippine Psychological Corporation that develop and
own these tests. Worse, these 'copycats' are not even aware of the norms of passing
these tests. Fifth, some tests are of western origin and may not therefore be culture-
free unless local norms are being developed by experienced psychologists.
Having provided you with these caveats, let’s proceed in our discussion of
employee testing. There are four categories of employee testing to determine the
candidate's Ability. Aptitude, Performance, Personality, and Honesty or Integrity tests.

Ability Test
These tests are assessment instruments used to measure an individual's ability,
mental or physical skills level. They measure a variety of areas ranging from verbal
reasoning, numerical ability, problem-solving, motor or spatial agility, mechanical
ability, or finger dexterity such as in typing, or assembling.
There are many ability tests available in the market. Examples are IQ, Verbal
Reasoning, Numerical Reasoning and Abstract Reasoning tests. The leading
organization that sells this kind of tests is Philippine Psychological Corporation. It is
recognized as the pioneer in industrial psychological testing in the country.
Aptitude Tests
Merriam Webster's Dictionary defines aptitude as (1) an inclination, tendency
(e.g., aptitude for hard work); (2) capacity for learning (e.g., an aptitude for
languages); (3) General suitability: aptness.
Aptitude test, therefore, is a standardized test designed to measure the ability of
a person to develop skills or acquire knowledge. It is a test to determine whether
somebody is likely able to develop the skills required for a specific kind of work.
For example, when our company began to staff our newly organized IT
department, Intimal applicants were made to undertake a number of computer related
tests conducted by our hardware service provider. The idea was to determine who
among the applicants have the inherent ability to quickly learn and understand
computer programming.
There are also some career aptitude tests that would try to determine one's
interests in something, or style of working and how one interacts with other people.
This is especially important when an organization's culture is focused on team- work or
an applicant is being considered for a supervisory or managerial position.
Performance Tests
Performance testing covers a broad range of engineering or functional
evaluations where a material, product, system or person is not specified by detailed
material or component specifications: rather, emphasis is on the final measurable
performance characteristics.
Performance testing can refer to the assessment of the performance of a human
examinee. For example, a behind- the-wheel driving test is a performance test of
whether a person is able to perform the functions of a competent driver of an
automobile. When you test a secretarial applicant on typing and shorthand skills,
that's performance testing. A test on cost or process accounting given to applicants for
accountant is another form of performance testing. So is an actual test on presentation
to determine the presentation skills of a sales applicant.
Personality Tests
Personality tests aim to describe aspects of a person's character that remains
stable throughout that person's lifetime, the individual’s character pattern of behavior,
thoughts, and feelings. Essentially, a personality test tries to find the Answer to the
following questions of Applicant: How does he compare to the average person? His
personality - how was it developed? What is his relationship style? What type of person
suits him best?
The Importance of personality test is to ensure that a company is not hiring
somebody who has some personality disorder which can be manifested in one's way
of thinking, perceiving situations and relating to others, traits that can be dysfunctional
to the organization.
The use of personality tests has increased dramatically especially for sensitive
and managerial positions. This author had the experience of undergoing these tests
before being hired in one company. On the third day of a battery of personnel tests,
he went through the Rorschach test and Thematic Apperception tests (TAT) which
would be explained below.
1. Rorschach Test is a series of ten symmetrical ink spots that you would be /
asked to interpret. Developed by Rorschach, a Swiss psychiatrist, the ink-blot
test is devised to study your personality and diagnose psychopathologic
conditions. Psychologists use the test to try to examine the personality
characteristics and emotional functioning of a person.
2. Thematic Apperception Test (TAT) is a projective test developed in the United
States. It is popularly known as the picture interpretation technique because it
uses a standard series of 30 provocative yet ambiguous pictures about which
the subject must tell a story. The subject is asked to I tell a dramatic story as
he can for each picture including:
a. What has led up to the event shown?
b. What is happening at the moment?
c. What the characters are feeling and thinking?
d. What the outcome of the story was?
The adherents of TAT claim that it taps a subject's unconscious to reveal
repressed aspects of personality, motives and needs for achievement, power and
intimacy, and problem-solving abilities.
There are several criticisms on personality tests. Firstly, it is an invasion of the
personal privacy and dignity unless the candidate signs conformity to submit to the
tests. But then, applicants in dire need of jobs would sign anything just to get
employed. Secondly, smart applicant fake their responses to personality items
making themselves seem more conscientious, agreeable, and extroverted than they
really are. Perhaps, the most telling statistical revelation is that prediction, rates in
personality tests are "surprisingly low at 0.38 percent." Stredwick hastened though
to add "but this may reflect to a large extent the way these tests 'are used (or misused)
as much as the inherent defects of the tests themselves.
A group of psychologists made the following conclusions on personality tests.
 "First, faking on self-report personality tests cannot be avoided and perhaps is
not the issue; the issue is the very low validity of personality tests for predicting
performance;
Second, as such, using published self-report personality tests in selection
contexts should be reconsidered; but future research should focus on finding
alternatives to self-report personality measures."
Regardless of the raging debate on personality tests as to their validity in
predicting job performance, this author believes that personality tests have their own
usefulness provided that the test measure is a job-related issue; the tests should not
only be the sole selection device and above all, they must be validated by interview.
Honesty or Integrity Tests
Honesty or Integrity tests are not commonly used in many companies. This could
probably be more relevant in some retail store chains or positions that have fiduciary
responsibilities like tellers in banks or cashiers. The question is how valid and
predictive are these tests of theft or other disruptive behaviors. There are also legal
and ethical issues regarding these tests as they may be an invasion of the privacy of a
person or may violate one's constitutional right against self-incrimination.
With due consent of the applicant, a polygraph or lie detector test is employed
by some companies. Some paper and pencil honesty tests are employed by some
companies. Some studies in the U.S. indicate the validity of these tests.6
At any rate, whatever are the issues on legality, ethics and validity, honesty or
integrity tests are not popularly used in the Philippines.

THE INTERVIEW
The Interview is the cornerstone of the selection process. There are some
concerns that it is the least reliable method of selecting candidates. It is an
observation, however, that its reliability hinges more on the untrained interviewer and
his lack of objectivity. Training on how to conduct an effective Interview and being
aware of the pitfalls of the Interview process are two most primordial requisites. In
short, do not interview if you do not have the proper training. Experience is good but if
you start it bad, you are only institutionalizing that bad practice through experience.
Done properly, we are a firm believer of interview evaluation as the central basis
in selection. It must be kept in mind that there are three (3) basic objectives of the
interview:
(1) to elicit information;
(2) to observe and record behavior; and
(3) to evaluate information received and behavior observed.
There are several stages in a purposeful and results-oriented interview:
  Preparing for the interview
 Making a friend
 Eliciting information
 Observing behavior.
 Concluding the interview
 Evaluating results of the Interview

Preparing for the Interview

Preparation is the key to successful interviews. The place to conduct the
interview must be carefully selected to afford privacy and to avoid interruptions. The
applicant is entitled to some privacy as he would reveal personal matters about his
life and his work. Interruptions like telephone calls, texts, or somebody entering into
the room can be dysfunctional as it disrupts the trend of question and answer in the
Interview.
The interviewer should go over the resume and the application of the candidate
and acquaints himself with the job description and parson specifications. The skills
and competencies required for the Job should be fresh in the mind of the interviewer
before the interview begins.
Making a Friend
In lectures on interviewing techniques, people asked: "Why make. friend? We
are not in need of a Job, It's the applicant." The answer is simple: to make the applicant
open, relax and be straightforward in revealing himself to us. Remember that you'll be
trying to obtain as much information that would help you to decide whether he is the
person you are looking for. If you are unfriendly, the applicant would not be expansive
in his answers. He would not volunteer information more than what is being asked.
Except when you try to entice somebody who is not looking for a job, applicants,
whether fresh from college or not, eager to land a job, generally, are a little bit anxious
and fidgety. Do not add their anxiety by being unfriendly, or worse, hostile. Show that
you appreciate their interest in joining your company. And he will pay it by being more
expansive in his answers.
Firstly, offer him a seat. If it is your practice to offer some drink like water, coffee,
or soda, do so. In any case, start with a small talk like about the weather, traffic or
something of interest to him. After a few minutes of relaxing talk, then, give him the
parameters of the interview: how long will it be, important bits of information that you
would like to know about him, i.e., about his family, education both the academic and
the extracurricular lite, job experiences, highlights and achievements, difficulties
encountered in the job and how he tried to resolve those difficulties, career goals,
interests, and how he relaxes himself after work. The idea is to give you a holistic
picture of the person whom you are considering for a job offer.
At the outset, it may be a good idea to provide the applicant a realistic preview
of the position and its responsibilities. Giving the applicant an overview only of the
positive aspects of the job can lead to rapid turnover in the position. It is advisable to
give the applicant a realistic view of the job including the negative aspects to ensure
that the appropriate person is hired.
Obviously, the method that is prescribed is structured interview. The
unstructured method allows the applicant to control the interview. The applicant is free
to decide what to discuss. The interviewer may ask open-ended questions but does
not control the direction of the interview. It could be rambling, time consuming and the
information given may be incomplete. The structured interview is more effective since
the interviewer defines and controls the direction of the interview.
Probing into the family background is admittedly treading into sensitive territory
since not everybody has wholesome experience in the family. This portion must
therefore be handled with extreme caution and empathy. But the parents and siblings
have pervasive influence in the behavior and character of the applicant which could
have predictive value on how he will behave and perform in his job. An innocuous-
sounding opening salvo of "Tell me about your family," followed by probing questions
may open the floodgates to critical information like it is a family of achievers or that
there was serious dissension in the family that led to the separation of his parents.
The school background both in the academic and non-academic tells you about
his basic intelligence and the presence or absence of social intelligence. You are not
looking for a square peg in a round hole but a well-rounded person who not only can
work hard but can also interact with others. Probing into his career goals would give
you an insight of what his career objectives are and how he intends to achieve them.
Eliciting Information
The basic rule is to avoid asking categorical questions. Questions like: "Did you
like college?" is answerable by yes or no. That ends the conversation. It would be
different if you used open- ended question like "Tell me about your college years."
Using the what, why, how, open-ended questions will prod the applicant to tell you a
more exhaustive answer to your questions. Answers to open- ended questions must
be followed up by probing questions.
For example, the answer to the question of where did you enroll' in college, should
be followed up by a combination of probing and open-ended questions. Here are
some examples:
 Where did you enroll in college?
 Why did you enroll in that school?
 What course did you take?
 Why did you take up Accounting as your basic course?
  Which of your school years was most difficult? Why?
 What were some of the problems you faced? What caused this to Occur?
 What did you do about it? If you have the same problem all over again,
would you do things differently? If so, why?
 You said your ambition was to enroll at U.P. but you failed in the entrance
exams. That's why you settled for the second-best school. How did you feel
about your failure in the entrance exams?
 How it is like studying in that school? How does it compare with U.P. and
other schools?
Questions about 'feelings ‘allow you to explore how a candidate would react to
some failure in his tasks or projects in the organization. Questions on what is it like
studying in that school tests him on his ability to compare and contrast.
Here are some samples of questions about his fitness to work in your company.
 Why do you want to work here?
 Where else are you applying? Do you prefer working with others or
alone? Why should I hire you?
 Tell me about an event that really challenged you. How was your
approach different? Tell me about a time when your work or an idea was
criticized. How did you feel about it? What did you do? You seem to be
extremely happy in your job, why are you looking for another one? You
seem to be happy in your childhood days, were there moments that you
were unhappy?
The interviewer's behavior influences the candidate's behavior. If you exude
warmth, maintain eye contact, reinforce the candidate's answer by nodding your
head, the candidate becomes personality. Some candidates though are prone to give
long-winded answers and may digress to another topic. Gently "push along" the
interviewee who gets immersed in too much detail. You can more talkative and
revealing of his nudge him gently by saying, "That’s a very interesting aspect of your
life. Would like to go back to that later. Can we stick to your college days for a
moment?
The interviewer is encouraged to take down notes of the highlights of the
interview. This would be of tremendous help especially if you interview more than one
person in a day. If you do not take notes, you may forget some important facts and
impressions in the interview. However, do not scribble notes excitedly when an
unpleasant data is given by the applicant. For instance, when he volunteers the
information that he was dismissed in his second job, wait for a while by asking probing
questions. "That is sad, tell more about why you were fired." As he explains the reason
why, write "Fired! Probe deeper" without looking down on your paper.
How long should the interview be? Depending upon the position the interview
period should not be shorter than 30 minutes and longer than one (1) hour. Some
important positions may even require more than one (1) hour interview. Which is
better, one-on-one interview, paired or panel interview? The advantage of one-on-
one interview is the applicant is more likely to open up, respond forthwith to a probing
question, and readily give all the required information regarding his skills,
competencies, feelings, frustrations and viewpoints in life. The disadvantage is it
keeps the single or panel interview so busy listening the answers, taking notes and
thinking of the next question that he could miss some important point in the applicant's
response.
A paired or panel interview affords a wide array of questions to be fielded to the
applicant and a consensus of impressions can be reached instantly after the
interview, the drawback is, if not given pre-assigned questions, it can result into an
unstructured interview. Moreover, moving rapidly from one question to another makes
it more difficult to get into the probing mode. The staccato question coming from the
panel members degenerates into a grilling session which can be unpleasant to the
applicant. It smacks of a congressional investigation. It is also difficult to assemble
two or more managers together at one time for the interview.
A one-on-one interview seems to be the most effective method. Potential peers
may also conduct the same inter- view comparing over all notes afterwards. This may
result in a degree of fatigue to the applicant who will be exposed to the same kind of
questions but it can also create the impression that his dignity is spared from a panel
grilling-manner of interview and the importance that is attributed to the position.
Lastly, in the solicitation of information from the applicant; most of the talking
must be done by him. The interviewer who does most of the talking is not interviewing
but is being interviewed.
Observing Behavior
There are two skills that you want to find out in the interview: the hard skills and
soft skills. Hard skills such as the computer savviness of an engineer or technician,
typing prowess of a secretary, a CPA, are readily observable and can be checked
from the PRC or subjected to performance test. So, do not spend 80 much time on
the hard skills. Spend more on the soft skills or competencies which are mostly
behavioral. This is what one writer calls "behavioral event interview." They can only
be observed and discerned through skillful interview.
There is truth to the saying that action speaks louder than words. Observe how
the applicant answers a difficult question like the discrepancy in the starting date of
one job and the leaving date of the previous job where the manner of leaving may not
be too happy. Look at his eyes, the sudden inflection of his voice, the uneasy
movement of his body, the long pause, the stammering - all these may indicate that he
is caught in the web of his deception. There is a principle we have in interview: "Listen
to the music." This means that in a song, do not pay attention only to the lyrics but to
the melody. Likewise, in the interview, while you are trying to understand what the
applicant is telling you in words, pay attention also to his body language. For example,
the applicant is telling you that he is tough and would not hesitate to fire a non-
performing subordinate. But the applicant's hands while holding to the armchair were
trembling. The lyrics (words) do not match with the melody (action).Concluding the
Interview

This is the final stage of the actual interview. You can check on your notes to be
sure that you have not missed any important information about the applicant.
Before you close the interview, it is good practice to allow the applicant the
opportunity to ask questions. It is a good way of telling him that the interview is a two-
way proce8s. This portion of the interview is the time for you to project the good Image
of the company. In a marketing sense, hiring somebody is actually buying one's talent,
experience, values, effort and time in exchange for salary and benefits. For important
positions, the applicant may be given a short tour of the premises. Even if the
applicant is not chosen, he goes away feeling good about the company.
If the applicant asks about your impressions of him and his chance of getting
employed, decline any comment and tell him instead that you are still in the process
of considering other applicants and will inform him of the decision in due time. In
closing the interview, summarize what had been covered, thank the applicant for his
time in the interview and his interest in joining the company.
Evaluating Results of the Interview
Rule number 1 in evaluation: Do it immediately after the interview. One cannot
trust it on memory. While it is true that you recorded highlights of the interview, not
every vital detail can possibly be recorded unless the whole interview was
electronically-recorded. Besides, records of answers to open-ended, probing and
follow up questions are raw data. They have to be evaluated based on your own
observations.
Rule number 2: The results of the interview must be evaluated against certain
criteria. Criteria are the variable factors set by the company against whom the
applicant is measured. Some organizations catalogue observable and common traits
of high performing employees hired for the past several years and make the
assessment based on those criteria
SUMMARY
Since people remain the foundation of any organization's success, the interview
and selection process is one of the most critical aspects in the recruitment activity.
Personnel test is one of the important tools in the selection process but is not the end-
all and be-all of selection. It has to be aided, supported and validated by in-depth
interview.
An interview, to be effective, must be conducted by a trained and experienced
interviewer. It cannot be left to an untrained and sloppy interviewer. Essentially, an
interview is like a TV talk show where the host asks open-ended questions but it is
more than that. It is structured - you establish the parameter: the approximate time,
subjects to be covered, asking the applicant to tell job related story of his life,
education, training and experience, career aspirations while the interviewer asks
probing, follow- through questions. The interviewer observes behavior, takes notes,
evaluates and assesses whether the applicant is the best fit candidate.
Make the decision to hire only after careful consideration of the information
gathered and soft skills observed. Sometimes, you can be carried by your own biases
and wrong impressions. You must strive to resist these temptations and make your
decision based on the hard, cold facts and objective observations gathered and
synthesized.