Selection process?
Selection is the process of putting right men on right job. It is a procedure of matching organisational requirements with the skills and qualifications of people. In the other words, the Selection is a process of picking the right candidate with prerequisite qualifications and capabilities to fill the jobs in the organisation.
According to Dale Yoder – “Selection is the process in which candidates for employment are divided into two classes those who are to be offered employment and those who are not. Selection means a process by which qualified personnel may be chosen from applicants offering their services to the organisation for employment.”
In any organisation, there is no ideal selection procedure appropriate for all cases. Generally, the following steps are used in the selection of employees.
Brief details of the various steps in selection process are given as follows:
1. Invitation to applicants: In the first process of selection, the prospective candidates from within the organisation or outside the organisation 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 vari¬ous areas.
2. Receiving applications: In this step, detailed applications are collected from the candidates who provide the necessary information about personal and professional details of a person. These applications facilitate analysis and comparison of the candidates.
3. Scrutiny of applications: This step is 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. Preliminary Interviews: Preliminary interviews are also called screening interviews because It is used to eliminate those candidates who do not meet the minimum eligibility criteria laid down by the organisation. The skills, academic and family background, competencies and interests of the candidate are examined during preliminary interview. Preliminary interviews are less formalised and planned than the final interviews. The candidates are given a brief up about the company and the job profile; and it is also examined how much the candidate knows about the company.
5. Application blanks: The candidates who clear the preliminary interview are required to fill application blank. It contains data record of the candidates such as details about age, qualifications, reason for leaving previous job, experience, etc.
6. Written Tests: As per need of the organisation this type of written tests are used to objectively assess the potential candidate.
7. Personal interview: In this process or stage, the interviewers may be individual or a panel. It generally involves officers from the top management. The candidates are asked several questions about their experience on another job, their family background, their interests, etc. They are supposed to describe their expectations from the said job. Their strengths and weaknesses are identified and noted by the interviewers, which help them to take the final decision of selection.
8. Reference check: Reference check is a type of crosscheck for the information provided by the candidate through their application form and during the interviews. With the help of this process, company can crosscheck the information provided by the candidate through their application. Generally, the company asks for at least two references from the candidate.
9. Final selection: At this step, the candidate is given the appointment letter to join the organisation 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.
