Employee Selection Process

It is the procedure of matching organizational job requirements with the qualification and skills of the candidate. It can be defined as the hiring & shortlisting of candidates with skillsets & the necessary qualifications to fill the vacancy in a company. The employee hiring process is essentially a process to find the right candidate for a job. Also, It is a step by step process which start announcing a job and ends with an offer letter.

Effective Employee Selection Process

1. Job Announcement

The job announced is the first & foremost point of contact to get the perfect employee for your organization. The job description gives clarity on the job role, skill sets, technical, as well as other expertise required of the candidate. Therefore, a detailed job description will avoid wastage of time in screening applicants who aren’t fit for the role.

likewise, the manager should ideally prepare a job description for better job role clarity. The HR then puts this job description on various platforms including the company’s website, social media pages like Facebook or LinkedIn, and also gives it to placement agencies.

You Can Mention Some Points For the Job Announcement

1. Describe your company
2. Give a brief of the job description (For example, You can mention job criteria, education certificate,)
3. Location of the job
4. Also, you can mention CTC/ Salary range and benefits

2. Receiving Applications / Resume

Next, you should be prepared to accept applications across different mediums. Once the CVs are received, a unified destination helps with sorting of qualified and unqualified candidates and reviewing them easily. In this case of different vacancies, offer different email IDs. Along with this, you can even ask candidates to answer a few questions set by you, in order to ensure the right type of a future employee.

You should ask questions like

1. How much do you know about excel sheets?
2. What’s the difference between journalism and content marketing? (You can ask questions as per candidate position)
3. Do you have any working experience?

Remember not to ask for long answers, as they tend to complicate the process. Furthermore, keep in mind that in a bad economy you will receive over-qualified applications while in a good economy it will be difficult to find enough qualified candidates.

3. Resume Screening

The next step is to Resume Screening. This step helps you identify who is your prime candidate. Have teams set in advance to do an initial shortlist of the curricula vitarum under the parameters like – Male /female, Experience, skills, education, location, salary bracket, and communications skills.

a. Check Resume Layout

Many candidates get rejected because of using a resume template that is unreadable by the applicant, A neat and easy to read resume reflects on the clarity of an employee’s mind. It also shows their professionalism.

For example, if you’re looking for an employee for a marketing position, their resume’s design, layout, and ability to describe things are a tight, concise, and engaging manner can indicate how good and creative a marketer they are.

b. Qualification & Cover Letter

Companies also conduct tests as a part of the preliminary screening process. These tests could be aptitude, proficiency, intelligence, or personality tests. Different organizations hold different tests based on the requirement of the job vacancy. Tests give a reasonably clear picture to have the candidate go through the further rounds.

You must look out for how well the candidate

1. Describe the skills, background, and potential involvement in the position being applied for.
2. Describe the knowledge of your company, its vision, and its goal, and how they could contribute.
3. Communicate in a professional, error-free manner. This reflects how they would communicate on emails and other channels

4. Telephonic Interview

Once the screening is done and relevant candidates have been found through a huge pile of applicants we move on to the next step in the employee selection process. All candidates are called and asked basic questions to understand whether they fit the requirements of the job or not.

Cold Calling

You must keep yourself well prepared before the call. Write down your requirements and have a set budget for the position. Go through the candidate’s resume once before calling them to understand whether they are fit for the position or not and also make sure to reply back to all and any of the candidate’s questions.

Few questions to ask in this stage, For Example:

1. Are you looking for a full-time job?
2. Will you be willing to travel to the job location?
3. Do you have the required gadgets for a flexible work environment?
4. Could you take me through your resume?
5. Will you be able to meet a certain requirement?
6. How long is your notice period?
7. Also you can ask, what is your current salary and how much do you expect?

5. Aptitude test and Assignment Test

Before having a one on one call with the candidates you can give them a test. It will also give you a clear understanding of their skill levels in relation to their experience. These tests are usually done online to save time and resources.

Assignment test work on understanding if the candidate has the required skillsets for the role. It re-confirms the experience that the candidates show in their resumes. This test is technical and focuses on the technical aspects of the job while aptitude tests focus on the individuality aspect of the test.

Conducting both these exams will give you a clear view of the candidate and their capabilities. Thereby, saving the company time and resources in the future

6. Employee Assessments and Personal Interviews

Once the applicant goes through the initial screening process, followed by the tests, he/she is then made to go through a personal interview. Personal interviews are a way of knowing a candidate better.

The parameters that one evaluates in personal interviews are communication skills, ease of communication, experience verification, expertise in skills, attitude, an inclination to the job applied, acceptance levels, etc.

The Personal Interview Takes Place in Different Ways:

a. One-to-One Basis

In case the applicant is met on a one-to-one basis by the deciding authority. The deciding authority could be a line manager, a management professional, or an HR professional, depending on different requirements.

Require to set up a meeting with Decision-maker and the applicant. They then talk about the reality of the role and the requirements of it.

A few example questions to ask during an interview are:

1. What is their expectation from the role?
2. Why would they like to work with this company?
3. What did they not like about their previous job?
4. What are your weaknesses and strengths?
5. What is your aim in life?
6. Also you can ask, what sets you apart from other candidates?

b. Face the Interview Board

Group discussion takes place in the presence of a board of directors, management, or a group of people. The candidates also appear for interviews in a group where a discussion is brought about on a certain topic given. The interviewers not only assess the communication skills, depth of knowledge, interaction, and but also take initiative as some of the parameters to shortlist the candidates.

c. Online Interviews

Online interviews work best for long-distance applicants. Initially, the telephonic interview was the only medium to assess, but now technology has made geographies seem seamless. Video calls have made the interviewing process much more comfortable. Skype interviews on the phone or computer monitors are a full-proof way to assess candidates online. The software industry mostly does online interviews for multi-location applicants. Online interviews eliminate the possibility of interview fraud by applicants who might set proxies for interviews.

7. Background Check

Conducting a background check is an important part of the hiring process. If this isn’t done thoroughly in the employee selection process then it can cost the company a lot. There are multiple and different things you must check when doing a thorough background check.

1. Criminal Background Check
2. Education Background Check
3. Employment Background Check
4. Identity Check
5. Public Database Check
6. Reference Check
7. Residential Address Check
8. Credit History Check
9. Also check resume

If you are unsure about how to go through this process make sure you get legal advice on the same. However, you should not skip on doing a background check.

8. Reference Check

The reference check is a process that seals the fate of an applicant. The main deciding factor of an Applicant’s future with a company is the reference checks and also, identity verification brings the right information provided by the applicant. And also his/her capability for the organization.

Reference checks usually asses the following example-

1. Cultural misfits
2. Productivity barriers
3. Personal conduct
4. Reliability
5. Punctuality
6. Strengths as well as weaknesses
7. Improvement areas
8. Performance-related issues
9. Deliverance
10. Management skills
11. Also check leadership skills

To gather all this data you need to ask specific questions: For Example

1. When & What role did you perform at your company?
2. Do you think (the candidate’s name) could take on a more important role? And why?
3. What were the main responsibilities of (the candidate’s name) at your company?
4. Also, If given the opportunity, would you ever rehire (the candidate’s name)?

9. Medical Examination

The offer letter brings a mandatory clause of medical examination as a part of the recruitment process. Medical examinations are carried out to check the mental health, physical health, hearing & vision, drug tests, and other ailments that are life-threatening and confirm that the applicant is not in a state to take full-time employment. In this case, they are performed just to ensure a healthy employee is a part of the organization.

10. Final Decision

The Final Decision step in the employee selection process is one of the most important steps. It is important to keep all criteria in mind while making this decision. If you chose the wrong candidate, risk having to start the process all over again.

Deciding authorities, HR professionals, or the manager make the final decision. Also, Make sure the candidate has all the intentions to stay with the company for a long time and has what it takes for the role.

11. Offer letter

An offer is rolled out once the applicant is satisfactorily through the various selection criteria. Sometimes, a small meeting between the HR and the applicant is arranged for salary discussions and also for final negotiations

Also, discuss all the important points with candidates like salary, working hours, and bonuses have been spoken of early in the process. Here is another key point to keep in mind at this stage.

The offer once rolled is also subject to further processes.

1. Give the candidate good news about the job before creating the offer letter. This will give you a clear idea of whether they are going to accept it or not.
2. Use an offer letter template to make things faster and also make it easier for you.

In conclusion

These are the 11 steps for an employee selection process. Any mistake in the hiring process can be extremely costly for the company. Furthermore, selecting employees that do not want to commit long term to the company will also hard the company’s resources.

The employee selection process differs in different organizations, as well as some methods listed here might eliminate, or some processes might add on. Also, we have shared is a standard procedure that governs the employee selection process of organizations globally.

Likewise, selecting the right candidate can be very useful for the company. A single candidate can have an effect on the work environment and can make all the other employees more productive.