Human Resource Management : Candidate Selection

Essay by jaejae245College, UndergraduateB+, October 2008

download word file, 2 pages 4.0

As one of the final steps in the hiring process, selecting a candidate is one of the most important decisions an organization will make. The position of Service Center Manager is an integral position for the Department of Veterans Affairs. This mid-level manager is the bridge between lower level employees and management.

The interview is an important part of the selection process but as Chally.com states, ”In a massive study conducted by John and Rhonda Hunter at The University of Michigan on the ‘Validity and Utility of Alternative Predictors of Job Performance', the usefulness of the interview in accurately predicting later success on the job was analyzed. ”The surprising finding: The typical interview increases the likelihood of choosing the best candidate by less than 2%. Beyond the interview, an organization must be prepared to go further to find the right fit for their job opening.

The position of Service Center Manager requires an employee that not only has a technical background in claims processing, but also he or she must have the right attitude and outlook in order to be successful.

With this in mind, as part of the pre-employment assessment, my selection process will include a personality assessment as well as an aptitude test. Used by at least 40% of fortune 500 companies, these tests help to find the candidate who will fit into the position best (chally.com).

The aptitude portion will focus on ability and knowledge while the personality assessment requires the prospective employee to write a short paper regarding veterans benefits and their beliefs/thoughts on who should receive them and why. It will also include questions that closely mirror the characteristics previously determined as essential to the position.

The advantages to pre-employment testing could include high content validity, with questions being a sample of the actual...