She mentioned her current job is the same as this one. Her partial sight should not be a problem unless it is severe enough to interfere with her work. The 12 years spent in secretarial and admin positions may be a benefit but her ability to stay in one job for a prolonged period is in doubt, but generally, this applicant appears to be the strongest on paper. If a choice had to be made at this stage, applicant 8 would almost certainly get the job.
Discrimination safeguards
There are several potential discriminations which may occur during selecting the most suitable ward administrator. They include sex, marital status, race and disability.
Sex discrimination is the first issue. There are males and females who applied for the job and they have to be treated equally with respect to the job. Torrington, Hall and Taylor (2002a) state that E.U. competence applies in sex discrimination cases and U.K. Law can be challenged in the European courts if it does not comply with article 141 of the treaty of Amsterdam. These laws are monitored and policed to some degree by the Equal Opportunities Commission who conducts investigations into employer actions where it is suspected the Act may have been ignored and where employees (or potential employees) feel they have been treated unfairly.
The second issue is marital status. Hook and Foot (2002a) state that marital status is also an issue for consideration. The sex discrimination act (1975) makes it clear that potential employees must not be assessed and / or rejected on the grounds of their marital status. The potential employer has to obey the law and give each applicant a fair chance if they meet the requirements. Employers may think a single mother or father with young children is not suitable for a full time job, because they may not deal with family problems and company business effectively. This is a serious discrimination which must be avoided. Relevant working experience, skills and knowledge are more important, as long as the applicant can do the job. One should then, focus on the applicants’ ability. Marital status is irrelevant.
Thirdly, racism is an issue. Torrington et al (2002b) point out that UK race discrimination law is governed by the Race Relations Act 1976. Under the terms of the European Union Directive on Race Discrimination, agreed in 2000, this area of law becomes one of European competence at some stage before 2003. Therefore, it is clear that all applicants must be given a fair chance no matter where they come from or what race they are. Although the specification does not state nationality and ethnicity, all of them must be treated equally to avoid racism. The applicant who is most competent must be chosen, regardless of his or her race.
Last but not least, the final issue is disability. Since we have applicants who are disabled, we have to pay attention to this issue carefully. According to the Royal National Institute of the Blind website, (available at http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/InternetHome.hcsp), the Disability Discrimination Act (1995) compensates for disabilities in employment and recruitment. The Act gives rights to those with:
‘…a physical or mental impairment which has a substantial and long term adverse affect on the ability to carry out normal day to day activities.’
Most blind and partially sighted people are likely to be ‘disabled’ within the meaning of the Act. For this position there are two disabled applicants. One needs the assistance of a wheelchair and the other is partially sighted. Since they meet the minimum physical requirement of the job, we cannot eliminate them. According to the RNIB website (available at http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib002936.hcsp), employers should make suitable adjustments during the interview.
For example, ask if they would like to be guided from the reception area to the interview room and if so, lead the way at a steady pace, and then ask the candidate where they would like to sit. Interviewers should introduce themselves as this will enable the blind or partially sighted candidate to locate individuals within the interview room. It is also recommended that each interviewer says who they are during the interview when they speak. A blind or partially sighted candidate may find it difficult to respond to eye-to-eye contact. On the other hand, the wheelchair user should be helped by making adjustments like guiding him to the interview room.
Selection Methods
There are many methods of selection available to employers. According to Torrington et al (2002c), these include application forms, one to one interviews, telephone screening, testing, references, assessment centres and in- tray exercises. All of the above methods have advantages and disadvantages, but the first two which have been selected, namely application forms and panel interviews, are the most widely favoured, if not perfect methods. This is one of the reasons why they have been included in the three chosen methods. The final method of selection chosen is testing. The theory used as the basis for these decisions is as follows:
A. Application forms
According to Torrington et al (2002d), application forms have steadily grown in popularity as an employment selection method and in a survey conducted by IRS in 1997, it was found that 93% of the organisations studied used application forms in some way during selection. However, this was not always the case. In the past, application forms were primarily used for personal details which were included in personnel records. They asked for difficult information like National Insurance details and also irrelevant questions like family doctor and next of kin.
At that time, application forms were largely ignored in the employment process in favour of an informal chat. As concern began to grow about the validity of interviewers, the application forms began to be used more widely. They were thought to be useful for gaining more relevant information and thereby making short listing easier. They also allowed interviewers to use the form for information for the interview. In more recent times, the application form has grown into a useful tool for eliciting much more, detailed information.
An extension of the application form is ‘weighting’ or biodata. Biodata is described by Anderson and Shackleton (1990) as verifiable data about a person in the selection process given in an application form. This type of information is possibly most useful to large organisations who receive very large numbers of applications. It is used to compare applicants’ characteristics to successful job holders, categorising them as good, average or poor in the opinion of a supervisor. However, the procedure has its disadvantages. Firstly, it takes time and secondly, it is only possible when there are a lot of jobs holders in a particular position. Biodata is not widely used but this does not in any way detract from the validity of the usual, widely recognised standard type of application form.
One disadvantage of the application form is that applicants may make false claims about their experience and qualifications. It is for this reason that another method may be necessary to verify applicants’ abilities. One possible way to do this is by using references. However, referees also cannot always be relied upon to be completely honest either. Perhaps a better way to verify suitability is psychological testing, which will be discussed in more detail later in the essay.
B. Panel Interview
According to Armstrong (1999):
‘Two or more people gathered together to interview one candidate may be described as an interviewing panel’.
For selection purposes, the panel interview can be useful. The reason for this is that there are a number of people applying for this job and each of them submitted the application form, hence their strengths and weaknesses could be shown on the forms, but in order to better discern which candidate is best suited to the position, it is necessary to find out more about their skills and experience. There are many advantages to the panel interview, for instance, it may provide additional technical expertise necessary for a complete evaluation of applicants' backgrounds. Also the applicant has the opportunity to meet several representatives of the organisation and therefore may be provided with more complete information about the job and the organisation. As well as these factors, interviewers are able to base their decisions on the same sample of behaviour. Finally, the panel interview is less time-consuming and repetitive for the applicant than serial interviews (a series of individual interviews).
On the other hand, there are several disadvantages to the panel interview. Firstly, establishing rapport is difficult. Given the potentially intimidating and overwhelming atmosphere of the panel interview, panel members need to make every effort to establish rapport with the applicant and put him / her at ease. Secondly, there may be a tendency for one panel member to dominate the interview and overly influence panel discussions. Finally, as the size of the panel increases, there is a tendency for similar questions to be asked by the different panel members.
To overcome these problems, it is necessary to ensure the applicant feels as relaxed as possible, perhaps by having an informal chat prior to the interview. Also, it may be advisable to hold a formal meeting in which interviewers should make their opinions known concerning the importance of collective opinion as opposed to one interviewer having too much input. To prevent repetition, a formal list of questions should be agreed and adhered to.
C. Psychological testing
Foot and Hook (1996b) suggest that:
‘Psychological testing increases the predictive validity of selection decisions and measures some factors that can not be assessed through the application form and interview. Psychological tests cover a range of human characteristics and may assess intelligence, ability, interest, motivation and personality.’
Ability testing appears to be a suitable final selection method for this position, because each applicant can be tested on specific and measurable job-related skills, such as typing, shorthand and word processing. As the administrator has to take on the general support and administration duties, computer and shorthand skills are very important for this job. Ability testing can also check candidates’ ability, in relation to the skills which they claimed to have in the application form. It is for these reasons that the group have decided to choose this as the final selection method.
There seem to be very few disadvantages with this method, as it is a measurable and accurate means of assessing a candidate’s ability to perform the necessary duties involved in the role. Also, it is far more reliable than references, because there is much less opportunity for bias and dishonesty to become a problem. In order to discover how effective the selection methods chosen are in reality, it is necessary to apply them to the short listed candidates:
Applicant number two’s application form suggests a significant degree of suitability. This is evident from his NHS experience. However, it is not certain whether his position as an office manager has required him to carry out administration tasks like typing and filing or whether he has only worked in a management role. Secondly, although he has seven years experience in the NHS, he has worked as a nurse, not an administrator. Therefore it may be necessary to learn about his role in more detail in the interview and also test his administration skills, if he claims to have any, which may be unlikely.
Applicant six appears to be a more suitable potential employee as she has all the relevant skills including NHS experience. Again it may be a good idea to use additional interview questions and ability testing to confirm these claims.
Applicant eight appears to be the strongest candidate on paper. Not only does she have all the relevant skills and experience, but her shorthand is better than applicant six. One potential negative factor however is her past reluctance to retain a position for any significant length of time. Her six years in her current job may however, be an indication that she has realised this problem. Again this could be raised at interview and testing will confirm her abilities.
Conclusion
Overall, from the research which was undertaken to produce this essay, it can be seen that there are no perfect methods of selection and no perfect combination of methods either. Rather it is a case of applying the relevant academic theory to each selection method and then trying to come up with a combination of methods which best fit the situation in question. This is the reason why the three selection methods were chosen for this assignment. In order to select the best applicant, panel interviews, application forms and testing were chosen. These methods are not designed to be perfect but rather to provide the solution which is as near to the ideal as possible under the circumstances.
Each method has advantages and disadvantages, but it was considered that the various methods chosen would complement each other in such a way as to limit and to some extent overcome any of the disadvantages which each method has on its own. For example ability testing can confirm application form details and possibly reveal any false claims made in application forms and interviews as well as providing verifiable evidence of ability.
Reference:
Anderson and Shackleton (1990) ‘Staff selection decision making into the 1990s’. Cited in: Torrington, D., Hall, L., Taylor, S. (2002) Human Resource Management 5th Edition, UK: Pearson Education Limited.
Armstrong, M (1999) A Handbook Of Human Resource Management Practice, 7th Edition, London: Kogan Page Limited
Bach, S and Sisson, K (2000) Personnel Management A Comprehensive Guide To Theory And Practice, 3rd Edition, Oxford: Blackwell Business
Beardwell, I and Holden, L (2001) Human Resource Management a Contemporary Approach, 3rd Edition, London: Pearson Education Limited
Bratton, J and Gold, J (1999) Human Resource Management Theory and Practice, 2nd Edition, UK: Palgrave
Foot, M and Hook, C (1996) Introducing Human Resource Management, UK: Financial Times Prentice Hall
Foot, M and Hook, C (1996) Introducing Human Resource Management, UK: Longman
Legge, K (1995) Human Resource Management, UK: Macmillan Press
Torrington, D, Hall, L, and Taylor, S (2002) Human Resource Management, 5th Edition, U.K: Prentice Hall
Walton, J (1999) Strategic Human Resource Development, UK: Prentice Hall
Webliography:
RNIB, (2003) DDA-Definition of Disability. (Visited 20th Feb 2004).
URL:http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/code/InternetHome.hcsp
RNIB, (2003) Guidelines for Employers. (Visited 20th Feb 2004).
URL:http://www.rnib.org.uk/xpedio/groups/public/documents/PublicWebsite/public_rnib002936.hcsp
Appendix
The group decided on the following five questions:
- Will you describe in as much detail as possible, the work you have done, which you feel is relevant to this position?
- In what ways do you feel your experience makes you suitable for this job?
- Will you please tell me if you have ever completed a task in a difficult or critical situation and if so, how you handled it?
- What interests you about this job and why does it interest you?
- Will you please tell me which aspect of your experience to you feel are most relevant this job?
These questions were chosen for their relevance, both to the assignment notes and to the situation. The first two questions are open and were chosen based on Armstrong (1996) who states that it is best to begin with one or two open questions.
