Compare and contrast TWO modern recruitment/selection methods (e.g. psychometric tests) with more traditional systems (e.g. individual interviews).
Compare and contrast TWO modern recruitment/selection methods (e.g. psychometric tests) with more traditional systems (e.g. individual interviews). To what extent do the innovative techniques overcome the problems inherent in traditional methods of recruiting and selecting staff?
To put this title into context, the importance of recruitment and selection must be outlined. It is clear, from the literature and from my own personal experiences, that recruitment and selection are a crucial element of Human Resource Management (HRM). Regardless of size, it is essential to employ an effective recruitment and selection procedure. According to Marchington and Wilkinson (2002: p277), recruitment and selection have become a highly sophisticated practice of HR; consultants and organisational psychologists have been employed to ensure companies have made valid and reliable selection decisions (Marchington and Wilkinson, 2002).
This essay will compare and contrast psychometric testing and online recruitment against traditional methods. Furthermore, it will assess how the modern recruitment and selection methods have overcome the problems inherent in traditional methods of recruiting and selecting staff.
Selection is the process of discriminating between the pool of candidates which have been recruited. This can be in the form of references, interviews, tests and assessment centres etc (Lecture Notes). On the other hand, recruitment is essentially a pre-requisite of selection; it involves the searching for candidates (be it internal or external) for job vacancies. This involves communicating with actual or potential job seekers, and motivating them to apply. Hence, the objective is to attract the right candidates in the right number (Brunel University).
Having defined the terms, we can compare and contrast the two methods against traditional systems. Psychometric testing is a series of written or practical tests, which assess a clearly defined sample of human behaviour. According to Marchington and Wilkinson (2002: p308), psychometric tests are aimed at measuring mental ability, and vary in nature when practiced. Furthermore, there are two types of psychometric testing which need to be distinguished: personality tests and cognitive or ability tests. The former provides an assessment of an individual's choice of behaviour in differing situations. According to Toplis et al (1994: 28), personality tests are based around 'trait' or 'type' theories, which involve 'the identification of a number of fairly independent and enduring characteristics of behaviour which all people display but to differing degrees'. The latter provides an assessment of an individual's intellectual abilities. According to Bach and Sissons (2000: p126), these intellectual capabilities range from general intelligence or specific abilities such as verbal, numerical, spatial abilities and abstract reasoning.
Compared to interviews, which are defined by Frey and Oishi (1995: p01) as "a purposeful conversation in which one person asks prepared questions (interviewer) and another answers them (respondent)", psychometric testing has obvious differences. An interview involves interaction; a psychometric test requires the candidate to sit a test. Additionally, an interview is not generally designed to assess mental ability; the purpose of the interview can vary depending on what the interviewer wishes to gain out of the interviewee. More importantly, interviews are different in nature; they do not include the systematic and standardised procedures for evoking a sample of responses from a candidate in order to assess a psychological characteristic. They involve a discussion and a series of questions in order to explore the individual's management style.
However, there are similarities between interviews and psychometric testing. They both ask the candidate questions; one example of a question in a psychometric test is, "what would you do in such a situation?" An interviewer can ask the same question during an interview. Both processes help to establish key differences in the way people work; although interviews do this to a lesser extent (Personnel Today, 2003). Furthermore, questions that assess cognitive ability can also be used in an interview. From my personal experience at an interview with Booz Allen Hamilton, I was once asked to work out the number of degrees between the clock handles when the time was twenty past five. This type of question is typical of psychometric test questions. Therefore, we can conclude that interviews and psychometric testing can be similar style in order to assess the cognitive ability of candidates.
Other forms of traditional selection include application forms, Curriculum Vitae's and covering letters, Biodata and graphology. Curriculum Vitae's differ from psychometric tests, as they are used to outline a candidate's interests and activities, education, work experience and personal details. HR and Line Managers sift through C.V.'s in order to select the most suitable candidates for the position; thus there is no way in which a C.V. can demonstrate a candidate's cognitive ability or personality effectively. The other major difference between C.V.s and psychometric testing is cost, as there is no cost involved in sifting and analysing C.V.'s other ...
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Other forms of traditional selection include application forms, Curriculum Vitae's and covering letters, Biodata and graphology. Curriculum Vitae's differ from psychometric tests, as they are used to outline a candidate's interests and activities, education, work experience and personal details. HR and Line Managers sift through C.V.'s in order to select the most suitable candidates for the position; thus there is no way in which a C.V. can demonstrate a candidate's cognitive ability or personality effectively. The other major difference between C.V.s and psychometric testing is cost, as there is no cost involved in sifting and analysing C.V.'s other than time.
There are distinct similarities between psychometric testing and graphology, although graphology has been widely criticised for its validity. Graphology is the study of handwriting, especially when employed as a means of analysing personality and character. Graphologists examine loops, dotted "i's" and crossed "t's," letter spacing, slants, heights, ending strokes, etc., but they believe that such handwriting minutiae are physical manifestations of unconscious mental functions. Graphologists believe such details can reveal as much about a person as astrology, palm reading, psychometrics or the Myers-Briggs personality type indicator. In this sense, it is similar to psychometric testing, as it attempts to disclose the psychological traits of a candidate. However there are differences in style, psychometric tests do not analyse a candidate's handwriting, but analyses their responses to certain questions in order to assess their cognitive ability and personality (Carrol, 2003).
Moving on to compare recruitment, the first method which needs to be explained, is Internet recruitment or 'e-recruitment'. It advertises jobs and serves as a place to locate job applicants. For example, all the major graduate employers such as PriceWaterhouseCoupers, have online recruitment methods where candidates complete application forms on the company website.
The similarities between online recruitment and traditional methods such as placing adverts in local and national newspapers are that they both incur a cost to the employer and are external in nature. Both methods involve analysing the job in order to provide a description of the vacancy. The employer will have to provide a good job description in the newspaper advert or online advert, in order to attract the right candidate. Another obvious similarity is that they both incur a cost to the employer; placing an advert in the local newspaper involves a monthly charge and online recruitment agencies also charge for adverts. However, online recruitment involving application forms on the company website such as PriceWaterhouseCoopers, can involve cost savings in the long run.
In contrast, there are obvious differences between online recruitment and placing adverts in the press. Namely, the medium is different, where online recruitment uses the Internet. More importantly, people who want to look for jobs through e-recruitment must have a computer at hand with Internet access. Whereas placing adverts in the press, only requires the candidate to visit a shop and purchase a newspaper.
Compared to online recruitment, the job centre does not use the Internet as a medium of recruitment; instead, it acts as a middleman between the employers and employees. The obvious similarity between the two methods is that they both require a description of the vacancy, be it the advert in the job centre or the description of the vacancy on the company website.
To quote one case study to assess the effectiveness of psychometric testing, West Sussex County Council changed its selection process to meet the needs and demand for the services it offers. When selecting senior managers, psychometric testing was introduced in order to improve the validity of the selection process. Compared to interviews, numerical and verbal reasoning tests gave a consistent illustration of a candidate's ability in both skills; there was no subjective bias involved. In this regard, psychometric testing is far more beneficial. Having used the new selection methods, West Sussex County Council saw a marked improvement in labour turnover rates as they selected the right candidates for the job (Employers Organisation for Local Government).
In terms of accuracy, psychometric testing solves the problems of interviews and references. During an interview, the interviewer must rely on the candidate's honesty in answering certain questions, also many line mangers can write inaccurate references. In cognitive ability tests, mental ability can be measured accurately as the candidate cannot lie about anything. The most the candidate can do is lie (www.Toolpack.com).
Meta-analysis demonstrates that psychometric testing scores higher in terms of validity, compared to other selection methods. This analysis is a process of combining many individual studies in order to show a typical picture. One much reported set of findings is that of Dr. Mike Smith of UMIST:
(Perfect prediction)
.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
Assessment centres (promotion)
0.6
Work sample tests
0.5
Ability tests
0.4
Assessment centres (performance), biodata, personality questionnaires
0.3
Structured interviews
0.2
Typical interviews
0.1
References
0
Astrology, graphology
(Chance prediction)
Fig. 1 (Source: Smith, 1986)
From the table it is clear that psychometric testing scores higher in terms of validity compared to interviews.
When it comes to solving interview bias, psychometric testing has been criticised for its effectiveness. According to Bach and Sissons (2002), black males do not do as well as others in cognitive tests. As a result, the tests do have an element of discrimination. Also, the premise that personality tests provide a profile of a candidate's personality in order to assess their suitability for the job, results in stereotyping. This does not help solve the problems inherent in interviews.
Online recruitment has been described as the new era in terms of recruiting employees. "There is a war for talent; there are skill shortages; and there is no doubt that, used correctly, Internet-based recruitment solutions produce more accurate, faster and more cost-effective processes," says Roy Davis, head of communications at SHL, occupational psychologists and psychometric test developers. From this quote, we can now assess how Internet recruitment can solve the problems inherent in traditional methods (IRS Employment Review, 2002).
This essay will use KPMG, an accountancy firm, who implemented an online recruitment strategy. The online strategy demonstrated its effectiveness in time saving; an application form by the candidate can take an hour to complete (it took three hours before), and once finished, it is submitted by a click of a button. Furthermore, online selection tools, which develop a profile of each candidate, aid the company in sifting through more than 10,000 applications for only 650 places each year. This works by implementing an electronic system, which automatically provides a recommendation to either accept or reject an applicant, based on their individual profile scores. The evidence shown by KPMG clearly shows that online recruitment can make recruiting more efficient and quicker, compared to traditional methods such as placing adverts in newspapers, which, according to the British Computer Society, can take up to ninety days to process one application (www.bcs.org).
It can be argued that online recruitment has definite long-term savings. KPMG has made cost savings - the graduate recruitment department in London reduced its headcount by 20%. Comparing this to placing adverts in the press, which according to the British Computer Society can cost between £1000 and £10,000, online recruitment can help in reducing costs significantly (www.bcs.org). More importantly, online recruitment can ease the burden of administration associated with traditional methods such as sifting through C.V's one by one. "People were beginning to recognise that things could not go on as they were. They were drowning under a sea of paper and spending all their time rejecting people, dealing with basic administrative processes. The new system aided us in relieving this burden (IRS Employment Review, 2002)." This quote from Keith Dugdale of KPMG, illustrates the difficult situation the graduate recruitment team were under. The new technology helped reduce administration when it came to recruiting.
According to Marchington and Wilkinson (2000), internal recruitment involving word of mouth referrals has a limitation as it may reinforce existing imbalances. These imbalances could be in the form of gender and race inequality, as the recruitment method does not strive to attract a wider pool of candidates. With online recruitment however, KPMG found an increase in overseas applications. Keith Dugdale states that "Instead, the profile of our applications has changed and we now get more international applicants because of the access to the web (IRS Employment Review, 2002)." In addition to attracting diversity, online recruitment can improve the quality of candidates. What's more, 98% of graduates, 93% of IT specialists and 95% of scientists use the Internet as part of their daily routine. For employers trying to recruit these types of workers the Internet is the obvious choice (British Computer Society). Recently, HMV (high street music store), decided to put its graduate jobs online. Consequently, the quality of applications improved according to them, as this quote by the HR Director Liam Donnely indicates: "The quality of candidates is better if they've gone through the online process (People Management, 2004)."
However, there has been evidence which disputes the statement made by Liam Donnely. Employers have complained that too many time-wasters are applying to their online recruitment adverts. Research carried out by the IRS Employment Review found that although the online recruitment market is booming, most employers are unhappy at the amount of unsuitable applications they receive. More than 60% of the 200 organisations that told IRS they had introduced or increased online recruitment during 2003 said they received inappropriate responses from the adverts they placed (Computer Weekly, 2004). It is clear that companies can attract lower quality applicants for vacancies as the process has become easier to apply. As a result, people who do not have the right skills for a specific job, feel there is no harm in applying regardless of their inability to meet certain requirements. This adds to the administration burden on the recruitment team, as they have to analyse a higher number of applications.
Having discussed the weaknesses in terms of the quality of candidates, it is now timely to discuss how online recruitment can actually hamper diversity in companies. Rebecca Clarke, a CIPD adviser, warns that although the Internet is changing the way people look for jobs, companies must ensure people will not be disadvantaged by going to a one-size-fits-all system. "Someone with dyslexia might be disadvantaged if they have to read things within time limits, and there's still a long way to go on disability." She also says young black men are the group least likely to have Internet access. "So if you can apply only on the Internet they may miss out. It's better to have a holistic approach and to use all the other tools at your disposal as well (People Management, 2004)." From the advice given, it can be argued that online recruitment restricts the diversity of applicants and can be inaccessible, as not everyone owns a computer. In this regard, the innovative technique has not been successful at overcoming the problems in traditional recruitment.
To conclude, it is difficult to come to a conclusion as to exactly how far the modern methods have helped overcome the problems in traditional recruitment. However, one can rightly say that online recruitment is faster in nature compared to traditional methods. It is interesting to see that more employers are using some sort of electronic recruitment method, be it online application forms or C.V.'s being emailed. The traditional methods do have their advantages in being less complicated compared to online recruitment. However, in the long run, having installed an online recruitment system, the benefits will outweigh the disadvantages. More importantly, the online system will be able to overcome some of the problems in traditional methods, as the evidence from KPMG illustrates. It is important to note, that each company must use the recruitment method best suited to them. There is no point implementing a sophisticated online recruitment system for a bricklaying company trying to recruit a bricklayer. From the analysis of this essay, online recruitment does go far in solving the problems of traditional recruitment; however, it is not an ultimate panacea for every company concerned, as some organisations do not need it as much as others do.
No selection method, unfortunately, can perfectly predict later job success, although some assessment centres can be very good at this. From the analysis, the best single methods, however, are psychometric tests - work sample tests and ability tests. Personality questionnaires, another form of psychometric instrument, can also be very effective. Interviews tend to be less effective, especially the typical biographical interview. Other methods, such as astrology or graphology (handwriting analysis) seem to be no better or worse than chance. Psychometric tests are very popular now, and are very accurate when assessing ability and comparing other candidate's scores. In this regard, they go a very long way in solving the problems inherent in unstructured interviews. However, the vast majority of organisations still use interviews. One can rightly say that structured interviews increase the validity of unstructured interviews, as set questions are asked. Similar to recruitment, an organisation must assess what method is useful for them; there is no point in carrying out psychometric testing for a company trying to recruit a factory worker. In this situation, psychometric testing is no use to the company. However, when used for recruiting graduates, the innovative techniques go far in solving the problems of accuracy and validity. Finally, it is recommended that no selection method should be used on its own. In that sense, psychometric testing is not a panacea to all selection problems; it is only very effective when used as part of a jigsaw combining other methods such as interviews and references etc.
Word Count: 2740 (excluding references, titles etc).
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