The Best Employee Selection Methods

Employee selection refers to the process of selecting a suitable candidate during the recruitment process. It involves two main stages; shortlisting from your pool of eligible applicants and choosing your preferred candidate from the shortlist. In order to do so, it is important to follow a cohesive series of steps to ensure you make the right selection.

The complete list of steps may change depending on the role you are hiring for, your recruitment budget, the seniority of the position, available resources and organisational needs. Selection methods can be grouped into two categories; External and Internal.

Internal recruitment occurs when an organisation intends to fulfil the advertised role from within its existing workforce. Internal recruitment is considered beneficial due to the ability to save time and money, whilst boosting employee morale by providing an incentive to progress. It can also decrease employee turnover.

External recruitment is regarded as fulfilling vacancies from applicants outside of the organisation. When recruiting externally, it allows the organisation to hire an individual with greater experience or qualifications. However, it can be difficult to understand whether the candidate will be the right fit culturally for the organisation.

Conduct A Cognitive Ability Assessment

Cognitive Ability Assessments are considered to be the number one predictor of job performance across all levels and industries. Cognitive Ability Tests assess how well a candidate will perform in regards to problem solving, numerical ability, learning agility and more.

Assessing a candidate's cognitive ability can be an effective method to measure job success when implemented correctly.

Types of cognitive ability tests include numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, logical ability and mechanical ability. The variety of tests will depend on the industry of the advertised job role.

Evaluate Your Candidate’s Learning Agility

Learning agility has gained increased popularity in recent years. A number of HR professionals have used learning agility to identify and further develop high potential talent. Statistics show that 50% of leaders hired fail to do what they were hired to do, because they lacked learning agility.

Learning agility can be defined as a set of complex skills or competencies that enable a candidate to apply what they have learned in one place, in an entirely different situation.

Learning agility is therefore a crucial ability that can be measured to gain an understanding of how applicants function and adapt within a changing work environment or industry.

Integrate Situational Judgement Tests

Situational Judgement Tests (SJTs) are a great way to assess how a candidate is likely to behave in different situations or scenarios. SJTs prevent candidates with various sequences of events which they may experience if they are selected.

SJTs are highly predictive of job performance and culture fit as they provide candidates with a realistic job preview early in the application process.

However, Situational Judgement Tests can be costly and difficult to construct, as they require input from an industrial organisational psychologist, as well as a production team and designer.

Measure Employee Integrity

Employee integrity measures honesty, dependability and work ethic and takes two forms; Overt and Covert. Overt tests directly refer to dishonesty and counterproductive behaviours, whereas Covert tests are personality based.

Evidence suggests that employee integrity tests are generally less biassed and more cost effective than alternative assessment methods.

However, historically, employee integrity tests have faced illegal issues as they were questioned for requiring candidates to rate statements that were considered discriminatory. In order to avoid problems with legality, it is integral to ensure your tests comply with the applicable laws and do not have an adverse impact on the candidates taking the test.

Test Job Knowledge

Whilst learning can occur while working, certain roles require applicants to possess specific knowledge or skills prior to entering the company. Job Knowledge Tests provide a method to identify a candidate’s theoretical or technical knowledge within a specific field. Such tests should be used during the recruitment process in order to ensure a correctly qualified candidate is chosen.

Introducing a Job Knowledge Test too early in the process however, may deter applicants. In order to avoid this, recruiters should keep the test short and introduce it once they have shortlisted their pool of candidates.

Administer Test Work Assignments

Test work assignments are a great way of allowing the candidate to gain an understanding of what they can expect within the specified job role. They also provide insight into what skills they can bring to the company.

Organise An Assessment Centre

By organising an assessment centre, recruiters can identify candidates’ hard and soft skills, by analysing their social, analytical and communication skills.

Recruiters can create assessments involving a series of simulations and exercises designed to evaluate how an individual would perform in each scenario.

However, running an assessment centre can be costly as they must be regulated and evaluated by trained professionals. Assessment Centres may therefore be beneficial to larger organisations.

Ensure Your Interview Process Is Structured

It is important to ensure your interview process has a defined structure to ensure candidates are treated fairly. By asking candidates a series of predetermined questions, it allows the recruiter to compare responses more objectively, eradicating hiring bias.

Conduct Peer Interviews

A peer interview is an interview conducted between a candidate and their future peers. Such interviews are beneficial in identifying how well the candidate will fit into the team and the organisational culture.

However, conducting peer interviews can be time consuming as it is necessary to ensure interviewers are fully trained to ask the right questions.

Conduct A Reference Check

Reference checks are no longer a formality within the recruitment process. Conducting a reference check can reveal valuable information about a candidate, which can help the recruiter decide on who to hire.

When reference checking, it is important to ask the right questions. Asking questions like the ones listed below, can ensure that you receive optimal insight whilst protecting your time.

• What was their biggest strength/weakness?
• Would you rehire them if you were given the opportunity?
• How long did the candidate work for your organisation?

It is important to identify a series of selection methods that are reliable, predictive and suited to the advertised position and industry.

Using a combination of methods can work to a recruiter’s advantage when applied correctly.

When choosing tests, it is important to use trusted administrators to ensure the smooth operation of the recruitment process. Qualyphi provides a range of test methods from Numerical Reasoning to Personality Tests. You can view our test library here.