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STUDENT ZONE
Chapter 7
Recruitment And Selection
Jeff Gold
CHAPTER OVERVIEW
This chapter begins by providing an overview of the critical processes of recruitment and
selection. It emphasizes the importance of the psychological contract in
achieving positive HR outcomes and the significance of issues of power. It then
goes on to consider various legal issues, forms of discrimination and recent
requirements on data protection and human rights. The role of recruitment in
managing diversity is considered. Recruitment is seen as an attraction process
subject to variations in labour market conditions and variation of interests. The
importance of a strategic view is considered to align performance requirement
with roles specified in terms of skills and attitudes often expressed as
competences. e-Recruitment is also considered. Coverage of various selection
methods is provided, based on a consideration of reliablity and validity issues.
Chapter objectives
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:

Understand the place of recruitment and selection as a stage in the formation of the
employment relationship.
Understand the key legal requirements relating to recruitment and selection

Explain the nature of attraction in recruitment

Explain the effectiveness of the selection interview
Understand the value of psychometric testing
CHAPTER OUTLINE
Introduction
Recruitment followed by selection are vital stages in the formation of the expectations
that form the psychological contract between employer and employees.
There are power considerations to bear in mind based on labour market conditions. For
example, traditional approaches attempt to attract a wide choice of candidates for
vacancies before screening out those who do not match the criteria set in job descriptions
and personnel specifications (see figure 7.1).

John Bratton and Jeff Gold 2007

There are wide variations in recruitment and selection practices reflecting an

organizations strategy and its philosophy towards the management of people. Employees
can be seen as part of:
a) the primary internal market (see chapter 6)
b) or the the secondary internal market
Organizations attempt to provide models of psychological and behavioural aspects of
people so that judgments can be made about who to admit. At the same time, of course,
potential applicants are forming their own models about organizations.
Legal context
In the UK, the key legal provisions are contained in the Sex Discrimination Act 1975
(amended in1986), the Disability Discrimination Act 1996 (amended in 2005) and the
Race Relations Act 1976 (amended in 2000). All these acts disallow discrimination and in
general there are three forms of discrimination which are against the law:
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Direct - where workers of a particular sex, race or ethnic group are treated less
favourably than other workers, for example in a policy to recruit only men to
management posts.
Indirect - where a particular requirement apparently treats everyone equally but has a
disproportionate effect on a particular group and the requirement cannot be shown to
be justified.
Harassment - where there is conduct which violates a persons dignity and creates a
hostile or degrading environment.
Victimisation - where individuals are discriminated against because they have
exercised their rights under the law.

In recent years, UK legislation has had to respond to directives from the European Union
such as the 1998 Data Protection Act and The Human Rights Act was incorporated into
UK law on 1 October 2000 to implement the European Convention on Human Rights in
the UK. Both affect recruitment and selection processes.
HRM in practice 7.1 - Blind jobseekers brought up to speed provides a creative
approach to help visually impaired graduates find job placements
A noted new area of legal activity relates to age discrimination. From 2006, under the
Employment Equality (Age) Regulations, age discrimination in employment and
vocational training are prohibited with no qualifying period.
Anti-discrimination legislation over the past 25 years provides the foundation for a
growing interest in diversity at work. Recruitment is an obvious place to focus on
diversity, especially in the context of global operations but also an increasingly diverse
workforce.

John Bratton and Jeff Gold 2007

Recruitment and attraction

Recruitment and attraction represent vital stages in the determination of which employees
will be able to benefit from integrated HRM of policies. Two crucial issues can be
highlighted:
1) there is the need to attract people and this implies that people do have a choice about
which organizations they wish to work for
2) the contribution that people will make to an organization is not totally predictable.
Much will depend on the extent to which the overall management philosophy supports
and reinforces an approach to HRM that focuses on the utilization and/or the
development of new employees once they have gained entry to an organization.
Recruitment and then selection processes aim to attract and admit those whom
management view as the right people for such an approach.
With a strategic view of its recruitment requirements and the strategic plan representing
the starting point, the goals, objectives and targets set the parameters for performance and
how work is organized into roles and jobs. A key role for HR is to align performance
within roles with the strategy, frequently by the use of competency frameworks.
Attraction
Images and values projected by an organization, and information on espoused goals will
interact with potential applicants in the external labour markets and determine the degree
of attraction to an organization on the part of potential recruits.
The achievement of a compatible person-organization (P-O) fit is explored by the use of
Schneiders (1987, p. 437) attraction selection - attrition (ASA) framework.. (see
Figure 7.3). In addition to person-organization (PO) fit, person-job (PJ) fit is concerned
with the extent to which there is a match between an individuals skills, knowledge and
abilities and the requirements of a job.
In recent years, there has been a rapid growth in online recruitment with three types of
approaches:
a. general recruitment agents
b. organizations that focus on providing an online recruitment service on behalf of
organisations.
c. Company sites established for recruitment
HRM in Practice 7.2 Bombings raise demand for Met jobs provides an example of
how particular events in the world can stimulate recruitment.

John Bratton and Jeff Gold 2007

The traditional way of providing information about a job is through a job description (see
figure 7.4). The profile of the `ideal' person to fill the job is in the form of a personnel
specification (see figures 7.5 and 7.6).
Traditional documents may be limited, relying on subjective judgement and masking
discrimination. The drive towards flexibility and changing work practices has seen the
appearance of new forms of work descriptions such as performance contracts, part of a
re-orientation referred to as performance-based recruitment and selection. Competencies
are increasingly used to create a specification of the characteristics of the persons sought
for particular positions.
The recruitment ratio can be used to test the success of a recruitment process to see
whether a sufficient number of applicants of desired quality are attracted within the
budget set.
Selection
Organizations use a variety of techniques, and statistical theory is used to give credibility
to techniques that attempt to measure people. Organizations also need to consider
reactions of applicants to selection methods and an important factor is the perception of
fair treatment.
Underlying the process of selection and the choice of techniques are two key principles:
1) Measuring individual differences
2) Prediction of performance
Reliability and validity issues
Two statistical concepts have been of particular importance in selection:
a) Reliability
b) Validity, including criterion validity, concurrent validity and predictive validity.
Selection interviewing
The interview is the oldest and most widely used of all the selection techniques, along
with application forms and letters of reference, referred to as the classic trio by Cook
(1994, p.15). Various attempts have been made to classify interviews according to:
(i) Information elicited
(ii) Structure
(iii) Order and involvement.
There have been two lines of research to examine the reasons behind poor results for the
selection interview. The first line focuses on the processing of information by

John Bratton and Jeff Gold 2007

interviewers leading to a decision on acceptance or rejection. The second focuses on the

skills of effective interviewing. (see Figure 7.8)
Interviews have been improved by:
situational interviews
behaviour or experience based description interviews
combination with competencies.
Psychometric Testing
Selection based on competencies and attitudes has been one result of increased attention
given to personality factors and how such factors predict job performance. In particular,
interest has focused on the five factor model (FFM) as an explanation of the factors that
determine a persons personality.
Psychometric Tests have a good record of reliability and validity. There are different
kinds of test:
a) Ability tests
b) Inventories.
On-line testing is also being used for selection and other HR purposes - referred to as eassessment. It is claimed that on-line testing provides organizations with the ability to test
at any time and any place in the world with the added benefit of quick processing of
applicants.
HRM in Practice 7.3 Online testing gets top score at Deloitte considers the case of
Deloitte where graduate recruits who score highly in psychometric tests also perform well
in their professional exams.
There are doubts about an overreliance on tests with respect to their use in predicting
future performance, especially in relation to complex tasks such as management.
Assessment centres
Organizations may combine techniques and apply them together at events referred to as
assessment centres. It is claimed that the combination of techniques provides a fuller
picture of an applicants strengths and weaknesses.
Applicants may react negatively to such techniques which may be seen as unfair.
Realistic job previews (RJPs) help applicants form expectations about how the
organization will treat them.

John Bratton and Jeff Gold 2007

ENGAGING IN CRITICAL THINKING

REFLECTIVE QUESTION/ESSAY QUESTION

Comment on the notion of fairness in relation to issues of selection in organizations.

HELP

This question asks you to consider fairness in relation to selection. Consider the balance
of power in the formation of psyschological contracts during selection. Labour market
conditions may occasionally give power to candidates but many selection techniques used
by organizations have hidden limitations which mask unfairness. Consider the legal
framework that provides for protection against discrimination; however, there are more
intractable difficulties. Iles and Salaman (1995) refer to a psychometric model that is
pseudo-scientific, that values individualism, managerialism and utility. These criticisms
can be applied to various selection techniques. There is also significant research on each
of the main selection techniques and how they measure on reliability and validity.
Fairness can be particularly considered in relation to reliabilty. See Cooper & Robertson
(2001). There is also interest in face validity of techniques. Examine the work of Bauer et
al. (2001) who have sought to measure the reactions of applications for jobs using a
selection procedural justice scale (SPJS), work by Phillips (1998) on the role of realistic
job previews (RJPs) and Hausknecht et al (2004) on applicant reactions to selection
procedures.
CHAPTER CASE STUDY : MEISTER SOFTWARE UK
The case concerns a software companys attempt to select salesmen/women. It is based on
an analysis of behaviours identified by company managers as essential for the role and
high performance. They had recently experienced difficulty in selecting candidates
although there was no difficulty in attracting applicants. The first task is appropriate
documentation but you should first set such documentation in a strategic framework. One
of the key developments in recent years has been the linking of strategy to HR practices
through the use of competency frameworks. How far could the data in the case be
considered for competencies? Review the material in the chapter on selection techniques.
Which would you recommend and on what basis? For the question on assessment centres,
it is suggested you find some examples and consider how they are organized in terms of
techniques, the assessors and the criteria used relating to competencies.

John Bratton and Jeff Gold 2007