HRM textbook

176 PART 2 RECRUITMENT, PLACEMENT, AND TALENT MANAGEMENT
WHY CAREFUL SELECTION IS IMPORTANT
Once you review your applicants résumés, the next step is selecting the best
candidates for the job. This usually means whittling down the applicant pool by
using the screening tools we cover in this chapter: tests, assessment centers, and
background and reference checks. Then the supervisor can interview likely candidates
and decide whom to hire. Nothing you do at work is more important than
hiring the right employees. It is important for three main reasons: performance,
costs, and legal obligations.
PERFORMANCE First, your own performance always depends on your subordinates.
Employees with the right skills will do a better job for you and the company.
Employees without these skills or who are abrasive or obstructionist won t perform
effectively, and your own performance and the firm s will suffer. The time to screen
out undesirables is before they are in the door, not after.
COST Second, it is important because it s costly to recruit and hire employees.
Hiring and training even a clerk can cost $5,000 or more in fees and supervisory time.
The total cost of hiring a manager could easily be 10 times as high once you add
search fees, interviewing time, reference checking, and travel and moving expenses.
LEGAL OBLIGATIONS Third, it s important because mismanaging hiring has
legal consequences. For one thing (as we saw in Chapter 2), equal employment laws
require nondiscriminatory selection procedures. 3 Furthermore, someone can sue an
employer for negligent hiring. Negligent hiring means hiring employees with criminal
records or other problems who then use access to customers homes (or similar
opportunities) to commit crimes. 4 In one case, Ponticas v. K.M.S. Investments, an
apartment manager with a passkey entered a woman s apartment and assaulted her. 5
The court found the apartment complex s owner negligent for not checking the
manager s background properly. 6
Person and Job/Organization Fit
The main aim of employee selection is to achieve person-job fit. Person-job fit refers to
matching (1) the knowledge, skills, abilities (KSAs), and competencies that are central
to performing the job (as determined by job analysis) with (2) the prospective
employee s knowledge, skills, abilities, and competencies. The aim is to achieve a match.
However, a candidate might be right for a job, but wrong for the organization. 7
For example, a highly experienced airline pilot might do well at American Airlines but
perhaps not as well at Southwest, where the organizational values require that all
employees help get the plane turned around fast, even if that means helping with baggage
handling. Thus, while person-job fit is usually the main consideration in selection,
employers should care about person-organization fit as well. The accompanying
Strategic Context feature illustrates this.
THE STRATEGIC CONTEXT
Crowd Sourcing at Google
Google knows that to maintain its fast-growth strategy, it needs to keep
new Google tools like Gmail and Google Maps coming. To support that strategy,
Google needs its employees engaged and interacting with each other. Having
employees thinking of themselves in isolated silos would inhibit the crosspollination
Google depends on. In formulating its employee selection practices,
Google therefore found a way to foster the employee engagement and interaction
its success depends on. Google uses crowd sourcing when it comes to
making hiring decisions. 8