Selection Error

There are two types of selection error. In the "false positive error," a decision is made to hire an applicant based on predicted success, but failure results. In the "false negative error," an applicant who would have succeeded is rejected based on predictions of failure.

The False Positive Error

An organization that makes a false positive error incurs three types of costs. The first type of costs are those incurred while the person is employed. These can be the result of production or profit losses, damaged public relations or company reputation, accidents due to ineptitude or negligence, absenteeism, etc. The second type of costs are those associated with training, transfer, or terminating the employee. Costs of replacing the employee, the third type of cost, include costs of recruiting, selecting, and training a replacement. Generally, the more important the job, the greater the costs of the selection error.

The False Negative Error

In the case of false negative error, an applicant who would have succeeded is rejected because failure was predicted. Most false negative selection errors go unnoticed, except when the applicant is a member of a protected class and files a discrimination charge. Costs associated with this type of error are generally difficult to estimate. A situation in which the impact of both false positive and false negative selection errors can be detected and measured, however, is in professional sports such as football and basketball. Here, coaches and scouts analyze game films, physical statistics, scouting reports, and other data and decide whether they wish to draft a particular player. If they draft the player and his performance fails to meet expectations, a false positive selection error has occurred. Suppose, however, a team decides against drafting a player and another team chooses the individual. If the player subsequently turns out to be a star, the first team's rejection represents a false negative selection error.

Factors Affecting the Importance of Selection

Effective selection methods and procedures can result in fewer selection errors and their associated costs, and increased levels of performance and productivity due to hiring highly qualified applicants. The selection function takes on increased importance:

(1) when a job's base rate of success is low;

(2) when a job has greater importance to an organization; and

(3) when the selection ratio for a job is low.

Base Rate of Success.

Generally, the selection function is more important when a job's base rate of success is low. A low base rate of success indicates that relatively few employees reach an acceptable level of performance in a job. Improved selection procedures can raise base rates of success, thereby reducing costs associated with selection errors.

Job's Value to the Organization

The more important a job is to organizational effectiveness, the more important the selection function is. Selection errors are far more costly for important jobs than for jobs of lesser importance. One measure of a job's value to the organization is the standard deviation of job performance for a job (SDe). The SDe of job performance is a measure of the potential range, or variation, of the dollar value of job performance. For some jobs, differences in performance extremes (excellent to incompetent) have little effect in terms of dollar value to an organization. For example, variability in performance for a clerk/typist job is relatively insignificant compared with the effects of performance variability for the job of marketing manager.

Selection Ratios

A selection ratio is the proportion of applicants selected and placed to the number of job applicants for a job. The selection function increases in importance when the selection ratio is low enough so that meaningful differentiations can be made between job applicants. However, since there are costs associated with processing applicants, very low selection ratios may not be cost-effective for an organization.

Ref: Thomas.H.Stone

Absconding employees

A leading BPO to recently bear the brunt of a suit filed on them by an employee who had disappeared from work for more than a month and then suddenly got back one day to rejoin. The organization which had tried several ways of communicating and contacting the employee had to finally terminate him after all the efforts failed. The employee is now claiming unfair dismissal.

Quite often, employers are faced with the problem of an employee who simply disappears without any form of notification to the employer. Any employer who has had this problem is sure to have been faced with a disruption to his/her business. There have been many instances where an employee simply vanishes leaving the organization in a crunch. And to add more to this he/she emerges much later claiming the job. How does an organization handle such a situation in order to be fair to both, the employer and the employee?

When an employee simply fails to return to work and remains absent for sometime employer is confused regarding the exact law for termination of absconding cases. When an employee remains absent for sometime without any intimation, the employer has to act in the following manner. Firstly, on the second day of absence, the employer should contact the employee telephonically. If telephonic contact is not possible, then send an official communication within 2-3 days. Even there is no response is received; send an official letter which should be registered. The letter must enquire the reasons of absence and also mention the consequences. After a week of sending the first letter, the second letter should follow stating the necessity to appoint a new candidate for the post. The employer finally can seek legal advice and accordingly act to terminate the services.

Company can also frame a policy on uninformed absenteeism. If an employee goes absconding from work for seven days in a row, the company separates him/her from their system involuntarily on grounds of un-informed absenteeism. For any informed absenteeism of lesser than seven days at one go, they roll out warning letters to employees. A second case of warning and the employee is liable to be terminated with immediate effect on third instance.

A few companies try to contact such an employee through telephone and registered post. But if the absconding employee does not respond for more than a month, then they terminate his/her services and refuse to release their relieving letters.

Are there any solutions which can be offered to companies to curb this unethical practice? How stringent should an employer be in fighting this menace? Can you identify a probable absconder?

An appointment letter must mention the terms of service including un-notified absence. Legal action of terminating the service is possible. Other than the legal side, at the time of interview and selection, the candidate must be scrutinized – the mental set up, family background, etc., must be taken into consideration. Also, any new candidate must be under behavioral observation. In larger companies, the HR department should evolve a system of analysis. In smaller organizations, the concerned bosses need to be observant. Employees will have to be firm and company rules will have to be followed.

Though organizations follow very stringent background checks, absconding employees are a problem that no organization can totally evade. An employee, most likely to disappear tends to be highly volatile with a skewed career graph by virtue of age and job profile. Past employment history provides considerable insight into a person’s commitment to an organization. Once the candidate joins the company, his/her attendance record, discipline on floor and performance records may form the basis for predicting his/her stay at the company.

Therefore the companies must make sure that a thorough screening of all employees is done before getting them on board. Also keep a track record of all employees and try to read the mind and outlook of an employee. But if an employee had made up his/her mind, nothing can have done about his/her decision.

There are no typical solutions to this practice. Despite company policies and laws, the un-informed absenteeism cannot be abolished though these policies help firms to reduce such instances and help in reducing the impact of uniformed absenteeism on manpower deployment. However, well defined warnings and separation guidelines and the awareness of the same amongst employees is a key to compliance and adherence.

An interesting observation in such cases is the fact that many times, these absconding employees come back after long intervals and they claim that they have been unfairly dismissed. How does the HR department of a company react, when the employees themselves go missing, and the company becomes liable? The study of human relations and emotions is not only interesting but intriguing. The basic fundamental of the fact that no two people are alike or can be alike makes such studies very non-conclusive. Yet psychological studies over the years have shown that a general pattern ca be understood. The act of disappearing in itself is unethical and illegal. Therefore, such employees do not have any moral or legal rights. The management, however, must take the necessary legal steps to counter any claim the employee might make. If the absconding employee was unable to be contacted, then the returned registered letter is the legal proof.

Once the timeline for reverting back to work by an employee absconding is over, the employee has to be separated from the system. The employee has every right to present his/her side of the story within the defined timeline. It could be over any mode of communication. Any communication from the employees’ side only strengthens faith in the employee and his/her commitment to work. However, absconding cases have to be dealt with differently. Failure to communicate from the employee’s side leaves the organization in a lurch. The organization cannot wait indefinitely for the employee to return. In genuine cases, employers may reconsider the employee and re-hire him/her as he/she is already a trained resource for them. Even at Patni, if a disappearing employee comes back within a month, he/she is given a chance to explain his/her absence and is then considered for re-joining. Organizations now become smarter in their policies in order to fight this menace of disappearing employees. It is well understood that if the absconding employee has a genuine reason, he/she will be given a chance to justify his/her actions. But if the reason behind the absence is pure bad intention then it is time up for the employee.

Ref: CiteHR

What interviewers look for?

The persons who interview candidates collectively are form the interview panel. Normally, the panel consists of three interviewers. However, there could be more than three. The logic given for interviewers in selection at B-schools may more or less applicable for executive jobs in business and industry as well.

The duration of an interview varies between five minutes and 45 minutes. However, the duration of an interview has no bearing on the final outcome; what matters is the quality of interaction that you have with the panel. Most interview panels comprise professors who work full time in case of B-school interviews and top managers from industry for business interviews.. Sometimes, the panel; of interviewers could also include a psychologist. Of late, some top B-schools are also including an alumnus/industry person to their interview panel.

Interviewers chiefly look for students who are suitable to pursue a management course at their institute and whether the have the potential to go on to become effective managers in the future. Candidates who have clear, breadth and depth of knowledge, and the ability to look at things in a balanced manner are sought. Interviewers also look at the moral and ethical value system of the individual concerned, and how the candidates will be able to contribute to the to the industry and the society at large.

Types of Questions asked in an interview:

The job of an interview panel is to determine whether you are a suitable candidate for a particular B-school. In this regard, they may put any questions under the sun to you and you are expected to answer such a question. On being asked personal questions, you are expected to answer in a mature manner, and not say. “This is a personal matter and I cannot answer this question”. You are not expected to give flippant answers to seemingly innocuous questions. Every questions is asked with a sense of purpose. Make sure that you answer with sincerity so as not jeopardize your selection prospects.

The questions that you could be asked in an interview fall under the following categories:
Questions related to your personal background
Questions related to your personality (strengths/weaknesses)
Subject / academic based questions
Questions on career planning
Questions on hobbies / extra curricular activities.
Questions on job profile ad other organization-related matters (for those with work experience)

Two important questions that are asked in most interviews at top B-schools are:

(a)Why do you want to do an MBA? (b)Tell us something about yourself.

The question at (b) is almost certain while recruiting business executives mostly in case of candidates with relevant experience.

Since such questions are more or less certainly, you should prepare for them well in advance, having a ready made answer to these kinds of questions will not help you as you could easily falter in the interview. What you would be better off doing is have broad reasons, which could form the basis for your responses in the interview. This would make your answer more natural rather than rote.

Most of the top B-schools ask a large number of questions on the subjects you have studied during your +2 and your graduation. These questions are essentially conceptual in nature. However, it is seen that students are unable to answers these questions successfully. By answering these questions correctly, you are sending out a message to the interview panel that you have taken the right amount of care to prepare thoroughly for the interview. Excuses such as “I studied this a long time ago,” will not be appreciated by the panel. You could be asked questions on career planning such as, where do you see yourself five years from now? You could also be asked questions on current affairs / general knowledge and the hobbies that you pursue. Answers to questions from these categories would be reflections of what you do in your leisure.

Ref: CiteHR

Pre Employment Reference Checks

In today’s competitive environment, it has become essential to find the ‘right fit’. Hence, HR today has become overtly cautious and is indulging in extensive background checks before bringing a prospective employee on board. It has become imperative to confirm and reconfirm a candidate’s credentials, his/her character and his/her proposed experience before it’s too late.

Organizations today have become highly alert and are ready to do anything to have the kind of employees on board. The market is booming and the IT industry has witnessed a phenomenal growth and hence, it has become important to ensure that best quality professionals were getting inducted into the organization. It was a customer centric initiative to establish credibility with respect to the caliber of the people they recruit in the organization. In a well known IT company the pre-employment check, more popularly referred to as the ‘Background Check Process’ is a very critical part of the recruitment procedure. Employees are not allocated to projects without the background check being cleared for the employee.

In another Training and Staffing Solutions company, hiring is done only on referral basis and hence it becomes imperative to have referral checks as the first step in the entire pre-employment procedure. Every necessary check is done before calling the candidate for the interview. This company gives more weight age to job performances, work ethics, attendance at work and attitude. Hence, pre-employment checks form the first step. In Xerox, it is mandatory to conduct such screening and it is an auditable process. They collect detailed information about his/her candidature, personal and professional history and analyze it well.

These checks are important because they allow better-informed and less subjective evaluations to be made about a person. Integrity and performance on the job are some of the important factors today. With the advent of new MNCs into India, it is getting rather important to do pre-employment checks as companies investing heavily in India cannot risk taking employees with dubious backgrounds. The above is practiced by an organization which is into recruitment for senior level positions it becomes all the more pivotal since these candidates are going to be in strategic/leadership positions and are accustomed to a lot of confidential information.

At Patni computers, pre-employment screening is outsourced to a third party with clear ‘Service Level Agreements’ (SLAs) defined. Their screening usually consists of educational qualifications check, previous experience check and database (criminal and credit) checks.

At Enhanzee, Employment Verification means ensuring that the selected candidate actually worked in the positions listed in the application resume, cover letter or otherwise cited by the candidate that quality him/her for the position sought. Background checks, employment verification documents, reference checks, character and personal reference checks are amongst the various checks that are performed in that organization before hiring. And all these procedures are done by their in-house HR team.

Organizations in India can benefit tremendously from an employee-screening program. Decreased turnover, reduced expenses and elimination of risks of theft and fraud are just some of the advantages. Being employers, it is up to them to provide their employees a safe and secure working environment. Hence, it is their job to reject those people who might have violent or criminal records. They must be sure about the quality of our software professionals and having clear cases on board makes it that much easier to practice integrity as a value in each of their actions. The only drawback of this practice is the delay in actual allotment that happens due to stringent SLAs. However, breaking up the process into parts is done so that essential checks are completed without delay.

This procedure saves a lot of time wasted in conducting too many interviews. Once all the necessary checks are done, only a few short listed candidates are called for, which saves time and energy. The most important virtues an employer looks for in any candidate are honesty and integrity because all the other traits can be acquired but these can be inherent traits.

Today, organizations are being more and more cautious because they do not want to bear the brunt of a faulty recruitment process and bring a misfit aboard and to these organizations, pre-employment screening is a boon as they are employing people almost everyday, every hour.