A STUDY ON SELECTION PROCESS IN AN

ORGANIZATION
Dr.G.Vijayakumar & Ms.V.Tharanya
1. Assistant Professor, Department of Commerce, Sir Theagaraya College
2.Assistant Professor, Department of Corporate Secretaryship, Alpha Arts & Science College.

ABSTRACT
Human resource management is concerned with the employment of suitable human
force in the organization. This function pertains to the recruitment, selection, induction,
training and development, and compensation to the employees. Recruitment is a key function
under human resource management as it is the first and the foremost step in the process of
employment. Recruitment altogether is a process of attracting, shortlisting, selecting, and
appointing suitable candidates for the jobs within an organization. The second step in the
process of employment is selection. Selection is all about collecting evidence to enable the
organization to make an accurate judgement about a candidate’s strengths and weakness about
the job. Employee selection is a method of interviewing, analysing, and evaluating the
candidates for a specific position, and selecting an individual for employment based on certain
criteria (qualifications, skills, and experience). The purpose of the study is to know about the
selection process, motive, and importance of the selection of employees and to know about the
different types of interview methods and tests.

Key Words: Human Force, Recruitment, Selection, Interviews, and Test.

INTR ODUCTION
Any organization, whether a business organization or an industrial enterprise, needs
four important ‘M’. They are Money, Material, machinery, and Men. These elements are
predominant for the growth, development and survival of the organization. The success or
failure of an organization depends on the effective combination and dovetailing of these
factors. Of these, the management of men is a prominent and challenging job in modern days.
Human resource management is concerned with the employment of suitable human force in
the organization. This function pertains to the recruitment, selection, induction, training and
development, and compensation to the employees.
 Recruitment is an primary function under human resource management as it is the first
and the foremost step in the process of employment. Recruitment is a positive process of
searching for prospective employees and stimulating them to apply for the job vacancies in the
organization. In other words, recruitment refers to the overall process of attracting, shortlisting,
selecting and appointing suitable candidates for the jobs within an organization. There are
several sources or methods by which the process of recruitment will be done.
The next step in the process of employment is selection. Selection is the process of
gathering information about applicants for a position and then using that information to choose
the most appropriate applicant. It involves predicting which candidate will make the most
appropriate contribution to the organization for now and in future. Selection process aims at
gathering relevant information about the candidate, organise and evaluate the information and
assess their performance on the job. Based on the information the personnel management team
will decide whether to provide an applicant a job or not. Therefor selection is all about
collecting evidence to enable the organization to make an accurate judgement about a
candidate’s strengths and weakness in relation to the job.

REVIEW OF LITERATURE
Burack (1985) Selection Sources are closely linked to the organizational activities as
performance of employees, employee turnover, employee satisfaction, employee wishes and
the commitment of the organization. The selection process should be done at each and every
sector for fulfilling their organizational goals.
Hays (2004) In this paper selection of public workers: An International compendium
of modern trends and practises say that the importance of using technology in the recruitment
and selection process for updating the organizational resources.
Vipin Lumar and Soncyharice minz (2013) states that A comprehensive overview,
categorization and comparison of existing feature. Selection methods are also done and the
guidelines are also provided for user to select a feature selection algorithm without knowing
the information of each algorithm.

SCOPE OF THE STUDY

The present research is confined to study the selection process in the organizations. The
study reveals the selection process in the organization whether employees are satisfied with the
process and it also vary from one organization to the other organization. Besides this various
other aspect relating to selection process are also highlighted and the researcher listed the
various interviews and tests existing in the organization.

OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY

1. To know about the selection process.
2. To know about the purpose and importance of selection of employees.
3. To know about the different types of interview methods and tests.

EMPLOYEE SELECTION
Employee selection is the process of interviewing and evaluating the candidates for a
specific job and selecting an individual for employment based on certain criteria
(qualifications, skills and experience). Employee selection can range from a very simple
process to a very complicated process depending on the firm hiring and the position.

Employee selection is the process of choosing individual who have relevant

qualification to fill jobs in an organization. Selecting the appropriate set of knowledge, skills
and abilities which come as a package in a human being. It is an attempt to get a “Fit” between
what the applicant can and wants to do and what the organization needs. The task is made more
difficult because it is not always possible to tell exactly what the applicant really can and wants
to do. Fit between the applicant and organization affects both the employer’s willingness to
make a job offer and applicant willingness to accept a job. Fitting a person to the right job is
called placement.

PURPOSE OF SELECTION
The purpose of selection is to pick up the most suitable candidate who would meet the
requirements of the job in an organization, to find out which job applicant will be suitable if
hired. To meet this goal the company obtains and assesses information about the applicant in
terms of age, qualifications, skills, experience, etc. The needs of a job are matched with the
profile of the candidates. The most suitable person is then picked up after eliminating the
unsuitable applicants through successive stages of selection process. How well an employee is
matched to a job is very important because it is directly affects the amount and quality of
employee’s work. Any mismatched in this regard can cost an organization a great deal of
money, time and trouble especially, in terms of training and operating costs.
IMPORTANCE OF SELECTION PROCESS
1. Proper selection and statement of employee lead to growth and development of
company. The company can similarly, only be as good as capabilities of its employees
2. The hiring of talented and skilled employees results in the swift achievement of
organization goals.
3. Industrial accident will drastically reduce when the right technical and talented staff is
employed for the right job.
4. When people get jobs, they are good at performance and wold like to work effectively
so as to improve their quality of performance.
5. People who are satisfied with their jobs often tend to high morale and motivate them to
perform better

STEPS IN SELECTION PROCESS

The term selection can be defined as the process of selection and shortlisting of the right
candidates with the necessary qualification, skills and knowledge set to fill the vacancies in an
organization. The selection process varies from industry to industry, organization to
organization, company to company and even among the departments in the organization.

Every organization creates a selection process because they have their own
requirements. There is no hard and fast procedure, which can be adopted by all the organization
to select the employees. the procedure varies with the size of the organization. Type of the job
to be filled in and the philosophy of the personnel management.
The following are the process or steps which are usually found in all the organization

1. PRELIMINARY INTERVIEW
This is a very general and basic interview conducted so as to eliminate the candidate
who are completely unfit to work in an organization this leaves the organization with a pool of
potential fit employees to fill their vacancies of the organization.

2. RECEIVING APPLICATIONS
Potential employees apply for a job by sending applications to the organization where
there is a vacancy. The existence of a vacancy is advertised buy any methods of recruitment
for calling the applications. The application gives the interviewers information about the
candidates like their biodata, work experience, skills, knowledge, hobbies and interests.
3. SCRUTINY OF APPLICATIONS RECEIVED
Once all the applications are received, they are completely scrutinized and screened by
a special screening committee who chooses the candidates from the applications to call for an
interview. Then applications are divided under two categories:
a. Applications of candidates who have the required education qualification and experience for
the desired job.
b. Applicants who do not have the required qualification.
This type of sorting out of applications will help the personnel manager to reject the
applications of the candidates who are not suitable for appointment the candidates who have
the required qualifications are then called for an employment interview
4. EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEW
The purpose of an employment interview is to find out the suitability of the candidate
and to give him an idea about the work profile and what is expected of a potential employee.
Generally, the assistance of the personnel department conducts the employment interview the
interview should be generally very brief however, it will give an idea about the experience
appearance and personality of the candidates. An employment interview is it is critical for the
selection of the right people for the right jobs.
Techniques adopted to screen the candidates
I. Group Discussion
Under group discussion applications selected at the first stage will be called for an asked
to take part in group discussion under this method applicants will be given an important issue
and ask to discuss on that they can give their opinions, suggestions, ideas and arrived at a
conclusion to solve it. The selection panel will keenly observe and based on the performance
of the candidates ability and skills and prepare a merit list of candidates for the purpose of
selection.
II. Games
Games regarding business is another technique used for selecting candidates for
management training, executive training and manager personnel at various levels of
Management. It evaluates the applicants in areas such as decision making, identifying the
potential handling the critical situations ability to solve a problem nature of human relations
under this technique applicants are placed in an imaginary situation and they are asked to play
a particular role in the situation in practice organization adopts different business games in
order to evaluate the various skills and innovative ideas of an employees. Some of the games
are case study role play in basket sensitivity stimulations stress handling etc.
5. Employment Test
Before an organization decides a job for a suitable candidate, they have to gauge their
talents and skills. Test is an important element under selection. Test have been developed in an
effort to find more objective means of measuring the qualification of the applicants such as
intelligence, aptitude, strengths, proficiency, personality, etc. These qualities and qualifications
can be discovered only by giving test therefore this is becoming an important concept in the
selection process. Following are the different types of test:
A) Performance Test
The applicants are asked to demonstrate their ability to do the job. These tests are
however useful for selecting an experienced worker. Their performance will be evaluated and
based on the results candidates will be analysed. Personality test for many position particularly
at higher levels personality appears to be a critical factor in the job performance personality
test to measure personal characteristics like motivation to work, cooperative, less dominance,
self-confidence etc.
B) Assessment Centres
Assessment centres use procedures that incorporate group and individual exercise
applicants go through a series of these exercise and are apprised by line executive, practicing
supervisors, team leaders, managers and trained psychologist as to how well they perform.
C) Psychological Tests
Psychological tests are most sophisticated tool for measuring human characteristics and
an unbiased when compared to other tests.
D) Intelligence Test
This test is used to measure the mental ability for mental alertness of the applicant’s
individuals different their ability to learn various types of technical jobs. Bright people can
learn almost any job more quickly than those who are less intelligent. Therefore all
establishments use these tests invariably to identify the brilliant candidates.
E) Aptitude Test
In essence aptitude test is a kind of intelligence test that measures the overall learning
ability that is the applicant's potentials ability rather than past achievements. Aptitude test
measures whether an individual has a capacity that is talent ability to learn a given job if given
adequate training. Some important aptitude test management trial exercise, clerical aptitude
test, pilot aptitude test, etc.
F) Computer Aptitude Test
 Computer aptitude test is a scientifically validated test designed to measure the aptitude
for working with computers. Basically it measures the ability to solve problems quickly that is
essential for job.
G) Psychomotor Abilities Test
In this test the co-ordination strength and dexterity of an individual is judged other
ability is related to routine office jobs and production jobs can also be measured through these
tests.
H) Vocational Interest Test
This test identifies the occupation that are referred by the candidate and that can provide
him maximum satisfaction. Under this test the applicants is asked whether he likes dislikes or
is indifferent to many example such as school subjects, occupation, amusement, peculiarities
of people and particular activities. Drugs and alcohol test for the security productivity and
safety of the workplace drug testing programs are used pre employment test
I) Kuder Preference Record
In this test a questionnaire tests the interest in mechanical scientific clerical social
service computation pervasive artistic literary and musical abilities. Kuder has also design
techniques to differentiate between honest answers and those design to make a good
impression.
J) Thematic Apperception Test
This is one of the most popular projective test in this test the candidate is shown as a
series of pictures one at a time and asked to write a story for each of the pictures the psych
psychologist analyse the story in terms of factors like length vocabulary fantasy ideas plot
moves etc. then they integrate the findings into general personality description of the subject
in terms of his needs pressure upon him difference and ego activities
K) Rorschach Inkblot Test
In this test the candidate is asked to organise unstructured inkblots into meaningful
concepts the resulting projection are analysed in terms of use of colours and shades use of 800
holes of a blot saying of moment definiteness and appropriateness of forms seen extra.
6. FINAL INTERVIEW
Interview is the most universally accepted selection element in the selection process.
At the same time it is the most delicate aspect of selection process. In the interview, the
interviewer and applicant exchange information in order to achieve a goal through the
conversation. The employment interviews are conducted during the selection process through
proper planning. The present location of the interviewing place is selected and the interviewer
has the good personality with empathy and ability to communicate and listen effectively and
must observe the knowledge of the applicant job profile must be prepared on the basis of job
description before conducting interview. The purpose of an interview is to assess the
personality of the applicants, the occupational experience and academic achievements. To
know about the interpersonal skills personal qualities and organizational fit the interviewer will
provide the candidate with more information about the job and we'll see the agreed terms of
employment.
TYPES OF INTERVIEW
I. Unstructured Interview
Unstructured interview open ended questions are asked from application in order to
perform probing, it is generally non directive in nature and applicant is encouraged to give
lengthy answers
II. Structured Interview
In structured interview a list of job related questions associated to a particular job are
asked from each applicant in a consent manner. It is directive or pattern nature and includes
the following kinds of questions like situation questions, job knowledge question, jobs samples
simulation questions, worker requirement questions, pop mixed interview. It is a special kind
of structured interview in which specially design questions are asked from the applicant prove
his past behaviour in specific situations
III. Mixed Interview
A blend of structured and unstructured questions is used by the interviewer while
interviewing the job seekers or candidates are waiting to take up the job.
IV. One on One Interview
In this type of interview there are only two participants the interviewer and interviewee.
The interviewer proposes the questions to the interviewee and will observe and listen to the
interviewee for appropriate answers.
V. Sequential Interview
It involves a series of interviews usually utilising the strengths and knowledge base of
each interviewer so as that each interviewer can ask questions in relation to/her subject area of
candidate moves from room to room.
VI. Panel Interview
A selection committee appointed for interviewing candidates is called a panel. This
method consists of two or more interviewers and the figure may go up to as many as 15. Any
panel interview is less intimate and more formal than one to one but if handled and organised
well it can provide a wealth of information. Interview was themselves are likely to experience
nightmare not knowing who will ask which questions and what order. The panel members who
collectively perform the task of selection. The final decision is taken with the consent of all
members.
VII. Behavioural Interview
This method focuses on a problem or a hypothetical situation that the applicant is
expected to solve. This helps in identifying the ability of the applicant to solve the problem and
to bring out a valid solution depending upon the situation. Behavioural descriptive interview
this focuses on actual work incidents in the interviews in the past. This method format ask the
job applicant what he or she actually did in a given situation. This method indicates whether
the past performance is the best predictor of future performance.
VIII. Stress Interview
It attempts to learn how the applicant would respond to the pressure. This technique is
more relevant in jobs involving stress as in case of commercial pilots’ applications will be
given a situation and a time limit in order to handle a problem.
IX. Computer Interview
It requires candidates to answer a series of multiple-choice question which are structured to
the job. These answers are compared with the ideal profile or with profiles developed on the
basis of others responses
X. Group Interview
Candidates are supposed to form groups and one group together will be interviewed at
one time. It is a sort of group discussion. The person’s ability to lead, their presence of mind
and communication can be evaluated under this technique.
7. BACKGROUND CHECK FOR REFERENCES
Generally in a blank application form there is a column for references and the
candidates are required to mention the name of the referees, their residential address, the
present occupation and contact details. The accuracy of the application form of the candidate
is verified through reference of former employer or personal references of applicant are
contacted to confirm the validity and accuracy of the provided information effort is made to
know the past behaviour of the employees to that the future behaviour can be predicted from
it. The level of responsibility of the new job directs the intensity of the background
investigation.
References if unbiased may prove to be a useful source of information regarding the
character and reputation of the candidate the referees should be contacted before the final
selection there are different kinds of references, they are present and former employees’
reputable citizens mutual acquaintances.
8. CONDITIONAL JOB OFFER
After going through to the above steps of selection procedure then comes an important
step of the selection process in which the decision of hiring an appropriate applicant is made.
Application of the applicant who are best and suitable to meet the requirements of the job is
selected. To start with conditional job letter is issued to the applicant which must be followed
by medical examination
9. MEDICAL EXAMINATION
When the conditional job letter is issued to the suitable candidate the next step of
selection process starts in which the physical and medical examination of the selected candidate
will be conducted.
An organization may conduct medical examination in order to you know that the
candidate is essential to check either he takes the drugs or not. Does he/she has any medical
illness, disease, issues which pertains during medical examination. The doctor of the firm will
examine the candidate. Some organization will ask the candidate to get a medical certificate
examined by doctor. The purpose of medical examination is to ascertain the applicant's
physical capability to meet the job requirements to protect the organization against the
unwanted claims and it helps to prevent communicable disease entering into the organization.
If he passes the medical exam he would be finally selected for the job. A proper medical
examination will ensure a higher standard of health and physical fitness of the employees and
will reduce the rate of accidents labour turnover and absenteeism
10. FINAL SELECTION
After a candidate has passed through all the hurdles and procedure in the selection
process, he will finally be held up in the final selection process. Applicant is formally appointed
by issuing him an appointment order or letter or by entering into a contract of service with him.
Generally, the candidates are appointed as a probationers, period ranging from 6 months to 1
year after successful completion of the probationary period he/she will be appointed on a
permanent basis. If the candidate is found unsuitable in the probation periods he may be
terminated or transferred to some other job which may be up to his ability.

CONCLUSION
The selection of an right applicant for a vacant position will be an asset to the
organization, which will be helping the organization in reaching its objectives. A good selection
decision is an important part of successful HR management. The argument says that these
decisions are the most important part. Productivity improvement for an employer may come
from changes in incentive pay plans, improved training, or better job design but unless the
employer has the necessary people with appropriate knowledge skills and ability in a place
those changes may not have much impact. A very best training will not enable someone with
little attitude for a certain job to do that job well and enjoy. The process of selection may vary
from organization to organization.

REFERENCE
1. http://www.psnacet.edu.in/courses/MBA/HRM/11.pdf
2. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/268210664_A_Study_On_Recruitment_Sel
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3. https://drexel.edu/scdc/professional-pointers/interviewing/interview-types/
4. http://www2.vobs.at/ludescher/testing/kinds_of_tests.htm
5. https://shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/9373/7/07_chapter%202.pdf
6. Dr.Radha, Human Resource Management, Prasanna Publishers & Distributors.
7. Tripathi.P.C. Human Resource development, Sultan Chand & Sons.