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Chapter 6
Selecting Employees and Placing Them in Jobs
This chapter describes the selection process (interviewing, assessments) used within HRM. It
will probably contain some of the most recognizable material for students because they may have
previously experienced (or even administered) employment interviews. This can be of great
advantage, as these experiences may be leveraged during and/or outside of class to assist in
reinforcing the material. Students will need to be reminded, however, to view the material as
though they are the manager, not the interviewee. The material within this chapter will also be
readily identified as important not just to those interested in HR, but to those with aspirations for
general managerial positions.
Chapter Outline
Selection Process
• Organizations need to measure success of selection methods. Criteria used include:
• Reliability
• Validity
• Ability to generalize
• Utility
• Legality
• Selection process must be conducted in a way that avoids discrimination and provides
access to persons with disabilities.
• An important principle of selection is to combine several sources of information about
candidates, rather than relying solely on interviews or a single type of testing.
• Sources should be chosen carefully to relate to characteristics identified in job description
to increase validity of decision criteria.
• Selection methods must be valid for job performance, and scores may not be adjusted to
discriminate against or give preference to any group.
Job Applications and Résumés
• Selection typically begins by screening candidates’ applications and résumés.
Employment Tests and Work Samples
• The organization administers tests to candidates who meet basic requirements.
Interviews
• Qualified candidates undergo one or more interviews.
• Organizations check references and conduct background checks.
Selection Decisions
• Focus on finding the person who will be best fit with job and organization. This includes
an assessment of ability and motivation.
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Learning Objectives
LO 6-1: Identify the elements of the selection process.
LO 6-2: Define ways to measure the success of a selection method.
LO 6-3: Summarize the government’s requirements for employee selection.
LO 6-4: Compare the common methods used for selecting human resources.
LO 6-5: Describe major types of employment tests.
LO 6-6: Discuss how to conduct effective interviews.
LO 6-7: Explain how employers carry out the process of making a selection decision.
Society for Human Resource Management Body of Competency &
Knowledge
This chapter contains content, which may be identified within the following content areas:
• Talent Acquisition & Retention
• Diversity & Inclusion
• U.S. Employment Law & Regulations
Human Resource Certification Institute’s A Guide to the HR Body
of Knowledge
This chapter contains content, which may be identified within the following content area:
• Workforce Planning and Employment
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Question Guidance to Vignettes and Discussion Questions
Best Practices
Unilever Improves Selection Results with AI
1. What aspects of Unilever’s selection process do you think would contribute to cost
savings?
2. How did the introduction of artificial intelligence add to the utility of this process?
HRM Social
Screening with Social Media Poses Risks
1. Think about your own use of social media. What kinds of information, if any, in your
profile or posts would be relevant to your job qualifications?
2. Knowing that many potential employers use social media and Internet searches as part of
their recruiting and background checks, what might you like them to find about you
online?
HR How To
Using Data Analytics to Support Fair Hiring Decisions
1. Suppose a manufacturer using analytics learns that employees who graduated from one
technical college are slower to get up to speed than employees who graduated from
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another technical college. How might applying the data to hiring decisions raise the risk
of discrimination?
2. How could the employer in question 1 use the information in a nondiscriminatory way?
Answer: They could decide to focus more resources on intensive recruitment practices
Did You Know?
Most Employers Use Social Media in Employee Selection
1. In general, do you think the use of social media to screen job applicants will be an
advantage or a disadvantage to members of your generation (age group)? Explain.
HR Oops!
Red Flags during Job Interviews
1. With a multiple-hurdle model, interviewing typically comes late in the selection process.
Based on what you know about the steps in the process, why do you think the candidates
described here made it past the earlier hurdles? (For example, might they have other
qualifications, or might there be problems with the process?)
2. In the compensatory model, a high score on one type of assessment can make up for a
low score on another. Assuming the candidates described here had low scores on their
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interview, can you think of a situation in which a high score on some other measure
would make these candidates the best choice for a position? Explain.
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End of Chapter Questions and Cases
Thinking Ethically
What Is an Employer’s Ethical Duty to Check Facts?
1. Who is affected by an employer’s decision to skip background checks? Discuss whether
such a decision achieves the greatest good for the greatest number of individuals.
2. How can employers meet the standards of being fair and equitable when they conduct
background checks?
Review and Discussion Questions
1. What activities are involved in the selection process? Think of the last time you were
hired for a job. Which of those activities were used in selecting you? Should the
organization that hired you have used other methods as well? (LO 6-1)
Answer: There are several activities involved in the selection process. Selection typically
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
2. Why should the selection process be adapted to fit the organization’s job descriptions?
(LO 6-1)
3. Choose two of the selection methods identified in this chapter. Describe how you can
compare them in terms of reliability, validity, ability to generalize, utility, and
compliance with the law. (LO 6-2)
4. Why does predictive validation provide better information than concurrent validation?
Why is this type of validation more difficult? (LO 6-2)
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5. How do U.S. laws affect organizations’ use of each of the employment tests? Interviews?
(LO 6-3)
6. Suppose your organization needs to hire several computer programmers, and you are
reviewing résumés you obtained from an online service. What kinds of information will
you want to gather from the “work experience” portion of these résumés? What kinds of
information will you want to gather from the “education” portion of these résumés? What
methods would you use for verifying or exploring this information? Why would you use
those methods? (LO 6-4)
7. For each of the following jobs, select the two kinds of tests you think would be most
important to include in the selection process. Explain why you chose those tests. (LO 6-5)
a. City bus driver
b. Insurance salesperson
c. Member of a team that sells complex high-tech equipment to manufacturers
d. Member of a team that makes a component of the equipment in (c)
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Hill Education.
physical ability tests—to ensure the candidate has the necessary personality traits for
teamwork and has the physical capability to work in a manufacturing environment.
8. Suppose you are a human resource professional at a large retail chain. You want to
improve the company’s hiring process by creating standard designs for interviews, so that
every time someone is interviewed for a particular job category, that person answers the
same questions. You also want to make sure the questions asked are relevant to the job
and maintain equal employment opportunity. Think of three questions to include in
interviews for each of the following jobs. For each question, state why you think it should
be included. (LO 6-6)
a. Cashier at one of the company’s stores
b. Buyer of the stores’ teen clothing line
c. Accounts payable clerk at company headquarters
9. How can organizations improve the quality of their interviewing so that interviews
provide valid information? (LO 6-6)
10. Some organizations set up a selection process that is long and complex. In some people’s
opinion, this kind of selection process not only is more valid but also has symbolic value.
What can the use of a long, complex selection process symbolize to job seekers? How do
you think this would affect the organization’s ability to attract the best employees? (LO
6-7)
Taking Responsibility
At PepsiCo, Workers with Disabilities Are Encouraged, Not Disqualified
1. U.S. law requires that employers make reasonable accommodations for qualified
employees with disabilities. But although discrimination is illegal, some employers are
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reluctant to consider disabled workers or at least to actively recruit them. What
advantages and disadvantages could arise from actively seeking out disabled workers?
2. Do you think the Pepsi ACT program gives PepsiCo a competitive advantage? Why or
why not? How could the company determine this?
Managing Talent
Marriott Hires People Who Put Others First
1. Suppose you were hiring housekeepers and waiters for a Marriott hotel. What are two
other selection measures you would want to use besides the personality test? Why?
2. Imagine that you work in the human resources department at Marriott’s corporate
headquarters. Your team is thinking about ways it might use My Marriott hotel game as
part of the selection process. How could you use it? How would you measure its
effectiveness?
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HR in Small Business
Strategic Hiring at Skookum Digital Works
1. What legal pitfalls might Skookum have faced if it had continued a practice of selecting
employees who were similar to the company’s founders? What measures besides hiring
for values could help the company avoid these pitfalls?
2. Summarize two or three principles from this chapter that could help Skookum ensure it is
hiring the kind of superior talent the founders say is essential to the company’s strategy.
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Recommended Connect Activities
Personnel Selection Methods
Learning Objective: 06-04 Compare the common methods used for selecting human resources.
Activity Summary: This case analysis helps students understand the types of employment tests
that can be used for employee selection.
Follow-Up Activity: One activity that can be used for the entire class, small groups, or
individually would be to visit a job posting website (such as Monster.com, Indeed.com, etc.) and
search a variety of open job postings. Students would select one of the postings, align course
content to the details of the posting, and make recommendations on how to improve the posting.
Conducting Interviews
Learning Objective: 06-06 Discuss how to conduct effective interviews.
Activity Summary: This case analysis informs and quizzes students about the interviewing
strategies used by HR personnel.
Follow-Up Activity: Have students practice each of the three interview structures. First, the
instructor takes (or creates) a job posting and provides the information to the entire class.
Students would then come up with the types of questions that would reflect each of the three
interview techniques. In small groups or in front of the entire class, students would then practice
asking and answering questions.
Legal Standards for Selecting Employees
Learning Objective: 06-03 Summarize the government’s requirements for employee selection.
Activity Summary: The goal of this worksheet is to match the descriptions with the appropriate
employee selection law.
Follow-Up Activity: Create an active classroom discussion by discussing current events, such as
this article by NPR, Are Job Ads Targeting Young Workers Breaking The Law? It discusses how
companies target certain demographics with their job postings and whether those tactics are
considered illegal.
Manager’s Hot Seat: Diversity in Hiring
Learning Objective: 06-01 Identify the elements of the selection process.
Activity Summary: The video case provides students with knowledge on the entire selection
and interview process.
Follow-Up Activity: Have students deconstruct the arguments provided by Robert and Paul.
This can be done with content from all of Chapter 6, including legal standards, interview
techniques and structure, performance, and corporate culture.
Fundamentals of Human Resource Management, 8e Instructor’s Manual
Classroom Exercises
Students may benefit from exercises that illustrate the concepts of the chapter. Use these along
with CONNECT activities.
1. Illustrating the Selection Process
Review and Discussion question #1 could be used as in-class discussion to explain
selection. Review and Discussion question #3 could then be employed to bridge a
conversation on the types of methods within selection. Students could be asked to discuss
the strengths of each method. Then, instructors could ask students to construct a selection
process for a mock organization.
2. Selection and Job Descriptions
Review and Discussion question #2 could be expanded, where students are asked to
develop a selection process from the job descriptions discussed back in Chapter 4. This
could occur inside or outside of class.
3. Interview Questions
Review and Discussion question #8 could help students practice developing interview
questions. Instructors may further challenge students by having students engage in mock
interviews during class, using the questions they developed. This could also provide
students practice with developing responses.
4. HRM Career Considerations
Instructors may wish to have students identify components in Chapter 5 within both the
Society for Human Resource Management Body of Competency & Knowledge and the
Human Resource Certification Institute’s A Guide to the HR Body of Knowledge.
Discussion could be focused on how these chapter concepts are important to the
development of their careers and potential certification.
5. Vignette Discussions
Any of the vignettes (see above) may be employed for classroom discussion. Students
could be asked to respond as individuals or placed into groups for discussion. Individuals
and/or groups may then be asked to defend their responses and rationale when comparing
and contrasting other responses.