5.10 Final Thoughts on Effective Selection Practices
Your meeting with a Human Resources representative is often your first exposure to the company you are applying to work for, and firms should provide good customer service to applicants if they expect to hire the most qualified candidates.
Companies have several opportunities to create a positive impression of their organization during these critical points in the employee selection process. These might include a variety of situations, such as:
- In-person greetings at a job fair or at the interview itself.
- Phone calls to an applicant from an HR professional to set up the interview and any follow-up conversations between human resources and the applicant.
- E-mail correspondence to acknowledge an application receipt and thank the applicants for submitting their job applications.
- A phone call from the employer following the second interview.
It’s essential to think about the impression your organization makes on an applicant right from the beginning of the selection process. You want to choose people with the right qualifications to fill a job opening in your organization. Still, you also want the most qualified and suitable candidate to pick your organization!
Your Perspective: Can you name and discuss the steps in the selection process?
New Perspective on Selection
Contingent Workers
Though most people prefer to hold permanent, full-time positions, a growing number of individuals work at temporary or part-time jobs, either by choice or as the only available option. Many of these are contingent workers hired to supplement a company’s permanent workforce. Most are independent contractors, consultants, or freelancers paid by the firms that hire them. Others are on-call workers who work only when needed, such as substitute teachers. Still others are temporary workers (or “temps”) employed and paid by outside agencies or contract firms that charge fees to client companies.
The Positives and Negatives of Temp Work
The use of contingent workers provides companies with several benefits. Employers can better control labour costs because they can be hired and terminated relatively more streamlined. When things are busy, they can add temps; when business is slow, they can release unneeded workers. Temps are often cheaper than permanent workers because they rarely receive costly benefits. Employers can also bring in people with specialized skills and talents to work on special projects without entering into long-term employment relationships. Finally, companies can “try out” temps: if someone does well, the company can offer permanent employment; if the fit is less than perfect, the employer can quickly terminate the relationship. There are downsides to contingent workers, including increased training costs and decreased loyalty to the company. Also, many employers believe productivity suffers because temps are usually less committed to company goals than permanent workers.
Video: “The gig economy: when algorithms decide your pay” by Context [9:10] is licensed under the Standard YouTube License. Transcripts and closed captions are available on YouTube.
Watch The gig economy: when algorithms decide your pay at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Yr3TIub-Qg
“7.3 Employee Selection ” from Introduction to Management Copyright © by Kathleen Rodenburg, Michael Conway, and Karley Dajka is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used first two paragraphs of Puttin’ on the Ritz – for potential employees.
“Chapter 11 – Managing Human Resources and Union Relations” from Fundamentals of Business Copyright © 2022 by Florence Daddey and Rachael Newton is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.—Modifications: Used sections Contingent workers & The positives and negatives of temp work.
