Employee selection methods are essential processes used to identify the most suitable candidates for job positions. These methods involve evaluating candidates' capabilities, education, experiences, and personalities through various approaches such as tests, interviews, and background research. The goal is to ensure the right hire for each role, tailored to the specific requirements and seniority of the position. By combining different methods, organisations can assess candidates' skills and fit within the company.

Common Challenges in Hiring

Finding the right talent to join your organisation has their challenges. Talent teams usually have to consider:

• Managing Application Overload: High volumes of applications can be overwhelming. Use clear screening criteria based on essential skills and experience, and leverage applicant tracking systems to streamline sorting.

• Expediting Time-to-Hire: The average time to hire is 42 days, and 39% of candidates who decline a job do so because they received another job offer.

• Mitigating Unconscious Bias: Unconscious bias can affect hiring decisions and diversity. Use structured interviews with standardised criteria and provide diversity training for hiring managers to promote fair practices.

• Attracting Top Performers: 86% of women and 67% of men won’t apply to a company with a bad reputation. Strong employer branding and craft a compelling company culture is important to build positive associations with the organisation and attract high quality candidates.

• Ensuring Cultural Fit: 32% of new hires leave within 90 days when they don't think the company culture is a good fit. Hiring candidates who align with the company culture fosters long-term success and employee satisfaction.

The Recruitment Funnel

The candidate selection process typically follows a funnel structure, starting broad with a large pool of applicants and gradually narrowing down to the most qualified individuals.

Sourcing Talent

Internal Recruitment & Referrals

Promotions & Transfers

Existing employees are already verified to have relevant knowledge and experience in the industry. Promotions and transfers allow you to move current employees to new roles without needing to introduce or reinforce company culture, ultimately minimising onboarding time. Employees already understand the business's core values and operations while also fosters a sense of loyalty and career progression within your team. Before advertising vacancies externally, it's beneficial to check the internal redeployment pool for potential matches.

Rehiring Former Employees

Sometimes the best talent can walk back through the door. Rehiring former employees can be a strategic win as they possess familiarity with the organisation’s culture while additionally bringing in fresh perspectives from their experiences outside the company. With their new insights from their new perspectives in the industry, they can fuel innovation and propel growth for the organisation.

Referral Networks

Employees serve as your brand ambassadors, often recommending candidates they believe would excel in the role, ensuring a pre-vetted level of quality. Referrals can be a cost-effective way to find high-calibre candidates who can likely be a good cultural fit. Good referral programmes that incentivises employees to proactively refer from their network also create positive engagement activities and improve employee morale. Ultimately, this can save time on the hiring process as they often require less initial vetting.

Direct Sourcing & Talent Pools

Organic Job Posts

Public job listings remain an important aspect of any recruitment strategy as this allows organisations to reach a broad audience. While posting on job boards can attract a wider range of applicants compared to internal methods, this usually results in a high volume of unqualified applicants. To mitigate the volume of irrelevant applicants, it is important to craft clear and concise job descriptions that accurately reflect the role's requirements and responsibilities to act as a filter.

Paid Advertising

Job boards can get saturated, sometimes making it difficult to stand out against companies with stronger brand familiarity. Paid advertising on platforms like LinkedIn allows organisations to tailor job postings to reach highly relevant candidate pools by targeting specific demographics and professional backgrounds. This ensures that our positions are seen by individuals who possess the precise skills required, which can be especially effective for more specialised roles.

Inbound Recruiting

Strong employer branding is a powerful long-term recruitment strategy. By showcasing company values and a culture that resonates with potential applicants, this can attract qualified individuals that are seeking a fulfilling career with an organisation. Creating content to attract candidates over time through social media engagements and blog posts not only creates more opportunities to connect with potential candidates, but also positions organisations as thought leaders within their industry. By attracting candidates that align with the organisation’s vision, it increases the likelihood of finding individuals that blend in with the company’s culture.

Talent Pipeline

Building a talent pipeline involves using Applicant Tracking Systems (ATS) to create a centralised database of potential candidates who have previously expressed interest in the organisation. This allows you to store resumes, track applications through the hiring process, and easily identify qualified individuals for future openings. When a relevant role becomes available, this can reduce the time-to-hire as there is already a talent pool ready.

Previous Candidate Engagement

Sometimes there have been candidates that showed strong potential in past recruitment efforts, but weren’t able to receive an offer. These individuals are already familiar with the organisation and have demonstrated their potential during their original recruitment process. This is where maintaining a database of candidates and keeping in touch with them prepares organisations with a pool of talent ready for hire.

Events & Programs

Job Fairs

Job fairs provide organisations with access to individuals, typically soon-to-be graduates, who are actively looking for employment opportunities and seeking to be hired in the near future. Beyond building brand awareness among potential candidates, job fairs offer opportunities to meet a large number of candidates in a short period of time. This allows organisations to directly connect with a valuable pool of fresh talent with specialised skills.

Professional Events

Industry conferences and workshops help attract professionals who are passionate about the industry and may not be actively searching for new opportunities, but are open to exciting possibilities. Unlike job fairs, which usually attract individuals earlier in their careers, professional events tend to cater to professionals that have a few years of experience under their belt. This allows companies to access a valuable pool of talent with specialised skills.

Apprenticeships & Internships

Structured apprenticeship and internship programs are a win-win situation. These programs allow you to nurture young talent, provide valuable industry training, and assess their fit within the organisation's work environment. These programs act as a trial period to assess fit and performance before making a long-term commitment. This hands-on approach allows you to identify individuals who demonstrate exceptional skills and a strong work ethic, making them prime candidates for future full-time positions.

External Recruitment Agencies

When it comes to sourcing and screening candidates, external recruitment agencies offer access to a wider pool of qualified individuals. They can also expedite the hiring process by taking care of initial evaluations and interviews. This can save your company valuable time and make sure you're considering top talent for important positions.

Screening & Shortlisting Talent

Resume Screening

Resume screening serves as an early-stage filter that involves reviewing resumes to determine if candidates are qualified based on their education, experience, and skills. There are two main methods for screening resumes. Manual screening involves recruiters reviewing each resume individually, which allows for consideration of qualitative aspects. However this can be time-consuming and prone to biases and may not accurately indicate a candidate’s skills. To solve the time-consuming nature of manual screening, recruiters can automate their screening with resume scanning software based on keywords and qualifications. Although automating this process speeds things up and eliminates potential human bias, it risks creating its own bias on their algorithms used, potentially overlooking qualified candidates that may have resume formats that aren’t favoured. If choosing to screen resumes manually, it is important to:

• Understand the job Description: Ensure it is up-to-date and clear.
• Develop Criteria: Identify necessary experience and skills.
• Review & Categorise: Use an evaluation grid to organise and assess resumes, looking for red flags and grouping applicants into different categories.

Introductory Screening

Initial phone screens or interviews can help set expectations and perform an initial assessment of candidates’ basic qualifications and communication skills. These informal interviews, conducted via email or phone, provide a preliminary understanding of whether a candidate meets the essential criteria for the role. These 15-20 minute conversations allow employers to identify candidates who lack the necessary skills or fit for the position and further narrows the candidate pool, ensuring that only those with the necessary qualifications proceed to the next round. Phone screenings typically begin with questions about the candidate’s background to verify their skills, experience, and qualifications. Common questions include employment history, job responsibilities, major challenges faced, and reasons for leaving the current position. Questions about the new role help gauge the candidate's qualifications and interest. Examples include asking if they are still interested in the position, why they want the job, their relevant experience, what attracts them to the role and organisation, and how they meet the position's requirements. After verifying qualifications, the conversation often shifts to the candidate’s expectations, career plans, and work preferences. Typical questions cover salary expectations, future career goals, greatest strengths and weaknesses, and ideal work environment. Employers should watch for red flags during phone screens, such as a lack of enthusiasm, no questions for the interviewer, distractions, negative comments about former employers, excessive focus on salary and benefits, and unprofessional behaviour. For a more effective screening process, interviewers should schedule interviews in advance, send reminders, prepare clear questions, test their technology, and take detailed notes.

Skill Testing to Screen Candidates

Skills testing helps identify the most qualified candidates early on in the recruitment process, ensuring only those with the necessary skills advance to later stages. These assessments, focusing on actual performance rather than self-reported skills or past experiences, offer a more accurate and objective measure of a candidate's capabilities. For example, job-specific skills assessments like the 'Concepts & Knowledge' can immediately gauge candidates' proficiency in essential areas like SQL or Python. This reduces the risk of hiring someone who appears qualified on paper but lacks the technical skills required. Additionally, skill testing minimises bias. Standardised tests provide a level playing field for all applicants, allowing for fair comparison based on objective criteria. This is crucial for promoting diversity and inclusion within the workforce. Skill testing also alleviates the burden on hiring managers. By pre-screening candidates with job-specific skill tests, recruiters can ensure that genuinely capable candidates reach the interview phase. This allows hiring managers to focus their interviewing efforts on assessing cultural fit, problem-solving abilities, and other critical soft skills.

Shortlisting Candidates

Using a short-listing report or matrix allows recruiters to score and rank candidates based on their performance in the initial screening stages. The purpose of short-listing is to identify those candidates who meet the selection criteria and are most likely to be capable of carrying out the responsibilities of the role. Shortlisting matrix typically include:

• Essential Criteria: Non-negotiable qualifications required for the role, specific technical skills, certifications, or years of relevant experience.
• Desirable Criteria: Additional skills or experiences that enhance a candidate's suitability for the role, like familiarity with certain software, additional languages, or industry-specific knowledge.
• Score: A numeric rating system to objectively score each candidate based on how well they meet the essential and desirable criteria.
• Summary of Work Experience: Overview of the candidate’s experience that supports their suitability for the role.
• Description of Requirements: How the candidate meets the role's requirements based on their application and any initial screening. Aim to shortlist no more than a handful of candidates that ensures only candidates who move forward to the interview stage are those most capable of fulfilling the job requirements.

Evaluating Talent

Pre-Employment Assessments

Pre-employment tests tailored to each role are the best predictors of job success.

Job-Specific Skills

Skill assessments are designed to measure job-specific competencies. This can include technical assessments like coding skills assessment, data analysis skills assessment, and data literacy skills assessment, or soft skills like communication and team building. By simulating real-world scenarios, these assessments offer a practical approach to evaluating a candidate's ability to apply their knowledge effectively in the workplace.

Benefits of Pre-Employment Skills Assessments:

• Objective Evaluation & Reduced Bias: Skills assessments provide data-driven insights into candidate capabilities, reducing reliance on resumes and minimising bias in the hiring process.
• Predictive Power & Hiring Success: By directly evaluating a candidate's ability to perform job-related tasks, skills assessments predict job performance more effectively. This reduces hiring risks by focusing on actual skills rather than self-reported abilities on resumes.
• Improved Hiring Outcomes: Skills assessments lead to better hiring decisions by ensuring candidates possess the essential skills required for the role.

While highly beneficial, pre-employment skills assessments do have limitations. They primarily focus on current abilities and may not fully capture a candidate's potential for learning and development. Additionally, developing and administering high-quality assessments can be resource-intensive. However, with the right tools like a pre-employment assessment platform, these challenges can be mitigated.

Cognitive Fitness

Finding candidates who can not only perform well today but also thrive in a changing work environment can be a key challenge for modern businesses. Cognitive aptitude tests offer a valuable tool to assess a candidate's cognitive fitness, a term encompassing critical mental capabilities like problem-solving, analytical reasoning, and [learning agility. These tests, through challenges related to numerical reasoning, verbal reasoning, and spatial awareness, give insights into a candidate's potential for growth.

Benefits of Cognitive Aptitude Tests:

• Predictive Validity: Cognitive aptitude tests boast strong predictive validity, meaning they can reveal a candidate's ability to adapt to new challenges and learn new skills.
• Broad Applicability: They can be applied across various roles and industries, offering a standardised way to assess a wide range of candidates.
• Objective Measurement: By relying on objective data, cognitive aptitude tests can help mitigate biases that may creep into subjective assessments like interviews.

Although there are plenty of benefits, they may not directly predict performance in highly specialised roles, as they measure general cognitive ability rather than specific skills. Cognitive aptitude tests, when used thoughtfully alongside other assessments, can be an effective tool for identifying well-rounded candidates who possess the potential to excel in various roles and adapt to evolving job requirements.

Cultural Fit

Cultural fit, the alignment between a candidate's values, behaviours, and work style with your organisation's culture, can be predictive for employee satisfaction, retention, and overall team performance. In fact, 89% of recruiters claim bad hires typically lack soft skills. Employees who fit well with the company culture are more likely to be satisfied with their jobs, perform better, and stay longer.

Personality tests can be used to support culture fit evaluation, as it measures an individual's patterns of thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. These tests, such as the Big Five (OCEAN) model, are designed to predict how likely a candidate is to behave in different scenarios. By assessing traits like agreeableness, conscientiousness, and extroversion, employers can determine if a candidate's personality aligns with the demands of the role and the overall work environment based on a candidate's work style, interpersonal skills, and approach to work.

Benefits of Personality Tests

• Cultural Fit: Personality tests can help identify candidates whose personalities align with the company’s values and work culture, leading to better team cohesion and job satisfaction.
• Improving Team Dynamics: Understanding team members' personalities can facilitate effective teamwork and collaboration.
• Reduced Turnover: Employees who fit well with the company culture are more likely to stay longer, reducing turnover and associated hiring costs.

Organisation Cultural fit can also include:

• Emotional Intelligence (EQ) Tests: Evaluating traits like empathy and relationship management helps build a harmonious and productive team, especially important when communication is primarily virtual.
• Integrity Tests: These assessments measure honesty and ethical behaviour, evaluative if candidates align with your company's values and maintain high standards of conduct.

It's important to acknowledge that personality and integrity tests have limitations. Social desirability bias (answering how you think the employer wants) and the potential for ingenuine responses can impact results. Additionally, cultural bias can be a concern, particularly with EQ tests.

Interviews

Types of Interviews

Different types of interviews serve various purposes in the employee selection process.

• Structured Interviews: Predefined questions asked in the same order to all candidates. These interviews are ideal for evaluating specific competencies and comparing candidates on equal footing.

One-way video interviews: A remote-friendly way to assess candidates. Candidates can record their responses to predefined questions, allowing hiring managers to review them at their convenience.

• Unstructured Interviews: Conversations that adapt to the flow of the dialogue, providing insights into a candidate’s personality, problem-solving skills, and overall fit for the company culture. They can be less reliable for making objective comparisons between candidates.

• Group interviews: Involving multiple candidates being interviewed or given tasks together. This format assesses teamwork, observing how candidates collaborate and communicate in a group setting.

• Panel interviews: Involves multiple interviewers, providing diverse perspectives on the candidate. This method reduces individual bias and allows for a more comprehensive evaluation of the candidate’s suitability for the role.

Preparing for Interviews

Effective interviews rely heavily on thorough preparation. Every interview should consider:

• Collaborative Planning: The hiring team should define the interview structure, considering the interviewers, outlining key areas for questioning, and establishing a clear plan and schedule for the interviews.

• Shared Information: Distribute candidate applications and job descriptions to all interviewers beforehand so everyone has a shared understanding of the role and the qualifications being sought.

• Structured Approach: Creating an interview format with a scoring system allows for consistency. Questions should be tailored to the specific role, assessing both technical skills and relevant soft skills. Include a mix of open-ended and behavioural questions to gain insight into the candidate's capabilities.

• Active Listening Techniques: Train interviewers on active listening skills to most effectively understand the candidate's responses. Encourage attentive body language, making eye contact, and avoiding distractions.

• Effective Note-Taking: Train interviewers on clear note-taking techniques. Capturing key details throughout the interview ensures all aspects of the candidate's responses are considered during the final evaluation.

Conducting the Interview

Creating a Welcoming Environment The interview starts the moment a candidate arrives. Begin clearly and with a welcoming tone. Making the candidate feel comfortable helps build rapport and encourages them to provide genuine and detailed responses.

Asking the Right Questions Use a variety of question types to gain an understanding of the candidate's qualifications. Open-ended questions allow them to elaborate on their skills and experiences. Behavioural questions, focusing on past actions (i.e. "tell me about a time you..."), provide a look into how they might handle future situations. Maintaining a fair and respectful interview process means avoiding discriminatory or inappropriate questions.

Active Listening & Evaluation Active listening involves paying close attention to the candidate's responses, asking clarifying questions, and taking detailed notes. By guiding the conversation through all key areas, you can accurately assess the candidate's suitability for the role.

Other Methods for Evaluation

Take-home Assignments

Take-home assignments allow candidates to demonstrate their skills in their preferred environment. However, these assignments can demand significant time from both candidates and employers, particularly if the tasks are extensive. There's also a risk of cheating, as candidates may plagiarise or seek outside help without proper oversight. To address these risks, it's essential to define the assignment's scope, expected time commitment, provide precise instructions, and evaluation criteria.

Job Trials

Job trials, like internships or apprenticeships, provide a realistic look into a candidate's potential performance in the actual role. Organising and coordinating these trials can be logistically challenging and resource-intensive. If not managed properly, job trials can feel exploitative to candidates who invest significant time without a guaranteed job offer. It's important to outline the purpose and structure of the trial, offer compensation for the candidate's time, and provide clear feedback regardless of the outcome.

Assessment Centers

Assessment centres present a standardised method for evaluating multiple candidates simultaneously. Setting up and operating these centres require trained professionals in order to conduct exercises, which may not accurately reflect real-world job performance. It's essential to use a variety of exercises that assess different skill sets, incorporate elements that mimic real work scenarios, and ensure evaluators are well-trained in interpreting results.

Verifying Talent

Reference Checks

Talking to previous employers offers hiring managers a window into a candidate's work habits, past performance, and professional behaviour are key information points to verifying a candidate’s employment history. These checks involve contacting previous employers, educational institutions, and personal references to verify employment history, educational background, job qualifications, and behaviour. It is also important to verify the candidate's name, job title, and dates of employment, and ask references about the candidate's suitability for the position. By gathering feedback on the candidate's employment history, hiring managers can identify potential red flags.

Background Checks

Background checks require verifying a candidate's background and mitigating hiring risks, and are vital for guaranteeing the truthfulness of a candidate's past experiences and claims. This process confirms resume information, driving records, credit reports (where legal), and past employment. A consistent, legal, and fair background check process is crucial to maintaining a high-quality workforce.

Selection & Offer

Once the decision is made and the job offer is ready, it is key to be transparent by:

Discussing Employment Terms Early: Addressing key terms such as compensation and working hours early in the selection process. This open communication can prevent unexpected roadblocks at later stages when both parties are invested in the potential fit.

Involving Key Stakeholders: Maintain clear communication with key stakeholders throughout the offer process, including the team lead, human resources, and finance departments. This is so all necessary approvals are obtained and any required paperwork is completed promptly.

Making a Verbal Offer First: Before sending the formal offer letter, have a conversation with the selected candidate. This allows for immediate feedback on their interest and provides an opportunity to address any initial questions they may have, increasing the chance of a successful offer acceptance.

Making the Offer

The offer is made to the chosen candidate by sending an offer letter outlining the main job details and employment conditions. The offer letter acts as a formal invitation for the candidate to join the organisation.

This letter typically includes information about the:

• job title
• monetary compensation
• benefits
• start date
• relevant terms of employment.

Acceptance and Employment Contract

It is essential to follow up regularly with the candidate to discuss any questions or concerns they might have. Providing an opportunity for the candidate to "think on it" ensures they don't feel pressured and can make a well-considered decision. Once the candidate accepts the offer, the next step is to issue a formal employment contract. This contract, signed by both the candidate and the organisation, solidifies the agreement and completes the selection process.

Implementing Employee Selection Strategies

Develop Clear Job Descriptions

Craft job descriptions that clearly outline the roles and responsibilities, required qualifications, and desired skills. Additionally, include information about your company culture, values, and mission. Candidates who resonate with your company’s ethos are more likely to be engaged and satisfied employees.

Use Multiple Channels

Use a mix of internal promotions, employee referrals, job boards, social media, and recruitment agencies to reach a wide and diverse pool of candidates. Also use helpful recruitment software to manage applications efficiently, automate communication, and maintain organised records of candidates.

Conduct Comprehensive Assessments

Use job-specific skills tests to objectively evaluate candidates' abilities. These assessments can provide a clearer picture of a candidate’s practical skills and reduce the risk of hiring someone based solely on their resume. Incorporate cognitive aptitude tests and personality assessments to gain insights into candidates' problem-solving abilities, cultural fit, and potential for growth within the company.

Have a Structured Screening Processes

Create clear criteria for resume screening to ensure consistency and consider using automated tools to help filter candidates based on specific keywords and qualifications. Conduct initial phone or video screenings to assess basic qualifications and fit before moving candidates to more in-depth evaluations. Prepare a set of standard questions to ensure consistency and fairness.

Establish Interview Structure

Conduct structured interviews with predetermined questions that focus on both technical and soft skills. Also include behavioural questions that ask candidates to describe past experiences and situational questions that present hypothetical scenarios. This helps assess how candidates handle real-world challenges and align with company values.

Develop a Shortlisting Process

Create a shortlisting matrix to score and rank candidates based on essential and desirable criteria and involve multiple stakeholders in the shortlisting process to gather diverse perspectives and reduce individual biases.

Verify & Validate Candidates

Conduct thorough reference checks to verify candidates' past employment, performance, and behaviour and perform background checks to confirm candidates’ credentials, work history, and any other relevant information. Ensure compliance with legal and ethical standards.

Optimise the Selection Process

Aim to reduce time-to-hire without compromising on thoroughness. Keep candidates informed about their application status to maintain their engagement and provide feedback to candidates who were not selected. This helps build a positive employer brand and encourages candidates to reapply for future opportunities.

Building a strong team requires a strategic approach to candidate selection. Structured processes, technology, and a focus on both skills and culture creates a more holistic process, reduces bias, and brings the right talent on board.