Personnel Selection: 10 Keys To Choosing The Best Employee
Human capital is, without a doubt, the great driving force of the company. Personnel selection processes are key for an organization to be successful or not. Choosing the appropriate candidates to fill the different positions in the company will be decisive for the good performance of the workers and the performance of the company. Choosing poorly, in addition, represents a great expense.
Some consequences of a poor personnel selection process are the following:
To avoid these negative consequences, it is possible to follow a series of steps for the personnel selection process to be effective We see them in the following lines.
1. Detect the needs
The first step to achieving success in the personnel selection process is clearly define the job you want to fill This basic task that may seem like common sense to Human Resources experts, may not be so for those individuals who have not received training in this field. As strange as it may seem, there are still people who use the classic interview system, which is why they do not analyze the needs of the position in detail, nor do they thoroughly prepare the personnel selection process.
The first step, therefore, is to thoroughly understand the tasks that are carried out in the workplace and the skills that an individual who wants to work in that position needs. It will be necessary to collect key information, such as the purpose of the workplace, the functions performed there, the requirements demanded and those competencies and skills that a worker must possess to be able to offer good performance when occupying that job.
Getting to know the job can be done a few weeks before the interview or, ideally, when developing a catalog of the organization’s competencies in which all jobs are well defined and saved for possible future selection processes. The job description is key to being able to evaluate the candidates’ skills in the interview and to know what to ask them to extract the maximum of useful information.
2. Plan it
Another key to success in a personnel selection process is good planning. Some companies have implemented a comprehensive human resources plan, which takes into account the selection, training, remuneration, etc. processes, and which greatly facilitates personnel management at all levels. This makes it easier to detect needs and be able to plan an improvement, for example, in training of some employees. When this is not the case, it is necessary to plan the selection process to know how it will be carried out. Of course, always after having evaluated the needs.
3. Take into account the needs of the organization
A personnel selection process takes into account three key elements. On the one hand, the job position, which, as I have mentioned, needs to be well defined. A second key element is the worker, since the skills he or she possesses must fit the requirements of the position.
But the third element, and no less important, is the organization, since each company is different and It has its values, its work environment and its way of working Workers must not only fit into the job, but also into the organization and its culture. Knowing the company in depth is also key to being able to evaluate candidates who aspire to a job within it.
4. Evaluate skills
What differentiates classical selection processes from modern ones is the concept of competence, which arose from the need to value not only the set of knowledge, skills and abilities that an individual possesses, but also their ability to use their abilities. to respond to specific situations and resolve problems that may arise in the Laboral scene. The competencies also take into account the attitudinal and evaluative component that is present in the workers’ actions.
Competencies help us evaluate whether the person fits in the position and also in the organization.
5. Detect the talent of your own company
Sometimes It is not necessary to go looking for talent outside because what we have in the company is good. Consider an employee who has been with the organization for 10 years and knows how the company works better than anyone. Perhaps he is prepared to perform better in another position, or it is possible to train him to work in another job where he can be even more useful to the company. Detecting talent is key to being able to carry out internal promotion. The company wins and so does the worker, because he feels valued.
6. Immerse yourself in the digital world and look for passive candidates
Traditional recruitment methods are generally based on what is known as an active candidate, since the company waits for the resumes of the person interested in the position to arrive. The classic method is to post an offer, for example, on a job search website, where the candidates themselves take care of sending their CV to the company.
On the other hand, with the emergence of world 2.0, A new way to recruit has appeared , and it is the search for passive candidates by headhunters, something that works very well for certain positions, for example, senior positions. The passive candidate normally does not have the need to change jobs, but they are talents that are usually highly valued.
The most efficient personnel selection processes They include different tests and questionnaires to select suitable candidates for the jobs they offer. The job interview can be a good tool to get to know the applicant, but relying solely on this method may not be entirely reliable.
That is why it is possible to use different tests (for example, role-playing games) or psychotechnical tests to determine the professional aptitude of candidates, understand their personality and evaluate their motivation.
You can learn about the different tests that exist in this article: “Types of personnel selection tests and questionnaires”
8 Prepare the interview
As I said, knowing the needs of the position, planning the selection process, and using the competency method is essential to be able to get the most out of the job interview. Know exactly what skills we need It will allow us to recognize and measure them in each candidate we interview, and to do this we must plan an interview that adapts to each case. In addition, this will allow us to compare the different candidates for the position and draw more reliable conclusions.
9. Pay attention to onboarding
The selection process does not end with the selection of the candidate and his/her hiring, but the incorporation into the job must also be an aspect to take into account to achieve success in this task. Getting him to know the company in depth and integrate correctly with his colleagues and the culture of the organization is necessary so that the candidate feels comfortable and perform duties to the best of your ability
10. Follow up
Monitoring is also key in the selection process, and evaluating the candidate in the short and medium term, through satisfaction surveys or performance reviews is essential to know if the choice we have made has been correct.
