In the context of the 21st century, the paradigm of success perception has modified greatly in terms of its variables that determine the actual success rates. Thus, one of the major constituents of an enterprise’s prosperity is now the fact of employing the best candidates for the position in the current labor market. With growing rates of competitiveness and rapid technological advancements, there currently exists a variety of methods of selecting the best candidates for a particular position within an enterprise. In terms of the following paper, the major techniques of selecting interview candidates for the CapraTek’s regional sales representative position will be outlined and analyzed on the subject of their relevance in today’s market. As a result, the most appropriate technique will be utilized in order to choose the three potential interviewees.
According to the conventional models of recruitment and selecting employees for an enterprise, the performance rate of the employees was the key indicator when allowing somebody to become a part of the company’s team. However, today’s values and assets in terms of the companies’ culture have shifted towards the perception of the employees as individuals who are capable of bringing major change to the culture (Matter, 2019). For this reason, the stages of selecting potential workers now include a meticulous examination of one’s background and skills that are not explicitly related to the job description. Furthermore, such a tendency has gained its recognition through the extended ability to conduct background research on a potential employee with the help of multimedia technology and social media platforms in particular. Hence, the first part of the paper will be dedicated to a detailed examination of the applicants’ background.
Background Checks
When speaking of the recruitment and employment process, it is a common practice for the HR managers to conduct some regular checks on the applicant’s former places of employment and patterns of communication with users via social media platforms. While it might sometimes be perceived as an invasion of one’s privacy, management is often left with no other way to perform a full-scale pre-assessment. The overall notion of social media screening stands for the manager’s ability to run a check-up on the ways of the applicant’s representation in the media, including feedback about the previous workplaces.
Such an analysis is extremely beneficial in terms of understanding a potential employees’ patterns of attitude to the workplace. However, this procedure has recently gained negative interpretation in the context of modern democracy and equality promotion in the workplace (Jeske & Shultz, 2019). Hence, many individuals claim social media screening to be irrelevant in this context, as it disrupts their display of professional skills. Such a resonance around this process makes HR managers face cognitive dissonance, as they realize the necessity of examining the social environment of an applicant while they feel a series of moral obligations to respect their privacy. Thus, it might be concluded that social media pre-screening test is an asset when used without prejudice or direct intervention in one’s private life that has nothing to do with a future position.
Another crucial notion in terms of background checks conduction is related to the reference assessment. In order to obtain a better understanding of an individual in the working environment, it is important to analyze the feedback provided from the previous workplaces. References provided by former employers give management a chance to compare one’s achievements and basic characteristics with values and requirements of the employing enterprise. The major flaw of these screening tools is their superficiality caused by good informal relationships, corruption, etc.
A final but quite important aspect of the pre-assessment deals with the analysis of the resumes and cover letters provided by the application for the position of regional sales representative. The overview of the resumes serves as a primary tool for candidate selection but they are not as credible as the aforementioned screening techniques. While resumes are essential in terms of a brief examination of one’s previous experiences, there is a high probability of them containing unjustified information, especially when it comes to skills like the knowledge of foreign languages or basic computer competency.
Assessment Methods
In order to make sure that the best possible candidates are chosen for the further selection stages, managers are to use various assessment methods during the screening process. While the pre-screening techniques described above are crucial in the context of the first employment circle stages, there should be one exhaustive assessment tool to give all the applicants an equal opportunity to display their knowledge. When speaking of a regional sales representative position, the best way to fully exploit the assessment stage is to conduct a professional online test. The questions of the test would consist of case studies aimed at examining the applicants’ ability to perform efficient negotiations. Moreover, according to the researchers, applicants do not feel satisfied with long pre-assessment interviews, feeling the urge to display their skills in the most explicit way (Hardy et al., 2017). The role of technology in this scenario is extremely significant considering the fact that the vast majority of pre-screening and skill assessment would only be available with the help of rapid technology development.
Final Selection Process
In order to secure a good satisfaction rate for both employers and candidates, the process of candidate pre-assessment should be as brief and as specific as possible. Hence, the final method of making a hiring decision can be defined by a few major actions taken in the process of selection:
- Brief resume assessment. At this early stage, the HR manager is to collect all the resumes presented for a regional sales representative position. The resumes are to be analyzed according to the job description and position requirements in order to select the ones with experience in the field and beneficial skills in the area.
- Cover letter assessment. Unlike the resumes’ main bodies, cover letters are designed precisely for the position applied, giving management the opportunity to assess one’s motivation behind entering the competition for this particular place. At this stage, some of the applicants might be excluded from the selection process due to a lack of working experience or absence of motivation to compete for this exact job.
- Creating an online test for candidate selection. HR manager, being responsible for the enterprise’s culture, should be explicitly aware of the major job knowledge and behavioral patterns appropriate for this position and the unit’s team. For this reason, it is the manager’s duty to create a shot yet comprehensive test that includes questions related to the job description, overall competence in the CapraTek’s organizational structure, and patterns of one’s behavior in the workplace.
- Online test assessment. In order to secure equal opportunities for each of the candidates, the testing should be conducted in the same timeframe with the time limit of 60 minutes, considering the possibility of some access issues. In terms of the testing, some of the questions are to be open-ended in order to pre-assess the applicant’s ability to support answers with proper argumentation. It should also be mentioned that the candidates are to be aware of the approximate date they will receive feedback from the HR department so they will be sure their time is an asset to the company. After the test submission, the manager is to assess the works according to the grading scale prepared with the test questionnaire.
- Final selection of the candidates.
In the course of the selection, three major candidates for an interview were chosen:
- Christina Cho;
- Brian Weber;
- Eric Foster.
Although all the candidates who applied for the position meet the basic job’s requirements, the three aforementioned potential employees should be interviewed for a number of rational arguments:
- All of the candidates have an impressive sales experience and expertise in electronics;
- The competence in the field still allows the candidates to grow professionally, increasing their motivation;
- The applicants have profound interpersonal communication skills, which are extremely beneficial both for the position and for the team spirit maintenance within the unit.
Taking everything into consideration, it might be concluded that the process of selecting the best candidates for the job has become quite difficult in the context of the 21st century. Such a sophisticated perception of the process is caused by a growing variety of factors that influence the workplace (competence, communication skills, readiness to learn, etc.). However, after a series of steps taken in terms of selection, it became clear that being open to the new experiences and motivated to grow under the company’s supervision is one of the most crucial aspects of a potential team member.
References
Hardy III, J. H., Gibson, C., Sloan, M., & Carr, A. (2017). Are applicants more likely to quit longer assessments? Examining the effect of assessment length on applicant attrition behavior. Journal of Applied Psychology, 102(7), 1148.
Jeske, D., & Shultz, K. S. (2019). Social media screening and content effects: implications for job applicant reactions. International Journal of Manpower.
Matter, D. P. (2019). Applicant perceptions of initial job candidate screening with asynchronous job interviews. Journal of Personnel Psychology, 18(3), 138-147.