The recruitment process that is used to recruit employees consists of five general steps. These involve recruitment planning, job analysis, vacancy announcement, initial screening, interview, and final selection of candidates. After the job analysis is done and job requirements have been made, the next step is to determine the testing methods and choosing candidates for interview, which meet the job requirements for CapraTek's regional sales representative positions. Candidate screening is an integral part of the selection process. It is often considered as the initial part of selection; however, the selection process begins after the initial screening and job interviews.
Initial screening allows the recruiter to choose the best suitable candidates for interview. Whatever the selection media is used to recruit the employees, the initial screening is based on that. Initial screening involves sometimes, initial screening interviews or some common techniques are used for this purpose. The employment offer must be made after the background check is complete. The background check is crucial to saving the recruiter form the potential risks. A background check is a comprehensive review of a candidate's employment records, financial records and criminal records ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"zjmwQLEJ","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Background Check Policy and Procedure,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Background Check Policy and Procedure,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":128,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/svENvmyw/items/B84YG42M"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/svENvmyw/items/B84YG42M"],"itemData":{"id":128,"type":"webpage","title":"Background Check Policy and Procedure","URL":"https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/policies/pages/backgroundcheck.aspx","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",2,25]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Background Check Policy and Procedure,” n.d.). The reasons to have a background check is that it highlights any criminal history which helps the recruiter in selecting the candidate for hiring. In addition, it reduces the liability, if the selected candidate proves to be a failure for the position of regional sales representative; it will be the failure in his background check in the area of sales performance. A background check also ensures workplace security by not hiring criminals or offenders.
One more benefit of the background check is that it ensures the competent people are hired. It will assure that the candidate claims about his skills and abilities are right or not. Considering the benefits and needs of candidate background check, it should not be underestimated. It is a pre-employment screening test which must not be underestimated and ignored. The pre-employment screening tests are used to screen the job-applicants for their knowledge, skills and abilities, and personality, proficiency, and integrity. It is essential to screen out those candidates who are unqualified and do not meet the requirements. The common types of pre-screening candidate’s tests involve personality emotional intelligence, cognitive ability tests, and job knowledge tests. For the position of regional sales representative, then the candidate needs to have an oral expression, active listening, the skill of influencing others, interpersonal skills, and oral comprehension skills.
The pre-employment test that reveals the needed skills and abilities in a candidate is very crucial. For this purpose, an assessment that could appraise his skills in these areas must be employed. The short oral interview can reveal the candidate expertise in these areas. A written or online personality assessment test that could help to choose the right candidate for the sales representative can also be helpful. Other online tests that can generate scores for the skills and abilities of the candidate can be employed. In this case, the online interview will be conducted to assess the personality, listening, and skills of the candidate.
There are dramatic benefits of using pre-employment screening tests; however, there are some legal challenges associated with them as well CITATION War10 \l 1033 (Waring, 2010). There is also a legal; consideration linked with using the pre-screening tests. The pre-employment tests have often challenged in court for the equal employment opportunity; the recruiter has to make sure that the test matches the equal employment opportunity requirements and the federal laws. The US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission has set the procedures and guidelines for the pre-employment screening of employees ADDIN ZOTERO_ITEM CSL_CITATION {"citationID":"yurfEH5T","properties":{"formattedCitation":"(\\uc0\\u8220{}Fact Sheet on Employment Tests and Selection Procedures,\\uc0\\u8221{} n.d.)","plainCitation":"(“Fact Sheet on Employment Tests and Selection Procedures,” n.d.)","noteIndex":0},"citationItems":[{"id":126,"uris":["http://zotero.org/users/local/svENvmyw/items/YLA2TDH6"],"uri":["http://zotero.org/users/local/svENvmyw/items/YLA2TDH6"],"itemData":{"id":126,"type":"webpage","title":"Fact Sheet on Employment Tests and Selection Procedures","URL":"https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/factemployment_procedures.html","accessed":{"date-parts":[["2019",2,25]]}}}],"schema":"https://github.com/citation-style-language/schema/raw/master/csl-citation.json"} (“Fact Sheet on Employment Tests and Selection Procedures,” n.d.). Hence, the pre-employment test must be governed by the rules made by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC).
The first step of the pre-employment screening will be checking the background of the candidate. For this purpose, the financial, criminal and professional record of the candidate will be evaluated. Since this is a hectic job and the company has to recruit budgets, an external company will be hired to screen the candidates for their criminal, financial, professional, and educational backgrounds. This is the primary step; if an employee fails in any of these areas, then the later steps will automatically be neglected. The next step would be the drug-screening test; this will be done to save the company from any future hazard, or drug-related issue. In addition, it is necessary for federally regulated employers.
The next method to screen the candidate will be personality skills evaluation. Since the position of sales representative requires a confident, influential and extravert personality. In addition to this the interpersonal skills, ability, and intelligence will also be evaluated. To accomplish this, a screening video interview will be conducted using any media or platform. A short written online test will also evaluate the skills, ability, and personality of the candidate. The test scores will be discussed with the test service provider to avoid any biases and meet the legislative requirement. The experts of screening will design the test and them to define the personality and capabilities of the candidate will analyze the scores. The last step would be to evaluate the social media profiles such as Facebook, Twitter and professional profile that is LinkedIn. Social media platforms are the best tools to give insight into the character of the candidate. It is noteworthy to mention that all of the methods used will comply with the pre-employment screening laws and regulations by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission to avoid any legal issue in the future.
Technology has evolved all the organizational functions and hence the human resource activities as well. Technology has made the process of screening and background checks smarter and more comfortable. Different software’s and online platforms are available which can save time from screening a large number of candidates and benefit larger organizations; WorkAttest is one example of the software. Online Cognition Scale measures the candidates who abuse the internet at the workplace CITATION Dav02 \l 1033 (Davis, 2002). In addition to time-saving, such software’s allow data security of the candidate. The software enables precise background checks and automates the whole process. Other technologies and social has also assured the organizations with accurate background and personality assessment. Online software enables short and quick personality and skills assessment. Video conferencing is another technology that will allow short pre-employment screening interview. Online assessment tools provide the scores for a candidate, which can be later consumed to select the final candidate for the interview.
After the employee is done will all the steps and methods of pre-employment screening, the last step would be to evaluate the candidates based on the results obtained from the methods employed. Using the assessment results to select and neglect the candidate is a challenging task. To select the candidate’s compensatory method will be used. Research indicates the validity of this method over the others used in the selection process in human resources CITATION Ock18 \l 1033 (Ock, 2018). In this method, the scores of all the assessments and tests are considered, and the candidate is not neglected on the basis of the score of one assessment. This method saves the candidate from the disadvantage of conjunctive selection. To make the decision, the scores of all the assessments will be combined to give a composite score to each applicant. After that, the composite scores of all the applicants will be compared to make the final decision. However, if the candidate is deficient in one area or test, then that is also considered.
The candidate, which will not score too low in any of the tests used, will be the best candidates. The tests will be designed in a way that the most important skill or attribute will be given more weight. The tests were aimed at assessing the personality, interpersonal skills, and intelligence skills of candidate explicitly needed for the position of regional sales manager. The candidate who will be for instance very good in skills and abilities but lacks the excellent interpersonal skills will not be considered for the final interview. The elements necessary for the job are crucial to meet the job requirements. Three candidates, which were selected, are having the right personality traits, influential and persuading personality and strong interpersonal skills. In addition, they meet the background check requirements having no poor credit ratings and criminal backgrounds that could be a danger for the organization.
The selected candidates should be interviewed because they meet the necessary criteria for the position of regional sales manager. They have high scores in the screening interview, which evaluated their speaking, listening, and interpersonal skills. In addition, they were having the right personality needed for a sales manager. They were friendly, bold and extrovert and had values of integrity and honesty. The test and assessment scores, after evaluating using the compensatory and a little bit of non-compensatory method. The tests conducted were also validated on the equal employment opportunity rules and regulation to avoid any aspect of discrimination, and the candidates are selected on the job-related criteria. There are no biases involved in the process of selecting the candidates. The scores and results are the rationales for the candidates not being chosen for the interview.
References
Background Check Policy and Procedure. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2019, from https://www.shrm.org/resourcesandtools/tools-and-samples/policies/pages/backgroundcheck.aspx
BIBLIOGRAPHY Davis, R. A. (2002). Validation of a new scale for measuring problematic Internet use: Implications for pre-employment screening. Cyberpsychology & behavior, 5(4), 331-345.
ADDIN ZOTERO_BIBL {"uncited":[],"omitted":[],"custom":[]} CSL_BIBLIOGRAPHY Fact Sheet on Employment Tests and Selection Procedures. (n.d.). Retrieved February 25, 2019, from https://www.eeoc.gov/policy/docs/factemployment_procedures.html
Ock, J. &. (2018). The Utility of Personnel Selection Decisions. Journal of Personnel Psychology.
Waring, R. L. (2010). Social networking web sites: The legal and ethical aspects of pre-employment screening and employee surveillance. Journal of Human Resources Education, 4(2), 14-23.
