UNIT II:

HUMAN
RESOURCE
PRACTICES
Job analysis; Recruitment and selection;
Training; Performance evaluation
job analysis: The procedure for
determining the duties and skill
requirements of a job and the kind of
person who should be hired for it.

job descriptions: A list of a job’s

duties, responsibilities, reporting
relationships, working conditions,
and supervisory responsibilities—one TERMS
product of a job analysis.

job specifications: A list of a job’s

“human requirements,” that is, the
requisite education, skills,
personality, and so on—another
product of a job analysis.
ELEMENTS OF
JOB ANALYSIS
 • Job Description
A job description enlists tasks, duties, and responsibilities that a job involves. The time a
manager tries to evaluate job performance, it is necessary to have detailed information about
the work performed in the job. This information enables to determine how well a person is
fulfilling each job requirement.

A job description usually contains the job title, a description of the tasks, duties and
responsibilities, and lists indispensable duties and thorough specifications of the tasks
consisting in each duty. The job description enables the organization make consistent decisions
regarding such matters as pay and promotions, and exhibit that the organization makes human
resource decisions fairly.

The purposes of job description involves collection of job-related data for the advertisement for
a particular job, encouraging applicants, making a target of, recruit and select the appropriate
candidate for the right job, to determine the needs of a particular job, make clear the
expectations from employees, providing recruiting personnel a clear picture of the kind of
candidate a particular department requires to perform a specific job and clarify the reporting
 • Job Specifications
A job specification gives an account of education, explicit qualities, amount of experience, physical
traits, emotional intelligence, responsibilities involved in a job technical and communication skills
asked for to perform a job, and other requirements related to senses.
It also involves general health, mental health, intelligence level, aptitude, memory, judgment,
leadership qualities, emotional ability, capable of being adapted, susceptible of modification, values
and ethics, manners and creativity, etc.
Job specification also renders assistance to candidates to decide to submit an application for a
particular job. It helps recruiters of an organization to understand the level of qualifications and
distinctive characteristics exiting in a candidate to make him or her fit for being chosen for the
opening.
Job Specification presents minute information of a job including job responsibilities, job related
technical and physical skills, communication and interpersonal skills. It enables the recruiters in
identifying the most appropriate candidate for a specific job.
Job description and job specification are two parts of job analysis that define a job fully and guide both
employer and employee on how to proceed with the whole process of recruitment and selection.
Both types of data are very relevant for generating a right fit between job and talent, evaluate
performance and analyze training needs and measuring the value of a specific job.
T H E S U P E RV I S O R O R H U M A N R E S O U RC E S S P E C I A L I S T N O R M A L LY
C O L L E C T S O N E O R M O R E O F T H E F O L LO W I N G T Y P E S O F
I N F O R M AT I O N V I A T H E J O B A N A LY S I S :
Work activities. Information about the job’s actual work activities, such as cleaning, selling,
teaching, or painting. This list may also include how, why, and when the worker performs each
activity.

Human behaviors. Information about human behaviors the job requires, like sensing,
communicating, lifting weights, or walking long distances.

Machines, tools, equipment, and work aids. Information regarding tools used, materials
processed, knowledge dealt with or applied (such as finance or law), and services rendered
(such as counseling or repairing).

Performance standards. Information about the job’s performance standards (in terms of
quantity or quality levels for each job duty, for instance).

Job context. Information about such matters as physical working conditions, work schedule,
incentives, and, for instance, the number of people with whom the employee would normally
interact.

Human requirements. Information such as knowledge or skills (education, training, work

experience) and required personal attributes (aptitudes, personality, interests).
USES OF JOB ANALYSIS INFORMATION
RECRUITMENT AND SELECTION Information about what duties the job entails and what human
characteristics are required to perform these duties helps managers decide what sort of people to
recruit and hire.

COMPLIANCE AND EMPLOYMENT RELATIONS In public sector undertaking (PSU) banks, job
analysis was conducted, and after negotiation with unions, initiatives like one window banking and
core banking were introduced.

PERFORMANCE APPRAISAL A performance appraisal compares each employee’s actual

performance with his or her duties and performance standards. Managers use job analysis to learn
what these duties and standards are.

COMPENSATION Compensation (such as salary and bonus) usually depends on the job’s required
skill and education level, safety hazards, degree of responsibility, and so on—all factors you assess
through job analysis.

TRAINING The job description lists the job’s specific duties and requisite skills—thus pinpointing what
training the job requires.
 Position Analysis
Questionnaire

TECHNIQUES Fleishman Job

F O R DATA Analysis System
COLLECTION IN
J O B A N A LY S I S
 • Position Analysis Questionnaire
The Position Analysis Questionnaire is one of the best-researched tools for job analysis. This is
a standardized job analysis questionnaire consisting 194 items representing work behaviors,
work conditions, and job characteristics that applying to various jobs.
The questionnaire arranges these items into six facets of the job consisting information input,
mental processes, work- output, association with other persons, context of the job context
and other characteristics.
The person conducting the job analysis decides whether each item on the questionnaire is
applicable to the job being analyzed. The job analyst assesses each item on six parameters:
use, time, possibility of occurrence, applicability, importance and special code.
Using the PAQ an organization gets the information for the comparison of job, even if unlike.
The PAQ has the merit that it taken into account the entire work process, starting from inputs
to the output.
The questionnaire requires that the person filling out the questionnaire must have at least
college level reading skills.
In fact, the estimations of persons currently holding the job have a tendency to be less
 • Fleishman Job Analysis System

For the collection of information regarding worker requirements, the Fleishman Job Analysis
System has the need of subject specialists to evaluate a job in terms of the abilities required
to execute the job.

More than fifty of abilities constitute the basis of the survey from the ability to comprehend to
reasoning based on deduction, mental adroitness, strength of physical constitution, and the
quality of being original. The items of survey are put in an order measured on a scale for
each of the abilities.

Each item describes the ability and makes a comparison with the ability having some
association. The respondent makes an option on the scale representing the degree of the
ability demanded for executing the job analysis.
RECRUITMENT
AND
SELECTION
RECRUITMENT- DEFINITIONS

Recruitment is a process of looking for prospective employees and

encouraging them to apply for the jobs in the organization.

Dale Yoder defined recruitment as the process to identify the sources of

manpower to meet the requirements of the staffing schedule and to engage
effective methods for attracting that manpower in sufficient numbers for
facilitating effective hiring of efficient workers.

Edwin B. Flippo viewed recruitment is a process of looking possible

employees and encouraging them to apply for jobs in an organization and the
placement of the candidates.”
PERSONNEL POLICIES

Personnel policies of an organization are also its decision

about how it will perform its human resource
management function. These policies influence the
nature of the vacant position. Research on recruitment
indicates that the characteristics of the vacancy are
more important than recruiters or recruiting sources for
predicting job choice. Several personnel policies are
especially relevant to recruitment.
[Link] vs. external recruiting
[Link]-the market pay strategies
[Link] at will policies
[Link] Advertising
1. Internal vs. external recruiting
Organizations with policies ‘promotion from
within’ attempt to fill upper-level positions by
recruiting candidates internally. It involves
identifying candidates already working for the
organization. Avenues for advancement make a
job more attractive to applicants and employees.
Decisions about internal or external recruiting
affect the nature of jobs, recruitment sources,
and the nature of applicants.

2. Lead-the market pay strategies

Pay is an important characteristic for almost all
applicants. Organizations enjoy advantage in
recruiting they adopt a policy to pay above the
market. Higher pay can also make up for less
desirable characteristics of a job. Organizations
may use bonuses, stock options, and other forms
of pay that compete for applicants.
3. Employment at will policies
Within the laws of the state where they are operating,
employers have latitude to set policies about their rights in
an employment relationship.
A general policy follows the guideline of employment at
will, which holds that if there is not any particular
employment contract saying otherwise, the employer or
employee may terminate employment relationship any
time. Alternatively extensive due process policies may be
established, which formally lay out the steps an employee
may take to appeal an employer’s decision to terminate
the relationship.
The legal experts of the company may advise the company
to ensure that all recruitment documents indicate that the
employment is at the will of the employee. This will save
the company from litigation of wrongful discharge. The
legal advantages against the disadvantages are weighed
by the management as well as the impact on recruitment.
Job applicants are more attracted to organizations with the
impact of due-process policies, indicating greater job
security and concern for the protection of the interests of
employees, than to organizations with employment-at-will
4. Image Advertising
Besides advertising specific job opening,
organizations may advertise themselves as a good
place to work in general. Advertising designed to
create a generally favourable impression of the
organization is allied image advertising.
Image advertising is specifically significant for
organizations in highly competitive labour markets
that perceive their image as unfavourable.
Research indicates that an organization’s brand
image influences the extent to which a person is
attracted to the organization. This attraction is real if
the person’s own features match those of the
organization.
Job applications seem to be particularly sensitive to
issues of diversity and inclusion of image advertising,
so organizations need to ensure that their image
advertising reflects the broad nature of the labor
markets from which they have intention to recruit.
 Human Resource Planning
In most cases, a firm cannot attract prospective employees in sufficient numbers and with
the required skills quickly. Investigating different sources of recruits and determining the
most productive sources and methods for obtaining them usually needs time for planning.
Once the best alternatives are identified, managers can make better recruitment decisions.

Promotion Policies
A firm can emphasize a policy of promotion from within its own employees or one where
Human Resource Planning Promotion Policies Size of the Enterprise Employment Conditions
Rate of Growth positions are generally filled from outside the enterprise. When an
organization emphasizes promotion from within, the existing employees feel encouraged to
exert vigorously for advancement, become more aware of their own opportunities.
Promotion from within provides motivation to existing employees and often improves their
morale. A strictly applied promotion from within policy finally leads to complacency, low
level of creativity and a lack of cross-fertilization. Generally, new blood creates new ideas
and that must take place for the firms to acquire and remain competitive.
 Size of the Enterprise
An enterprise big in size will have need of more persons at regular intervals while a small
business engages a small number of employees. A big business house will continually be in
contact with sources of supply and shall try to draw more and more persons for making an
appropriate selection. It may be able to spend more amounts in identifying possible
candidates. So the size of an enterprise will influence the process of recruitment.
Employment Conditions
The employment conditions prevailing in an economy also affect the process of recruitment.
In under-developed economies, employment avenues are confined and there is no shortage`
of prospective candidates. Similarly, suitable candidates may not be at hand because of lack
of educational and technical facilities. If the availability of persons is more, then selection
from larger number becomes easy. On the other hand, if there is a shortage of qualified
technical persons, it will be difficult to locate suitable persons.
 Salary Structure
The compensation offered and working conditions prevailing in an organization greatly
influence the availability of personnel. If higher wages are paid as compared to concerns of
similar size, the enterprise will not encounter any difficulty in making recruitments. An
organization offering low wages will have to bear the cost of labour turnover.

Rate of Growth
An organization going for expansion will need regular intake of new employees. Existing
employees will also have to be promoted filling up of new vacancies. A stable enterprise
can recruit persons only when incumbents vacate position on retirement, etc.
 • Internal recruiting is the search for inside employees having the
required abilities to help the organization achieve its objectives.
Internal recruiting means considering present employees as
candidates for opening within the organization. Promotions from
within help build morale and retain high-quality employees from
quitting the firm. The objective of the internal position posting
system is to ensure that due thought has been given to interested
employees meeting basic performance standards. Internal
recruiting tends to be less expensive than external recruiting. The
prospect of potential promotion or transfer provides a clear
indication to the existing employees that the organization offers
space for development. Moreover, the employee is familiar with
the organization’s policies, procedures, and customs.

INTERNAL However, extensive internal recruiting reduces likelihood of

•
innovation and new perspective, a lack of new ideas and
RECRUITMENTapproaches.
1. Job Posting Job posting is a common method and a procedure for
informing company employees about the job openings and permits those
who believe that they have the qualifications required to apply for a
posted opening. Bulletin board, notice boards or printed newsletters can
serve this purpose. Computerized job positing systems are common
nowadays where employees receive information about jobs on their
computers. In some organizations the human resource department
publishes a regular newsletter listing the available positions.

2. Employee Referrals Several organizations find that their employees

may be able to act an important role in the recruitment process by
actively inviting their friends and relatives to apply for these positions.
Enterprises have found that the quality of employee-referred candidates
is usually more, since employees generally do not refer non-performing
individuals. Many employers have designed formal programs to motivate
employees to refer candidates for jobs. Such programs often have
financial incentives for employees making viable referrals like prizes and
cash rewards. At times rewards may be dependent up on referred
candidates being hired and the specified period for which remaining with
the organization.
Nonfinancial incentives may include formal recognition through
corporate communication, recognition by supervisors of
employees making referrals.
There are some negative factors related to employee referrals
as the chances of inbreeding and the violation of regulations.
Since employees and their referrals generally possess identical
backgrounds, recruiters who rely heavily on employee referrals
to fill jobs may advertently or unintentionally leave out, and
thereby discriminate against, reserved classes. Furthermore,
organizations may opt not to employ relatives of current
employees. The approach of hiring relatives can invite charges
favouritism and nepotism.

3. Skill Inventories: Many firms have developed

computerized skills inventories relating to information for every
employee’s skills, educational background, performance
records, and other important factor of their existing employees.
This data base can then be used to find out employees with the
attributes needed for a specific job.
 EXTERNAL
RECRUITING
• For starting level positions and probably for upper level
specialized positions, the organization has no internal
candidates from which to recruit. Also the flow of new
blood into brings in new ideas and new ways of doing
business into the organization. Organizations often
utilize a combination of internal and external
recruitment.
• External recruiting involves attracting people from
outside the organization to apply for jobs. The sources
of external recruiting include employment exchanges,
advertisement, casual applications, educational
institutes, raiding and headhunting.
1. Employment Agencies
Two kinds of employment agencies are usually available-Public Employment Agencies
and Private Employment Agencies. National Employment Service extends all states
and union territories except Sikkim and performs within the framework of
Employment Act, [Link] Act demands for the mandatory notification of vacancies
and to submit returns by employers to the employment exchanges. The major
functions of the employment exchanges include registration of applications of
jobseekers and notifying them about vacancies, gathering and dissemination of
Employment Market Information, Vocational Guidance to students and the youth are
the major functions.
The public employment agencies serve the blue-collar labour markets. They charge
the employers fee for providing `referrals and are proving a good source for specific
kinds of jobs. For managers or professionals, an employer may utilize the service of a
type of private agency called ‘headhunters’. For job candidates, dealing with
executive search firms can be sensitive. Virtually, executives do not desire to
advertise their availability because it could initiate a negative reaction from their
existing employer. Employment service firms serve as a shield providing secrecy
2. Advertisement in Newspapers and Magazines
A most common method of raising applicants is through advertisements. Most often
Newspapers and trade journals are the media used for advertisement, radio,
television, billboards, posters, and electronic mail are also utilized. Professional and
trade journals, union publication are of this category. Well designed advertisements
emphasize the major aspects of the position while exhibiting the alertness of the
organization to the job and career growth of the applicants.
Usually advertisements attempt to include information in is that the recruiting
organization has an employer branding. Advertising can put a severe burden on an
organization’s resources. Even though the specifications for the job openings are
pronounced completely in the advertisement, several applicants who do not fulfill the
job requirements may still apply with the hope that the applicants fulfilling the
specifications will not be available.
3. Casual applications
Generally unsolicited visitors drop their resumes at the reception of the enterprises. The
companies maintain a record of such applicants and may look into such a file with the hope of
possibly finding a potential applicant.

4. Educational Institutes
Educational institutions like IITs, IIMs and other institutions typically are a source of young
applicants with formal training with relatively little full-time work experience. For clerical and
blue-collar jobs employment exchanges and employee referrals are good sources. IITs and
IIMs, universities and other professional institutions with their different sorts of specialized
knowledge, can provide candidates for technical, engineering and managerial jobs. These
institutions provide a source of applicants for a variety of supervisory and managerial jobs.
However, the suitability of college graduates, open positions often depends on their major
field of study. Organizations looking for applicants in the specialized technical and professional
areas currently face with a shortage of qualified candidates. To attract graduates in areas of
high demand, managers employ innovative recruitment techniques such as work-study
programs, internships, low-interest loans, and scholarships.
5. Raiding
The process of drawing the employees working in other organizations to join the enterprise is
known as raiding. Though it is an unethical practice to directly contact the employees of other
organizations, some companies engage in raiding. Raiding is undertaken where the need to
recruit is very urgent.
6. Electronic Recruiting
A recent survey by the Conference Board concluded that the number of online job ads
increased by 24 per cent as compared to the previous year. Online recruiting generally
includes assigning job information at Web sites of the company intended to those having
interest in the specific company and posting paid advertisements at career services to draw
people who are looking for job.
Most big companies and several smaller companies make job information ready for use at their
web sites. To make that information comfortably to locate, they may register a domain name
with a ‘jobs’ extension, To be an effective tool, corporate career information should go beyond
unspecific, offering descriptions of open position and submit a resume easily.
Candidates also feel grateful for an e-mail response that the company has received the
resume- especially a response that gives a schedule about further communication from the
\With both employers and job seekers giving over
information to and performing searches on them,
these sites provide an efficient way to makes
matches between job seekers and job openings.
However, a drawback of this medium is that the big
job Web sites can provide too many candidates of
inferior quality because they are so big and serve
almost all job seekers and employers, not a niche
segment.
MEANING AND DEFINITION OF
SELECTION
Selection is the process of picking up individuals from the
pool of job applicants having relevant qualifications and
competence to fill jobs and can most successfully perform
the job in an organization.

Dale Yoder defined selection as the process by which

candidates for employment are divided into two classes –
those who will be offered employment and those who will
not.

In the words of David A Decenzo selection is a managerial

decision-making to predict which job applicants will be
successful if hired.
1 Preliminary Interview
The aim of preliminary interviews is fundamentally to remove unqualified candidates or to reject
misfits on the basis of information provided in application forms. On the other hands preliminary
interviews is usually called a courtesy interview which is a fine public relations exercise.

2. Selection Tests
Jobseekers that get through the preliminary interviews are called asked to appear for selection tests.
There are different kinds of tests performed varying on the basis of jobs Preliminary Interview
Selection Tests Interview Reference Checks Selection Decision Physical Examination Job Offer and
the company. Selection tests generally include Aptitude Tests, Personality Tests, and Ability Tests.
These tests are managed to assess how well a candidate can perform tasks concerned to the job.
Besides this there are some other kinds of tests also like Interest Tests, Graphology Test Medical
Tests, Psychometric Tests etc.

3. Interview
The interview is the next step in the process of selection where a formal and in-depth conversation
for applicant’s acceptability takes place. It is considered to be one of the best selection methods.
Interviews can be Structured and Unstructured, Behavioral, and Stress Interviews.

4. Reference Checks
Reference checks are conducted to verify the information candidates provide. Reference checks can
be through formal letters, telephone conversations. However it is only a formality and seldom
affects selection decision.
5. Selection Decision
After obtaining all the information, the most critical step is the making the selection decision. The
final decision has to be made out of applicants who have been successfully through preliminary
interviews, selection tests, final interviews and reference checks. In practice many organizations
find more than one suitable candidates to fill a job position. The selection decision combines
ranking of candidates on the basis of objective criteria with subjective judgments about which
candidate will make the greatest contribution.

6. Physical Examination
After the selection decision is taken, the candidate is needed to pass a physical fitness test. A job
offer is often subject to the candidate’s passing the physical examination.

7. Job Offer
The next step in the process of selection is job offer to those applicants who have overcome all the
prior hurdles. The job offer is made by way of a formal letter of appointment.
S O U RC E S O F I N F O R M AT I O N F O R S E L E C T I O N

APPLICATION REFERENCES PHYSICAL EMPLOYMENT INTERVIEWS-

BLANK EXAMINATION TESTS THE
S RELIABILITY
AND VALIDITY
1. Application Blank
Asking each applicant to fill out an employment application is a way to gather basic data from
many applications at low cost. It also ensures that the organization has definite standard
classes of information, such as mailing address and employment record. The application bank
provides the information concerning identification such as the name of the applicant, his
communication address, contact number, and e-mail identify, personal information such as
marital status, age, dependents, place of birth; physical characteristics such as height,
weight, health, defects, family background, education, academic, technical and professional
and also information regarding experience, reference and miscellaneous information.
Application blanks provide the information to the interviewer and assist him in the interview
by presenting the discussion areas. Also including the data on an application helps maintain
the latest records of job applicants. The appraisal based on information given in the applicant
blank has a very high probability of error, its utility as an instrument for evaluating an
applicant can be increased by more effective research. A review of application blanks can
help HR personnel identify which candidates meet minimum needs for education and
experience. They may be able to rank applicants. Thus, the application forms enable the
organization to narrow down the pool of candidates to an affordable number to test and
interview.
2. References
Application blanks often ask the applicants to provide the names of several references. Applicants
provide the particular names and phone number of former employers or others who can verify the
applicant’s capabilities and past job performance. In other circumstances, the applicant may
provide letters of reference written to collect information or establish the truth about the accuracy
of the information provided by the applicant.
In the present job market, references are a mandatory part of the application for the job and the
selection process. Sometimes references may prove to be a biased source of information. Most
applicants are cautious to choose references who will speak something positive.
Usually, the organization checks references after the applicant is finally selected for the job.
Partially giving information too negative or too positive is also risky. Giving negative information,
there is a chance the candidate will claim defamation, implying that the person damaged the
applicant’s reputation by making statements difficult to prove truthful. At the other extreme, if the
person gives a shining statement about a candidate, and the new employer later knows of
wrongdoings such as sexual misconduct or violence with coworkers, the potential employer might
litigate the former employer for misrepresentation of facts.
3. Physical Examinations
For physical fitness-demanding jobs in particular, organizations may determine to
conduct medical examinations to see that the applicant can fulfill the job’s requirements.
Employers may also wish to establish an employee’s physical condition at the start of
employment so that there exists a basis for measuring whether the employee has
suffered a work-related disability later on. At the same time, organization may not
discriminate against individuals with disabilities who could perform a job with reasonable
accommodations.
Physical examination serves as an ultimate step before the hiring decision. A physician
appointed by the organization is authorized to conduct a physical examination of the
person intended to be selected. Physical examination helps an organization place its
employees in suitable jobs, permits firms to screen out applications with health
problems, and can be used to judge the individual’s qualifications for a job involving
physical efforts.
4. Employment Tests
When the applicants who meet the basic requirements of the organization have been
identified, the organization proceeds with the selection process with a smaller pool of
candidates. Often, the next move is to gather objective data by administering one or
more employment tests which fall into two broad categories: Aptitude tests and
achievement tests
Aptitude tests evaluate the ease with which a person can acquire learning, skills and
abilities. In the field of employment testing the popular aptitude test is the General
Ability Test Battery (GATB).
Achievement tests scale a person’s knowledge and skills. For example, government
agencies conduct civil service examinations to check if applicants are qualified to
perform specific jobs.
However, before using any test, the test’s validity and reliability organizations should be
investigated. The testing service may be asked to provide this information or to consult
more impartial sources of information.
5. Interviews- the reliability and validity
Virtually interviews are used as a selection device for most jobs across all organizations.
Generally, candidates are interviewed by at least two people before a job is offered.
Typically, an HR specialist and the candidate’s immediate supervisor perform these
interviews. The interview is one of the methods used for the evaluation of individual
differences for industrial selection.
The predictive validity of the interview has been considered to be quite low. The average
validity of the interview for predicting job performance has been as low as .14.
It seems that interviewers often commit judgmental and perceptual errors to adjust the
validity of their evaluations. Interviewers are also positively predisposed toward
candidates who are similar to them. When the similarity or dissimilarity is not job-related,
it may still influence the interviewer’s judgment and introduce invalid variance into the
interviewer’s ratings. Interviewers tend to see their job as a search for negative
information about candidates. Thus, they may overreact to a single minor piece of
negative information. They are more likely to change their initial opinion of a candidate
from positive to negative than negative to positive.
Interviewers may be more or less positive about a candidate based on the candidate’s
race, sex, or age. When either the interviewer’s overall impression or strong impression of
a single characteristic expands to influence his or her rating of other characteristics also,
it results in a halo error. Studies have also demonstrated that interviewers are influenced
by nonverbal factors in the interview such as appropriate clothing, making eye contact,
smiling, and fluency in speaking.

It is an interviewer’s task to create a favourable impact of the company on the applicant.

For this purpose, the interviewer is required to create a rapport with the applicant to make
him feel comfortable and encourage him to express himself, his attitudes, motives, and
aspirations. Giving full attention to the applicant, not interrupting while the applicant
answers, and never showing rudeness is very necessary. The interviewer requires reading
the body language skills of an applicant. Providing the applicant opportunities to express
is essential for collecting information about the applicant.
 1. Unstructured Interview
TYPES OF
INTERVIEWS In the unstructured interview, questions and their sequence
are not planned beforehand, and interviews with different
candidates may comprehend quite different facets of
candidate’s history, attitudes, or future plans. The low inter
rater reliability and overall the lowest validity is the
characteristics of unstructured interviews. Since questions are
not planned, the crucial job related aspects may remain
unexamined, and irrelevant questions may be asked
momentarily. Interviewers may also rely highly on single
favourite questions of doubtful validity. Thus, unstructured
interviews should not commonly be used for evaluating job
candidates.
2. Semi-structured Interviews
The semi-structured interview involves some planning on the
part of the interviewer. It also allows flexibility in precisely
what the interviewer asks questions. Semi-structured
interviews are likely to be more valid than unstructured
interviews, but not as valid as highly structured interviews. In
an excellent book on semi structured interviewing
techniques, Thomas Moffatt suggests that interviewers plan
their objectives in terms of what they hope to learn about the
candidate and utilize a ‘cone’ approach to draw out this
information. A cone is a mini-interview on a particular topic,
such as the candidate’s last job, feelings about working in
groups, or military experience. Each cone is introduced by a
very broad question, which is followed by more specific
questions on aspects of the topic. These questions may vary
from interviewee to interviewee but are related to the topic of
the cone. The interviewer might plan to include four to eight
cones in an hour-long interview. In the cone approach, most
questions are designed to elicit a reasonably lengthy
response. As in all types of interviews, leading questions are
avoided. Leading questions are those that imply a correct
answer. Finally, yes-no and short-answer questions are used
sparingly because they tend to turn the interview into an
interrogation and do not provide as much useful information
3. Structured Interview
Research shows conclusively that the highest reliability and validity are
realized in the structured interview. Correlation with job performance
criteria on an average is .34 for well-structured interviews. In a structured
interview, questions are predetermined in advance and are asked in the
same way to each candidate. The probing or the follow-up questions may
make the only difference between interviews with different candidates, if
a particular candidate has not answered a question fully. Interviews that
feature structured questions usually also provide for structured rating
scales also. A situational interview is a structured interview in which the
interviewer puts a situation possibly to arise on the job and asks the
candidate his or her likely reaction in that situation. This type of interview
may have high level of reliability and validity in predicting job
performance. A behavioral descriptive interview is a situational interview
in which the interviewer put the candidate questions to describe how he
or she dealt a type of situation in the past. Questions about candidates’
actual experiences have the highest validity In a panel interview,
different members of the organization assemble to interview each
candidate and give the candidate a chance to meet people and see how
they interact in the organization. The organization receives the
judgments of more than one person, in order to reduce the effect of
personal biases in selection process. Panel interviews can be especially
suitable in organizations that use teams. At the other point, some
organizations perform interviews without interviewers; instead they use a
computerized interviewing process where the candidate sits at a
computer and enters replies to the questions presented by the computer.
Such a system eliminates a lot of personal biasalong with the opportunity
to look how people behave in the organization. The computer interviews
are helpful to gathering objective data, rather than evaluating people
 SELECTION
DECISIONS
• After reviewing applications screening
tests, conducting interview, and checking
references, the organization needs to
determine about the candidates to be
placed in jobs. Practically, most
organizations have more than one
suitable candidate to recruit an open
position. The selection decision typically
relies upon ranking on the basis of
objective criteria along with subjective
judgments about the candidate expected
to make the largest contribution.
Toxic working conditions and its impact. (CA
case of India)

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