Traditional and modern methods of personnel selection

Conditions of life and business are constantly changing. With the development of new information technologies a lot of methods of personnel selection being used for a long time proved to be inefficient. A company with the staff recruited using these methods appears to be non-competitive. This article provides an analysis of traditional and modern methods of personnel selection.

Traditional selection criteria

Lately the process of personnel selection was guided by the following criteria:

• graduate degree and specialty
• age
• working experience in the certain area
• character reference available
• knowledge of foreign languages and computer skills
• personal impression

Experience has shown that education will not always be a criterion for professional skill. Many diligent graduates of prestigious Universities often turn out to be unable to solve real problems although with trainings they managed quite well.

Many employers consider that a person who is older than his or her subordinates can guide them easier. However, age as a criterion of leadership has lost its significance a long while ago. Some employers believe that young officers will be more flexible and will get to modern business environment easier. But, in practice we can see that flexibility is a particularly individual human feature and has nothing to do with the age.

There is no doubt that obtaining a particular experience is favorable if the applicant is supposed to carry out some standard tasks. But in present days conditions each position has its own nuances. Moreover, there is no guarantee that a new employee will be able to get on the inside of the team and find a common language with the principals.

Positive references are an important factor. But the opinion expressed in the reference is particularly subjective. If the person was good enough for his or her previous job that does not mean that he or she will feather in with the new office. Moreover, such a reference can be written by his or her request.

Knowledge of foreign languages and computer skills are also important when they directly relate to the position chosen. In most cases, computer skills of an employee should be elementary, while the knowledge of languages will be required at most once a year. If one’s flexibility rate is sufficient and the person is interested in the position enough all these questions can be solved in the process.

Personal impressions of the person can be delusive. Moreover, there are some courses and trainings that teach how to make a desired impression during a job interview.

All the abovementioned arguments suggest that traditional methods and criteria of personnel selection are ineffective and it is necessary to find some modern techniques.

Modern psychological approach

Psychological tests meant to estimate person’s business features were first used more than half a century ago, but their tasks then we reduced to simple career-guidance. Modern methods based on detailed personality analysis enable us to discover not only one’s dispositions towards a particular type of activity, but some potentials of person’s development, leadership skills, peculiar properties of one’s intercourse with the headquarters and the other staff, means of stimulation and motivation. Modern computer techniques and information resources help us to analyze the data of many candidates and choose the most convenient members.

One of the methods is to look through a huge number of applicants with motives and features desired by the chief-manager. Such a method is quite good when you need to hire some people for a plain and non-challenging work. Psychological testing will empower you to estimate their ability to deal with the things you task and their compatibility with the existing ways of management and motivation.

The second means will be better if you want to recruit a small team of people who obtain some particular abilities. It is very hard to find a proper applicant by the means of simple examination through all the candidates since the person you need can be a rare type. Psychological testing both helps you to find the best office-seekers according the adjusted criteria and find individual methods of their guidance and motivation. This way is very effective not only when you are seeking for a new officer, but also when you try to reorganize the present day working team.

The third means of personnel selection is to compare psychological features of the applicants with the features of a particular officer who proved to be effective. The program on this site empowers you to enter your “sample’s” data easily and find the applicants whose features are close to your model.
,br> Computer technologies and psychological tests are by no means meant to replace experienced clerks of personnel selection. They are rather to help them in their work. Modern methods of recruiting management enable you to evaluate a vast number of applicants and make your best choice.

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