• Unit 3: Recruitment and Selection

    Identifying the abilities job candidates should have to succeed in a position is much easier that identifying these traits within a job applicant. An employer can accumulate a pile of resumes after posting a position opening on the company website or job board. But how many resumes are worth reviewing and how many candidates are worth interviewing? You do not want to simply choose the best candidate from the applicant pool; you need to find the best person for the job.

    Businesses use many recruitment methods. For example, some use specialized recruiting firms; most ask their employees for recommendations. Next, they must determine whether each applicant has the knowledge, skills and abilities they need. Critics argue that the interview process is weak because it is too subjective. In this unit we explore several subjective and objective measures to identify the best candidate, such as finding those who share the company's ideas about its goals and objectives, and individuals who can provide the organization with a strategic competitive advantage.

    Completing this unit should take you approximately 7 hours.

    • Upon successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

      • explain how to develop a personnel plan; and
      • develop strategies for recruiting, selecting, onboarding, and retaining valuable human capital.

    • 3.1: Recruitment of Human Capital

      • The Psychology of Recruiting and Selecting Employees Page
        This article discusses how psychologists have designed recruiting processes and personnel-selection systems to help employers find the best candidates. The article describes using interviews, personality tests, ability tests, and work samples to evaluate potential employees. As with all forms of testing, we cannot ignore the validity and reliability factors attributed to each test, as noted in the article.

    • 3.2: The Process of Recruiting and Selecting Human Capital

      • Effective Recruitment and Selection Page
        Read this article. Before you read, try your hand at the first activity, then read the article. Though all of us have our own sets of experiences and opinions, it is important that we do not place our organizations in a situation of liability as a result of our individual biases, as they may not be strategically aligned with the best interests of the organization. You must learn to work through personal perceptions and make strategic business decisions when recruiting and selecting human capital.

    • 3.3: Recruiting and Selecting Human Capital in the 21st Century

      • Sourcing and Recruiting Page

        Watch this video. Professional recruiters attending a national summit share assessments and concerns over the use of social media in human resource recruitment.

      • 15 Social Recruiting Tips Proven to Attract the Best Talent URL

        Social recruiting isn't just a novelty – it is a must-have for any successful recruiting strategy. This article details recruiting opportunities on Periscope, Twitter, and LinkedIn. Social media is an excellent opportunity to showcase your corporate culture as well as your brand. However, with your culture and your brand at stake, a company's social media presence must be deliberate at all times. The article notes common social recruiting mistakes made by companies and how to avoid them. Select a company and take a moment to look online at their social media presence. What type of personnel are they attempting to attract? Are the corporate culture and branding messages being represented consistently and deliberately? Is this a company that you would be interested in based solely on their social recruiting efforts?

    • 3.4: How to Select Human Capital

      • Selection URL

        Read this chapter which discusses how to review and check a resume for validity and reliability, how to interview and test job applicants, how to choose prospective job candidates, and how to make an offer to a potential hire. This reading also reviews several case studies.

      • Selecting the Right People Page

        This article explains how compiling a common set of information about applicants can help HRM avoid unintentional prejudice. Businesses can obtain this data through behavioral and situational interviews, selection tests, and background checks.

    • Unit 3 Assessment

      • Unit 3 Assessment Quiz
        Receive a grade

        Take this assessment to see how well you understood this unit.

        • This assessment does not count towards your grade. It is just for practice!
        • You will see the correct answers when you submit your answers. Use this to help you study for the final exam!
        • You can take this assessment as many times as you want, whenever you want.