Are corporate recruitment practices fool-proof?

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Internship Promises Right Selection










 









Recruitment at entry level needs drastic change in the way it is carried out today.  Psycho-graphic test, skill test and personal interview are some of the HR selection practices of corporate world.  But are they fool-proof? Do they ensure selection of people with right attitude and behaviour every time? Don’t they let out right candidates sometimes?  Though these practices are time-tested, many a times, they were found questionable. Quite often, true qualities of shortlisted candidates expose only after their selection and deployment.  Attitude or skills, or both could be found flimsy.  If skills match, either attitude doesn’t suite or traits and behaviour will be inept.  Attitude, though found to be good, skills may be incomplete.

Just an instance of interview may not reveal true qualities of applicants. 360 degree personality cannot be assessed in little time. Conditioned behaviour hides applicants' real attitude during the interview. What is tangible may not be real.  Interviewee might pretend to be good and display artificial behaviour. Even the most sophisticated psycho-graphic tests have sometimes failed to capture real traits. Despite selection, past references doesn’t exist for cross-verification. Attire and etiquette, could be either real or unreal. Physical presentation including body language might be artificial. Thus selection methods constrained by time and failing to contain conditioned behaviour will not reveal true personalities of the candidates.

Though aptitude & skill tests are dependable, there are chances of missing right aspirants.  Often performers do not carry themselves well through aptitude tests and technical interviews due to psychic or health conditions at that moment.  Personal and family concerns might affect psychic state. Any ill-health, at the moments of truth diminishes strength to perform. Factors like ergonomics, unreliable aids, excess room-cooling, etc., may also affect performance.  Above all, traveling, long waiting times and restlessness make them inactive or exhausted.  With all such possibilities, chances of ignoring performers prevail. Though shortlisted ones possess required skills, their actual performance in real world will remain unknown until deployed. Except academic record, no practical references exist for verification.  Hence, even a well planned skill test or technical interview may not qualify every performer.

Aspirants can be thoroughly assessed from all dimensions when they’re exposed to real world.  Only through several observations, a person’s attitude, behaviour, knowledge and skills can be determined with confidence. To make adequate observations, it requires reasonable time period and right setup.  Ideal testing grounds are therefore, real workplaces.  Workplaces offer natural selection environment as they hurl right problems and contexts where true skills, performance and traits are visible.  Hence, recruiting prospects as ‘interns’ to work on part-time or full-time (during vacation), is a promising solution.  Internships are lengthy and hence opportunities for adequate observations. Reasonable time span of internship mean minimum personal constraints and therefore, ideal for assessing personality. Being manifested as part of the real work, interns’ capability and compatibility with prevailing organization cultures also could be tested.

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