The modern labor market is characterized by a shortage of skilled labor, despite the fact that every year, state and non-state universities produce a large number of young specialists ready to fill vacant positions but lacking sufficient knowledge and skills. We will leave aside the issues of the quality of higher education and focus on the problems of modern corporate personnel policy.
Hiring and employee evaluation are no longer seen solely as administrative tasks, and traditional personnel departments, using classical algorithms, are struggling to meet the challenges set before them by companies. HR services (human resources departments), which were recently considered synonymous with the personnel department, today represent a modern approach to organizing personnel work.
HR departments’ work combines two main tasks:
- Searching for and adapting quality labor for all structural divisions of the company.
- Motivating employees to achieve high professional results.
At the same time, modern methods of organizing personnel work also consider traditional tools: quantitative and qualitative planning; search and adaptation; advanced training; and employee personnel control. However, additional emphasis is placed on assessing business, moral-psychological, and other qualities that will contribute to the achievement of the company’s goals.
Finding, Evaluating, and Making the Right Choice
Hiring is a set of targeted actions aimed at attracting candidates who possess qualities that contribute to the strategic development of the company. The hiring procedures are generally well-described and strictly structured. However, this algorithm can vary depending on the vacant position, the intentions of the management, and the tasks of the HR specialist.
There are two sources for finding candidates. The first, internal, is used to implement a career growth program: filling vacant leadership positions from within the company’s staff. The second method, external, involves attracting individuals who were previously not connected to the company’s activities.
Schematically, the stages of filling a vacant position can be summarized into the following elements:
- Development of job requirements: determining the necessary level of competence for the position, creating a profile of the ideal candidate. At this stage, it is crucial to have a clear understanding of the functions that will be assigned to the future employee.
- Broad search for candidates: selecting a pool of candidates who meet the requirements.
- Candidate evaluation using a series of formalized methods: conducting individual interviews, testing, determining the socio-psychological type of personality.
- Selection by the manager from among the best candidates: a face-to-face interview, determining the candidate’s priorities.
The task of developing a personnel selection program is handled by professional headhunters. Their functions include:
- Defining and approving selection criteria.
- Conducting preliminary interviews.
- Collecting biographical and professional information about the candidate.
- Implementing selection methods (interviews, questionnaires, tests).
- Making the final decision in the selection process.
5 Ways to Get to Know a Candidate
In practice, the process of hiring and evaluating personnel consists of five stages: a preliminary interview; filling out the application and candidate questionnaire; the hiring interview; testing; and accepting the job offer. Depending on the quality of the candidate’s progress through the stages, as well as the position to be filled, these stages may occur in different sequences.
The preliminary interview is necessary to initially determine the candidate’s level of education, erudition, communication skills, and personal qualities.
Filling out the application and candidate questionnaire allows for a deeper assessment of the candidate’s qualities:
- Level of education and its correspondence to the qualification requirements.
- Practical experience and its relevance to the job’s nature.
- Limitations on performing certain functions.
- Willingness to take on additional workloads (overtime, business trips).
- Obtaining biographical data, identifying references.
During the hiring interview, the following rules should be observed:
- Listen carefully to what and how the applicant speaks.
- Observe behavior and behavioral reactions.
- Always keep in mind the requirements for the candidate and relate everything the applicant says to these requirements.
- Make a decision only when all necessary information is available (it is better to conduct 2-3 interviews than to make a mistake in selecting a candidate).
- Structure the interview in a way that the conversation does not deviate from topics related to the selection criteria.
Testing consists of specially developed formalized questionnaires that allow for a comparative analysis of the candidates’ characteristics if they demonstrate an equal professional level.
Accepting the job offer is a formal-legal procedure that includes clarifications regarding the employee’s working conditions, rest periods, and salary. It concludes with the signing of the employment contract in two copies.
Various formalized selection methods are widely available on the internet.