Selection in Human Resources is widely considered one of the most complex parts of the job. The necessity to be as objective and strategic as possible implies a sufficient degree of responsibility that is not easy to bear. Therefore, there have been multiple attempts recently to standardize the entire decision-making process to help HR managers perform their duties in the most efficient way possible. Some scholars, business people, and programmers are even considering the development of dedicated software that can automatically evaluate any person. Nevertheless, in most spheres, managers are currently expected to rely on a plethora of their abilities and senses. Therefore, a detailed analysis of the decision-making process is required in order to enhance current patterns and address all the issues that still occur.
Many theories and technologies are applied in modern HR management for recruitment, retention, and development. For instance, cooperative game theory, specifically the Shapley value, is used to reward selected workers based on their respective contributions (Azzam et al., 2018). Some scholars claim that the recruitment stage should also be enhanced by the introduction of new theories and software. According to Fachrizal et al. (2019), e-recruitment systems will speed up the recruitment process and make it easier for the HR division to make decisions to recruit employees. Although such technological advances may be helpful during the first stages of the recruitment process, they completely undermine the importance of the vital information that a selection decision-maker has to collect.
A substantial amount of data on an applicant’s background should be gathered before interviewing him/her. Then, the previous working experience and education should be thoroughly analyzed and taken into account. After that, a recruiter can proceed to the essential part that centers around soft skills and personal qualities that are instrumental to future outstanding performance in the workplace. According to Karimi et al. (2019), competence, prospection, flexibility, integrity, and justice are considered crucial in the competency-based recruitment system. Thus, only a professional recruiter can handle the analysis of large amounts of qualitative and quantitative information.
Decision-making in any sphere is generally perceived as a psychological concept. Even high-performing HR managers who claim to be open-minded rarely select people who do not seem to share some of the company’s values. According to Solemani et al. (2021), AI is increasingly used in the Human Resources recruitment process. Nevertheless, even its use is hindered by the inability to completely eliminate cognitive bias.
Another major problem is that HR managers can often be afraid of making wrong decisions so much that they develop an image of an ideal risk-free candidate and reject everyone who shows the slightest deviations. The major problem is that the company’s top managers often approve of such an approach by reducing risks instead of jumping at new opportunities. Gathering substantial information on each candidate is crucial to making the most efficient selection decisions. Qualities gathered via traditional questionaries and interviews based on 20th-century designs often do not allow recruiters to see all the benefits of hiring an outstanding employee. In the 21st century, most positions require out-of-the-box thinking, showing initiative, and willingness to experiment.
Despite the growing trend to automize every sphere of human activity, it is unlikely to happen in HR management soon, at least in recruitment. A large amount of data on every employee must be thoroughly analyzed to make a decision that truly benefits a company in the long run. Recruiters search for talents not solely by comparing the employees’ scores but by identifying a wide range of social skills that are crucial for modern workers. In general, problem-solving, teamwork, conflict resolution, and communication skills continue to top the list of qualities HR managers value. Moreover, some of the most valuable personal characteristics that make a good employee, such as honesty and responsibility, can be identified only via a dedicated interview with experienced recruiters.
References
Azzam, R., Mizouni, R., Otrok, H., Singh, S., & Ouali, A. (2018). A stability-based group recruitment system for continuous mobile crowdsensing. Computer Communications, 119(4), 1–14. Web.
Fachrizal, M. R., Radliya, N. R., & Manik, A. (2019). Development of E-Recruitment as a Decision Support System for employee recruitment. IOP Conference Series: Materials Science and Engineering 662(2), 022018. Web.
Karimi, A., Teimouri, H., Shahin, A., & Barzoki, A. S. (2019). Identification and ranking of competency-based recruitment system criteria: An empirical case study. International Journal of Learning and Intellectual Capital, 16(1), 21–39. Web.
Soleimani, M., Intezari, A., Taskin, N., & Pauleen, D. (2021). Cognitive biases in developing biased Artificial Intelligence recruitment system. Proceedings of the 54th Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. Web.