...kognitivni testovi daju nam informaciju o tome što ljudi mogu učiniti, a upitnici ličnosti govore nam što će ljudi vjerojatno učiniti…

U selekcijskoj praksi, za psihologijsko testiranje najčešće se koriste kognitivni testovi i upitnici ličnosti. Kognitivnim testovima psiholozi ispituju inteligenciju – bilo opću, bilo njene faktore (npr. spacijalni, verbalni, numerički). Upitnicima ličnosti pokušavamo predvidjeti kako će se osoba ponašati u određenim situacijama.

Tijekom osamdesetih godina prošlog stoljeća američke vojne službe ispitale su proces selekcije u okviru najvećeg i najskupljeg istraživanja ove vrste. Rezultati su pokazali da nam kognitivni testovi daju informaciju o tome što ljudi mogu učiniti, a upitnici ličnosti govore nam što će ljudi vjerojatno učiniti (Cook i Cripps 2009).

Kognitivni testovi

Gotovo svako psihologijsko testiranje uključuje kognitivne testove. Kognitivni testovi dijele se u testove općih sposobnosti i testove specifičnih sposobnosti. Ova skupina testova prilično dobro predviđa radni učinak pa se redovito koristi u selekcijskoj praksi.

Testovi općih kognitivnih sposobnosti

Testove općih kognitivnih sposobnosti može se u psihologijsko testiranje uključiti gotovo uvijek. Primjena je brza i jednostavna, a analiziranje rezultata lagano. Tipovi zadataka su u rasponu od logičkog zaključivanja i otkrivanja zakonitosti nizova do otkrivanja uzoraka, sličnosti i razlika. Ova vrsta testova najbolje predviđa uspjeh na radnim mjestima gdje se zadaci ne mogu obavljati rutinski, već je potrebno stalno prilagođavanje novim zadacima. Međutim, ako postoji mogućnost pristranosti na štetu nekih rasnih ili etničkih skupina, to treba uzeti u obzir prilikom interpretacije rezultata. Naime, istraživanja pokazuju da su ljudi iz određenih rasnih ili etničkih skupina postizali slabije rezultate na ovom tipu testa. To je slučaj i s ljudima iz određenih socioekonomskih skupina (prema Cooper i Robertson, 2007). Ipak, važno je naglasiti sljedeće – unatoč mogućem nepovoljnom djelovanju testa na neku skupinu ljudi, test je pravedan ako predviđa radnu uspješnost svih skupina podjednako dobro.

Testovi specifičnih sposobnosti

Navest ćemo primjere testova koji mjere perceptivni, spacijalni, verbalni i numerički faktor. Test koji mjeri perceptivni faktor odnosi se na mjerenje sposobnosti brze i točne identifikacije oblika. Test koji mjeri spacijalni faktor odnosi se na ispitivanje sposobnosti zamišljanja i predočavanja rasporeda površina i predmeta u 2 ili 3 dimenzije. Numeričkim testom ispituje se sposobnost izvođenja jednostavih brojčanih operacija koje ne zahtijevaju mišljenje, a verbalnim opseg vokabulara, razumijevanje teksta te identifikacija antonima i sinonima.

Spolne razlike

„Popularne“ pristranosti testova specifičnih sposobnosti odnose se na spol. Već je svima poznato da su rezultati žena u prosjeku viši na testovima koji mjere verbalni, dok su rezultati muškaraca u prosjeku viši na testovima koji ispituju spacijalni faktor. Čak i naslovi raznih knjiga o razlikama između spolova govore upravo o ovome (primjerice „Zašto muškarci ne slušaju, a žene ne znaju čitati zemljovide?“). Mora se naglasiti da to što su rezultati žena u prosjeku viši na testu verbalnog faktora, a rezultati muškaraca na testu spacijalnog faktora, ne znači da su sve žene bolje kad je riječ o verbalnom faktoru niti da su svi muškarci bolji u slučaju spacijalnog faktora. Distribucije rezultata za svaki spol pojedinačno se međusobno peklapaju te je iznadprosječni rezultat muškarca na testu koji mjeri verbalni faktor daleko bolji od rezultata prosječne žene na takvom testu.

Četrdesetogodišnje praćenje darovite djece ukazuje na važnost ličnosti!

Činjenica je da su kognitivne sposobnosti iznimno važne, ali ne i dovoljne za dobar radni učinak. O povezanosti inteligencije i uspješnosti u životu općenito govori Termanova studija. On i njegovi suradnici izdvojili su 1500 djece čiji je IQ bio veći od 140 te su ih pratili 40 godina. Kad su djeca iz ove skupine odrasla, iako su u prosjeku bila superiorna, nisu sva uspjela u životu, a razlog tome bile su razlike u osobinama ličnosti, motivaciji za postignućem i socijalnoj prilagođenosti. Ovo istraživanje naglasilo je upravo važnost upitnika ličnosti.

Upitnici ličnosti

Psihologijsko testiranje ne može proći bez upitnika ličnosti. Upitnici ličnosti sastavljeni su od niza pitanja ili tvrdnji koji obuhvaćaju misli, osjećaje i ponašanja. Upitnici ličnosti mogu biti izvor važnih informacija o kandidatima za posao, ali osoba koja ih koristi treba imati znanje o radnom mjestu za koje traži zaposlenika. Dobro je to znanje temeljiti na analizi posla (o kojoj možete više pročitati u članku „Analiza posla“ ). Bez jasne ideje kakvi su zahtjevi radnog mjesta te kakve osobine ličnosti kandidat mora imati kako bi mogao udovoljiti zahtjevima, korištenje testova ličnosti u selekcijske svrhe gubi svoj smisao. Dakle, nekritička upotreba testova ličnosti uz premisu da će se tako otkriti neki značajan podatak o potencijalnom zaposleniku, ne doprinosi izboru najbolje osobe za posao te predstavlja gubitak vremena.

Nadalje, psiholog koji koristi test ličnosti mora koristiti i priručnik za isti. Priručnici testova sadrže podatke o tome kako je test nastao, kako se upotrebljava, sadrže točnu uputu koju treba dati kandidatima prije početka rješavanja te upute za ocjenjivanje testa i ostale podatke koji su potrebni za tumačenje rezultata. Korištenje priručnika nije samo ograničeno na testove ličnosti, već je nužno bez obzira na vrstu psihologijskog testa. Prema tome, isto se odnosi i na upotrebu kognitivnih testova.

Teorije ličnosti

Različite teorije ličnosti govore o različitom broju crta ličnosti. Trenutno najtočnije shvaćanje ličnosti zastupa petofaktorski model ličnosti (eng. Big Five model). Prema tom modelu 5 je glavnih crta ličnosti – ekstraverzija, neuroticizam, savjesnost, otvorenost ka iskustvima te ugodnost, a istraživanja su pokazala da je općenito savjesnost najbolji prediktor radnog učinka. Ostale 4 spomenuta faktora ne predviđaju radni učinak generalno, ali mogu poslužiti u predviđanju uspješnosti u određenim skupinama zanimanja. Tako ugodnost i otvorenost bolje predviđaju uspjeh u uslužnim djelatnostima, a ekstraverzija u rukovođenju i u prodaji. Niski neuroticizam, tj. emocionalna stabilnost predviđa uspješnost u policijskim i manualnim poslovima (Cook i Cripps 2009).

Nedostaci upitnika ličnosti

Problem upitnika ličnosti su neiskreni odgovori. Naime, odgovori kandidata za posao na upitnicima ličnosti mogu biti manje ili više iskreni. Logično je da se osoba želi predstaviti u što boljem svjetlu kroz selekcijski postupak kako bi dobila posao. Rješenje ovog problema leži u znanstveno utemeljenim ljestvicama za otkrivanje laganja koje su sastavni dio većine testova ličnosti. Zato, preporuka svima: budite iskreni prilikom rješavanja nekog upitnika ličnosti jer je moguće da zbog varanja ne dobijete posao!

Psihologijsko testiranje + intervju

I pored svih korisnih predikcija koje nam osiguravaju psihološki testovi, nije dobro zasnivati selekcijske odluke samo na temelju rezultata testiranja. Psihologijsko testiranje se provodi uglavnom u kombinaciji s intervjuom.

Profesionalna etika psihologa

Za sami kraj ovoga članka važno je naglasiti da profesionalna etika psihologa obvezuje na tajnost podataka dobivenih psihologijskim testiranjem. To znači da psiholog nakon testiranja ne smije reći šefu ili rukovoditelju koliki je rezultat točno kandidat postigao na kognitivnom testu i koliki mu je IQ niti raspravljati o tome što je kandidat odgovorio na pojedinačna pitanja iz testa. Psiholog svoje mišljenje daje u obliku izvještaja na samom kraju selekcijskog postupka. Riješene testove kandidata psiholog čuva kroz određeni vremenski period, i to pod ključem te je pristup ovim povjerljivim podacima neovlaštenim osobama ograničen.

piše: Ana Zlatar, psihologinja.

Literatura:

Cook, M. & Cripps, B. (2009). Psihološko procjenjivanje na radnome mjestu. Školska knjiga. Zagreb.

Cooper, D. & Robertson, I. T. (2007). Psihologija odabira zaposlenika. Naklada Slap. Jastrebarsko.

The post Psihologijsko testiranje – kognitivni testovi i upitnici ličnosti appeared first on Recruiter.ba.

Psychology has found its place in the business world long time ago. Personality assessment, along with cognitive abilities, is one of the basic areas of interest in a professional context. Due to the desire for more successful business, organizations are showing increasing interest in quality psychological information. In recent times, the internationalization of the labor market, dynamism and global digitalization in general, pose new challenges and demands. In the light of technological development, the idea of measuring personality in a new way also emerged. Through the dedicated work of professors from the Department of Psychology at the University of Zagreb and the company Recruiter.hr, a new measure of personality has been developed, the so-called Photo 5. This is a questionnaire in digital form that, instead of traditional questions and claims, relies on photos! More on that below!

Why evaluate at all?

When it comes to employment, namely, many realized in time that work experience and desire for employment are not always enough. The very entry of a new person into the organization necessarily activates the processes of adjustment. Getting a new work team member familiar with his or her business responsibilities is sometimes a really challenging task. It can happen that a newly hired individual soon gives up because he realizes that the job ”may not be for him after all”. Of course, this takes the whole process back to the beginning. Time and resources are wasted on both sides. The price an organization pays to invest in the wrong person is generally high.

On the other hand, the time of adjustment to an organization with which an individual may not actually share work and professional values has also been irretrievably wasted. Fortunately, a quality personality assessment in the selection process itself can solve a lot of potential later problems! The innovative approach, in doing so, seeks to further facilitate and bring the whole process closer to the candidates…

Personality assessment in selection situations

Timely availability of information on some fundamental characteristics of potential new employees can be crucial. Assessing their suitability for the requirements of a specific job and organization is, therefore, an essential aspect of employment. Personality assessment is now traditionally one of the first steps in quality professional selection. Because of the scientific grounding and proven value of psychological tests in a professional context, organizations usually cannot do without them. The personality profile of the candidate contributes to a complete picture of the person. Among other things, it points to the potential for successful adaptation, but also to the growth and development of a person, together with a specific organization.

How an individual will respond to stressful work circumstances, for example, is one aspect that can be predicted. This is where personality assessment comes into play. How well a person will function under pressure can be inferred even before the real appearance of stressors. Dedication to work and the level of thoroughness and perseverance in doing it can also be inferred based on personality profile. And preferences for certain types of work tasks, and dislike for others have the relation with personality.

The whole spectrum of human behaviours and tendencies in reacting to different circumstances can, more or less, be described by personality traits. That is why it is important to know what our candidates are like. Some, due to their personality, probably will not do best in certain activities. It just means that their other tasks simply ”lie better”. The question is what are the needs of the organization/job position and what are the characteristics of the candidate. Is there a ”match”?

New ways of assessing personality

If personality assessment can offer objective indicators, why not use them? Indeed, in practice, it is represented by personality measures that have shown their value in the organizational context for many years. Today, in digital environment, perhaps more than ever before, an adequate assessment of a potential employee’s personality is at hand reach. Recruiter.hr digital solutions provide everything you need for a quality selection of staff. Organizational instruments are available in digital form, their application is simple, and the findings are quick and useful. In addition to traditional instruments in the form of a questionnaire, personality assessment is now possible through the innovative Photo 5!

What is it about?

It is a new instrument that uses the assessment of personality and a number of key information that can complement the selection decisions. In an innovative way, the Photo 5 captures the basic individual differences between people. Its construction relies on the generally accepted five-factor model of personality. In short, the questionnaire consists of 50 photographs, selected on the basis of professional and research work, intended to measure the five major dimensions of personality. Namely, research history in the field of personality and professional literature suggest the importance of broad domains of conscientiousness, openness, comfort, extraversion and emotional stability. These five dimensions are in fact the basic units for describing people and explaining personality.

Unlike traditional questionnaires, which involve people agreeing with certain statements/questions, the Photo 5 turns stimulating material into photos! Imagine in the selection process displaying photos related to different traits. Instead of a neatness question, for example, candidates are shown a photo related to this trait. Instead of looking for a degree of agreement with the statement ”I like being among people”, it can be offered a photo that shows just the same thing. All the key things that differentiate people from each other do not necessarily go into claims. Why a photograph could not be a faithful representation of a behaviour or situation, applicable to assessments? This idea guided the construction of the Photo 5 questionnaire. It was built on the foundations of the five-factor model, as a modern instrument in organizational psychology.

Advantages of Photo 5

Besides being more fun, this assessment of personality implies additional advantages. Given that we are primarily talking about selection situations, caution is always present because of the potentially involved social desirability. Namely, it is logical to expect the tendency of candidates to try to present themselves better in job evaluation situations than they really are. The ability to fake answers to a personality questionnaire can be quite simple. But with photos it is a little different. They appear to be more resistant to socially desirable responses. Namely, the research confirmed that falsification is generally less pronounced in the evaluation of photographs compared to the evaluation by a questionnaire!

In addition, the Photo 5 questionnaire is gaining in value and in the context of the growing presence of multilingualism in selection processes. Since subtle linguistic differences in claim formulations of questionnaire can make comparisons difficult and impair quality assessments, an instrument that eliminates this problem is certainly welcome.

Finally, another ”plus” of this instrument stems from research findings related to reactions to its application in selection processes. Namely, in one research, participants (employees) were asked how they would react to it. Encouraging for the further application of Photo 5, a significant number of participants (almost 50%) stated that they would react somewhat or extremely positively if such a questionnaire were part of the selection process for the job. Also, slightly more participants (58.3%) stated that they would rather solve such a questionnaire as part of the selection than the traditional questionnaire. Personality assessment, seems to, receive new stimulus material that contributes significantly to selection processes through its benefits.

Attachments to the validity of the Photo 5 questionnaire

In addition to information on the candidate’s cognitive abilities, work experience and other relevant performance indicators, personality assessment is now available as data measured in a different way. The photographs that ultimately define the Photo 5 have been carefully selected through expert work and validation research. Starting from the preliminary large set of photographs, those that worked worse for these purposes were successively excluded. Expert psychologists, as well as psychology students, played an important role in the initial phase of photo selection.

The validation studies that followed showed that these are scales of a five-factor personality model that are highly reliable. It was also confirmed that the results of these scales are related to the relevant criteria in the academic and work context. In this sense, the finding of the validation check was performed on a sample of psychology students and on a sample of employees in Croatia. Both studies offered logical correlations of the scales of the Photo 5 questionnaire and the associated scales on personality questionnaires. In addition, personality traits measured by evaluating photographs in the expected way are also related to individual criterion variables.

For example, in an academic context, conscientiousness proved to be related to grade point average, while extraversion was correlated with managerial potential. Likeability is, as expected, positively associated with extraversion, comfort and conscientiousness. Comfort, too, is marginally significantly correlated with competence. In the working context, however, another set of logical findings has been identified. They testify that a personality measure based on photographs can predict important work outcomes. The results on the scales were considered in relation to job satisfaction, work engagement, job performance, undesirable and responsible organizational behaviours.

Conclusion

In accordance with the mentioned findings on the validity of the questionnaire, the authors who worked on its development, professors from the Department of Psychology at the University of Zagreb, Prof. Zvonimir Galić, Ph. D., Mitja Ružojčić, Ph. D., assistant Nikola Erceg and the Recruiter.hr team agree that this is a measure suitable for a dynamic, international and multilingual labour market. Finally, Photo 5 is a psychometrically valid and practically applicable questionnaire that can serve as a valuable supplement or replacement to existing personality assessment questionnaire methods!

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The technological progress of society and the development of digital solutions have affected society at all levels. Changes are manifested in various spheres, from some common habits and behaviors to working conditions and business. Given the changes in working conditions, more and more technological advances are also affecting the field of human resource management. In addition to the usual challenges of finding the most capable candidates and assessing their characteristics, the area of human resources has been hitherto unseen. Like all industries in the world, COVID-19 has imposed the need for a complete reorganization of work. Accordingly, the testing of potential candidates as we have known them so far has been forgotten. New technologies have introduced innovations such as computerized adaptive testing.

When it comes to abilites and assessments in an organizational context, the predictive value of cognitive abilites is also of great importance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998). Intelligence tests are an unavoidable aspect of a quality selection process and can be a key factor for various organizational decisions. Therefore, due to the availability and ease of application, digital psychological tests have become a necessary tool for quality assessment. Also, automatic scoring and interpretation of results reduces time and necessary human resources which is why we cannot give them up. But, it was necessary to create new instruments in digital form that would slowly replace traditional paper-pencil tests.

It is not new that in line with the development of technology, digital tests are becoming more and more sophisticated. But the complete revolution in digital testing has been brought by computerized adaptive testing.  If you have not heard of this test yet, you have missed a lot. Computerized adaptive testing or abbreviated CAT is a sophisticated method of measuring a certain ability, which is based on the idea of adapting the test to each individual. Due to the optimization of the test, the time required to solve the test is also reduced. This makes the job much easier for the candidates, in terms of time and energy.

What is computerized adaptive testing and how does it work?

How is it possible that adaptive testing is individually optimized and still has all the metric characteristics of the test met? Adaptive testing involves applying only the most appropriate tasks to each individual by presenting the next one, depending on the answer a person offers on one task. The difficulty of the tasks that a person solves is constantly adjusted during the test to the development of his abilities.

The test begins with an averagely difficult task, after which the branching starts according to the results of the individual. For example, if the first task is solved incorrectly, the next offered task will be from the category of slightly easier tasks. Depending on the next answer, branching will continue. By the same logic, if a person solves another task wrong, he or she will get an even easier task. If the second task is correct, then the candidate is given a slightly more difficult task until his ability is determined. As a rule, most candidates should complete the test through about 15 tasks.

This method allows accurate computer estimation of one’s level of ability, using a significantly smaller number of tasks than is the case with classical tests. Of course, the very development of a computerized adaptive test requires a whole range of psychometric analyzes to create a smaller group of clearly defined tasks, selection and presentation algorithms. Therefore, it is not possible to create this test in paper form.

In collaboration with a professor at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Zagreb and the company Selekcija ltd started the project of developing the first Croatian computerized adaptive test. The joint work developed from a detailed analysis of tasks that have been applied for years in the selection of staff and the work of the Selekcija.hr team to the development of the final database of adaptive test tasks and the algorithm for their application.

By creating a digital testing tool, the selection process has accelerated, but it has also become more economical than it was before. Thus, adaptive testing imposed new trends in assessment, but also provided insight into the bright future of the selection process.

Advantages of adaptive testing in candidate selection

When we look back to the beginnings of computer-based testing of cognitive abilities, we can notice that in the not-so-distant past, it was tested with very simple tests. Due to the unavailability of computers, the tests had to be applied on paper. Today, almost every household owns a computer. The adaptive test on Recruiter.hr platform can even be solved on a mobile phone, so there is almost no excuse for candidates about not being able to solve the test.

Furthermore, what we often see in selection is the presence of a candidate discouragement effect when solving aptitude tests on paper. Since they are unfamiliar with standardizing test, respondents may feel discouraged and frightened by solving more difficult tasks. Then the effect of test anxiety is more pronounced. On the other hand, for some candidates, the same tests may be too easy and they may sometimes lose initial interest in solving the test. In this way, the final result of the examinee on the test depends on the level of difficulty of the question to which he answered correctly.

Thus different respondents may have the same number of correct answers, but those who answered the more difficult questions correctly ultimately have a better result. An additional advantage of adaptive testing lies in the reduced ability to rewrite or transmit test information because it generates a much larger amount of tasks that can be different each time.

The progress provided by adaptive testing benefits both, the employer and the candidate. Namely, we often encounter the problem that candidates are employed and cannot attend testing during working hours or are therefore generally unable to participate in a lengthy process. We are also sometimes inclined to test a larger number of candidates in order to select the best one. With adaptive testing, the time frame is greatly reduced and provides more time to get to know the candidate and his or her behavioral characteristics in more detail.

Conclusion

Ultimately, we can notice that the COVID-19 has shaken all the industries, but the challenges have forced us to make progress, especially in business and candidate selection. We can only imagine in which direction CAT technology will develop, but we can agree that the quality of testing has increased rapidly in the age of digitalization and adaptive testing. Given the current advances in testing, general digitization and its benefits, we’ll hardly ever go back to paper-pencil tests again.

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Very often during the selection process the best candidates are the ones who have more work experience, but is this always the case?! When they were looking for employees for their call centre, Xerox stopped assessing people based on work experience, because results showed that previous work experience was not as important for this type of position. What turned out as important is the candidate’s personality…

When selecting candidates we must ask ourselves how important is the candidate’s work experience is and what was the work culture like on his/her previous work position. When interviewing such a candidate we will often come to realize that their work task at a previous job was often repetitive, simple, that they had no autonomy or responsibility and that they were working in a work environment with flexible work morale. We can also come to the conclusion that they were mentored by expert individuals who didn’t train them how to do their job fast and efficient or who, for example, used out-dated work methods. If we reach these kinds of conclusions, this doesn’t mean we will automatically disregard this XY candidate from further selection, but this valuable information can become a basis for defining the employee XY’s prospective training.

One of the first steps in the selection of candidates is going through the CVs of the candidates who applied for the position. In the midst of the colourful CVs, it is common to “get caught” on two categories, education and previous work experience. If a candidate has ample work experience, he is usually “more interesting” to an employer than the one without work experience, regardless of the level of education acquired. But, is this really the case and what are the “traps” hidden by previous work experience?

Big employer’s experience:

“…I don’t go through the CVs anymore before deciding whether to call a candidate to an interview or not ”, says Teri Morse, who supervises the employment of more than 30,000 people in Xerox every year. Instead, they analyze data on candidates who have to pass a test with a series of different questions, which, among other things, assess types of personality and future employee’s success. They have given up on looking at CVs based on previous experience, because data showed that previous experience is not crucial for this job position!  What turned out to be crucial was the candidate’s personality…

Research:

Research somewhat confirms the employers’ experience. In this part we will reflect on more recent research conducted by authors Dokko, Wilk and Rothbard (2008) which test the influence of relevant work experience (in the same industry or profession) on job performance in a different employer’s company. The mentioned research was conducted on a sample of 771 employees and job candidates in two call centres of two major American insurance companies, during which the job performance of the employees was analysed and the development of their skills and their knowledge. The authors tested the correlation of job performance and skills with previous work experience and the work experience in the present company. As it was expected, previous work experience in other companies was connected with higher levels of knowledge and skills which resulted in better evaluations of job performance in the new companies. However, when the authors considered the employee’s initial knowledge and skills they had when entering the company, they got a slightly lower job performance, that is, they saw the „costs“ the experienced employers make for the company. Wilk et al. as expenses list old habits and ways of performing a task which are not necessarily efficient in the new companies and are conceptually called behavioural and cognitive rigidity. They state it is extremely important to make a good estimate of the previous work experience and its effect on job performance so the companies could develop a good selection process, training and socialization of the new employees. They also state that how the new employee fits the organizational structure of the new company is very important, that is, does the new company have similar work culture habits as the previous one where the employee performed the same job. If the new company’s standards are the same as the employee’s expectations which he acquired at the previous position, then we can expect the employee will soon become a part of the company and the quality of his job performance will be superb.

The study also shows that employees who spent more of their work time in insurance companies benefited less from previous work experience in other companies, while it was harder to get rid of negative effects (expenses) which shows that behavioural and cognitive rigidities are very stable (“old habits die hard”). This conclusion can be practically applied – because it points to individual differences in types of personality of the employees, that is, to the level of adaptability which can become crucial when assessing the level of employee’s success at a given workplace.

Note! Job performance can be relatively easily predicted based on the following criteria: work sample, cognitive ability test (intellectual functioning), structured interview, specific knowledge and skills test, integrity test, assessment centres and personality tests (integrity as the most important predictor and emotional stability). Methods that are somewhat less successful in predicting job performance are: recommendations, work experience, number of years spent in school and GPA. Also, in order to select the best candidate you should use as many methods possible, because that way you lower the risk of employment.

Very often during the selection process, the candidates with the most experience are the best ones, but this is not always the case! Top candidate, except work experience, has very good work ethics (high integrity; is detail-oriented and persistent), general intellectuality and good social and communication skills.

Want to know more? You can find more information on the following links

• http://knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu/wp-content/uploads/2013/09/13552.pdf(Unpacking Prior Experience: How Career History Affects Job Performance; Dokko G., Wilk L.S. & Rothbard N.P., Organization Science, 2008.)
• http://www.siop.org/Workplace/employment%20testing/testtypes.aspx
• https://www.umbel.com/blog/big-data/recruiters-big-data/(Top 5 Things Recruiters Should Ask Their Big Data)
• http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/e3561cd0-dd11-11e3-8546-00144feabdc0.html#axzz3CslfhAu7(Forget the CV, data decide careers)

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One of the employers, while expanding his business, decided to take over a café that was closed for months due to co-owners’ property disputes. After taking over the business, the café was losing money, but not because of the location. Of course, we asked the owner what he expected from his waiters and got the answer…

There are several factors that can hinder assessment in the selection process and lead to a wrong conclusion when selecting a candidate. Based on experience in selecting candidates we want to warn you about five crucial things that can distract you when selecting the right candidates:

1.THE HALO EFFECT

The person conducting the selection process can become so enraptured by a particular candidate (for example, by the candidate’s appearance, references, unusual hobby and so on) that the first impression of the person affects the assessment of the relevant aspects of work behaviour and the worker’s efficiency.

Example: almost a hundred years ago, renowned American psychologist Edward Thorndike (1874 -1949) noted that the correlations between the physical appearance and assessing someone’s character are „too high and happen too often“. In the very beginning of his observations Thorndike asked officers to assess their soldiers by comparing their physical traits (posture, voice, constitution and energy) with their psychological traits (are they reliable, loyal, self-aware and cooperative). The results were incredible, because often the officers connected physical appearance with intelligence, leadership skills and character. The stronger the physical appearance, the positive the assessment was, by a third approximately. And in a case of a soldier who had a trait that did not suit the officers, he would, most certainly, get bad marks.

Advice: it is best that different experts who think differently, have different assumptions and think critically conduct the selection process.

2. UNCLEAR CRITERIA 

Prevent unnecessary “wandering” and wasting time when conducting professional selection. This usually happens when you don’t have a clear vision of the job competencies your future employees has to have. That is, this happens when you don’t know all the abilities, skills or traits your candidate has to have. Planning will save your time and energy and also emphasize the seriousness and professionalism in the whole selection process.

Example: One of the employers, while expanding his business, decided to take over a café that was closed for months due to co-owners’ property disputes. After taking over the business, the café was losing money, but not because of the location. Of course, we asked the owner what he expected from his waiters and got the answer: when selecting waiters, he chose people who were reticent, shy and quiet. Of course, because these are the types of waiters he prefers in other cafés; the ones that don’t bother him while he is conducting business deals, but who notice when he needs something. That’s where he made a mistake, because he based his decision on a subjective assessment. Waiters have to be extroverts, because as such they handle different situations well, they are not afraid to be in the centre of attention, they meet clients easily and make friends, which is extremely important for business in which you rely on clients who are satisfied and who come back to your establishment, because they feel comfortable, accepted or even respected and valued there. Take for example a younger man who frequents this establishment and one day, he takes his girlfriend there for the first time. Who would suit him better, a waiter who is distant, reticent, shy and quiet or a waiter who greets him warmly with a friendly gesture and a question that shows they are acquaintances or maybe even friends? In most cafés and clubs waiters have to be extroverts, that is: cordial, friendly, have a lot of energy and they shouldn’t be afraid of taking the centre stage. They also have to be emotionally stabile, detail-oriented, persistent and motivated to get the job done. We can check all of the listed in our „Objective measures“– scientifically-based psychological tests and structured interviews in professional selection.

Advice: find or make a job analysis (or job description), make a detailed analysis of the workplace and if this sounds too complicated, talk to the managers and directors about what they prefer and record their observations, from which you can learn a lot. Also talk to the workers and find out for yourself what it takes to get the job from the job description done.

3. RUSH  

He who works, makes mistakes. When we are in a rush, we are able to make mistakes in assessing the candidates’ competencies, because we need to get the work done and make a decision quickly. Making decisions quickly usually brings more costs, and the costs of making a bad decision when selecting an employee range from 20% to 200% of an employee’s annual salary (for more details look at this article: http://selekcija.hr/2008/09/troskovi-loseg-zaposljavanja/)

Advice: Make serous plans about your personnel politics and before you need new workers or at least try to find adequate (temporary) replacement among your current employees until you find the “right” candidate. Who knows, maybe the temporary solution becomes the permanent solution!

4. INADEQATE OBJECTIVITY OF THE SOURCE

The more sources of assessment you use, the better! Sometimes the selection process is based on reading the CVs and conducting interviews. Candidates are prone to giving the desirable answers and “touching up” their CVs, but also giving false information on the duration of their employment, their position and what tasks they performed with a certain employer.

Advice: use the advantage of standardized psychological tests, because research shows that the use of psychological test enhances the successfulness of the selection interview from 30% to 80%. You can get more details on the following link: http://selekcija.hr/2008/09/cemu-selekcija-zasto-ne-samo-intervju/. In the end we should say that it is best to check the candidates’ references, because they can „tip the scale“ and provide the key information about the candidate.

5. THE ORDER OF PROCCESSING CANDIDATES– notions of primary and recent information are well-known in the educational psychology. In simple terms – we will remember the candidates who were processed early and late in professional selection, that is we will remember the best the couple of first and last candidates.

Advice: make a protocol for recording which you will later use to recall candidates later and make a final decision.

Sources (literature used):

http://humanresources.about.com/cs/recruiting/a/candidatepool.htm

http://managementhelp.org/staffing/hiring.htm

http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/how-to-select-the-right-applicant-for-the-job.html

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…Contrary to this, here the young and the unemployed believe that no one will hire them and that nothing will change, so there’s no point in trying. So this is how the see job interviews, from the perspective of a desperate man or a pessimist, and no one will hire them as such!

Proactive behavior, in the broadest sense, is every behavior the aim of which is profit – personal and for the people around us in situations in which our superiors and colleagues don’t think there’s a need for this activity and there is no business pressure that this particular activity should be performed, but there are justified reasons that this kind of behavior could lead to profit in the future.

Being proactive includes a proactive analysis of the current situation, a quality prognosis of future outcomes and solving problems which might appear in the future. Being proactive demands responsibility, additional motivation, initiative, understanding the situation, clearly communicating with your superiors, subordinates and colleagues regarding future goals, communicating with clients about their needs and predicting their needs, at the same time thinking both from a bird-eye’s view and top-down perspective, and maybe the most important thing, be ready to constantly change work rhythms. The last is probably the most difficult to find, especially in work atmospheres dominated by the „golden phrase“. “Don’t go against the current”. Cynics might say that being proactive is looking for more things to do and unnecessary „ass kissing“, but in the restless business world of capitalism and especially work, there are not a lot of people who have the luxury of waiting for change to come from the inside.

In his famous book „7 Habits of Highly Effective People“Stephen Covey lists being proactive as the first one. Special emphasis is on the word habit, which means that being proactive makes sense if it is a constant unwritten value within the company.

We can paint the picture of being proactive with the situation in which one partner wants to surprise his significant other with something he knows the other person will like, but it was never specifically asked as a present.

Reactive thinking and behaving is the opposite of proactive thinking. This sort of behavior is often in hierarchically structured and defined jobs which require performing the job a certain way. Own initiative is not clearly expressed and the emphasis lies on doing a certain minimum. For example, we can hardly ask, for example, a professional soldier, delivery man or a patrolman to be proactive.
Reactive way of thinking was beautifully depicted by John Lennon with the lyrics: “Life is what happens when you’re busy making other plans.”.

However, in the world of capitalism and work and working with people, proactive behavior is more than desirable, so we can take as an example an active approach of unemployed people to finding an employment, which leads to getting a job faster. Contrary to this, here the young and the unemployed believe that no one will hire them and that nothing will change, so there’s no point in trying. So this is how the see job interviews, from the perspective of a desperate man or a pessimist, and no one will hire them as such! In the micro-worlds of particular companies, proactive behavior leads to more clients, their satisfaction with services, better prevention of unpleasant surprises.

How to implement proactive behavior? Being proactive starts with the main people in the company, and they do, before everything else, choose their employees. Already during the selection process you can see who is a proactive person and who is not. „Proactive ones“will more or less discretely mention they make their own luck. Further on, if the head management wants, they can send their workers to take various courses or workshops which they think could increase their profit. Besides, head management can encourage workers to produce new and fresh ideas and select the ideas and proposals for improvement. Communicating about being proactive makes the workers believe the leadership of the company and reduces the fluctuation of manpower – and there are „palpable“variables. Proactive thinking can even be a certain tolerance for losers, if it a pledge for profit in the future.

As any sort of behavior can be twisted, bad and deviant, the same way when proactive behavior is concerned there are situations when it is applied the wrong way. The best example are some pharmaceutical companies which first manufacture a medicine, and then look for a disease to fit it or manufacture a medicine, and then artificially move the limits of medical parameters and so use the possibility of placing the medicine on the market.

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Luckily, there is a solution for that problem, as well There are some questions frequently asked in the job interviews and if you prepare, you will without a problem be able to wear the Miss Employment Candidate sash. I’ve found them for you and grouped into areas they refer to:

EDUCATION:

1. How much time did you spend studying, per day?
2. Have you participated in any other educational activities after finishing your formal education, and if yes, how successful were you?
3. Have you been an active member of a student organization?
4. How do your experience and knowledge make you qualified for this work position?

WORK EXPERIENCE:

1. What was expected from you in your previous work positions? Did you have to work overtime and what is your opinion on overtime?
2. Did you work with a college?
3. How often were you trusted with difficult and complicated tasks in your previous work positions?
4. What workload are you ready to do without asking to be considered as overtime work and in which circumstances?
5. Would your colleagues come to you for help in getting work done?
6. What would you say is your biggest accomplishment in your job?
7. Which employer would give you the worst recommendation and why? And which one the best?

ACTIVITIES IN YOUR FREE TIME:

1. How do you spend your free time?
2. Do you have any hobbies?

LEAVING YOUR PREVIOUS WORKPLACE, COMING TO THE NEW WORKPLACE:

1. Why do you want to leave your current job? Why did you leave your last workplace where you were employed?
2. Why are you applying for this job position?

PERCEPTION ABOUT THE NEW WORKPLACE:

1. What do you think are our company’s main activities?
2. What is in this workplace that appeals to you the most*
3. What appeals to you the least?

PERSONALITY:

1. What is the worst thing you ever did?
2. How competitive do you think you are? Do you like competitive sports? In what extent do winning or losing influence our wish to participate in the competition?
3. How do you react to losing in a certain game?
4. How often do you start an argument with your colleagues, professors and similar?
5. Describe a situation in which you felt extremely frustrated and powerless. How did you react?
6. Describe the least mature thing you ever did.
7. What do you think about the possibility of doing more tasks at the same time? How do you feel when you know you will not be able to finish a project on time?
8. How do you plan a certain activity before you start doing it? How much attention do you pay to details, writing reports, etc?
9. In which circumstances did someone rely on you in a high degree? How did you respond to that?
10. In what degree did you volunteer at certain jobs in the past? Why?
11. Describe the thing you did and which challenged you the most intellectually.
12. How would your best friend describe you? And your enemy?
13. How often do you rely on other people? And they on you?
14. To which extent do you believe that people want to use you?
15. How would you react when your superior would have a different opinion on performing a certain aspect of your task?
16. How do you usually feel after a hard day’s work? In the last two years, how many days have you missed work because you were sick?
17. Describe yourself.

COMMUNICATION

1. How would others describe your communication skills?
2. What do you think is your biggest advantage when communicating with other people?
3. Do you like to communicate with people?
4. Is it difficult for you to put your thoughts on paper?
5. How often have you had the opportunity to speak in front a large group of people?

QUESTIONS FOR PEOPLE IN THE FINAL SELECTION

1. What are you going to do if you don’t get this job?
2. If we offered this job to you, now, how would you react?
3. If you get this job and say this to your current co-workers, how will they react?
4. If they offer you more money in the old workplace to stay and work there, what would you do?
5. What else could you say and that could help us make this decision?
6. What do you think, what kind of mistakes did you do during this interview?

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The real answer about the salary question is actually the diplomatic avoiding of a specific answer which can be uncomfortable, so people don’t do it. In fact, that who says the first number is no longer in advantage…

The question of salary will inevitably come up during the selection process. The way you answer this question will greatly influence whether you will get the job or not, but also the salary itself if you get the job. So it is pretty important to know what to do in order to get what you want.

First, you shouldn’t be the one starting to talk about the salary. Especially not during the first interview! As in life, here timing is everything, that is, the right moment to talk about this topic. If you ask the question in the beginning, you leave the impression of a person whose only motive for coming was money and you will probably not get the job. Be patient.

If the employer asks „What kind of a salary do you expect?“ during the first interview, it is possible that he will use this question as eliminatory one. If you say the number which is higher than the one employer is ready to give or on the other hand, if you underestimate yourself, you will probably be eliminated. So in this case the best tactics is to try to postpone your answer until the position is offered to you. You should answer that you want to know more about the responsibilities on the workplace before talking about the salary.

The later in the selection process does the question come up, the better for you. This means you have the advantage and it is likely that the employer saw your qualities and he wants to hire you.

It is important to remember there is no need to negotiate the salary before the job is offered to you, but also you shouldn’t take the job before finding out your salary and what other benefits are included in the package.

The real answer about the salary question is actually the diplomatic avoiding of a specific answer which can be uncomfortable, so people don’t do it. In fact, that who says the first number is no longer in advantage…

Negotiating about the salary can take some time depending on the skills of those doing the negotiating and both the candidates and the interviewer. One of the things the candidate can do is not express his expectations until the very end. In this case both of the parties insist on their own positions. Studies show that during the interview it is important to „mirror“the person conducting the interview. What does that even mean? It seems that if the candidate mirrors the behavior of the interviewer, it is more likely the interviewer will feel more comfortable, which will contribute to the positive impression the interviewer will have of the candidate and set him apart from all the other and positively influence the decision on his employment. If we see persevering in the negotiations as mirroring the behavior of the interviewer, the analogy is clear.
However, there’s the danger that if we avoid to answer we will leave the impression that you are not capable of assessing your abilities which can negatively influence the final decision on employment.

The other possibility is that after gathering all the important information about all the aspect of the job you are applying to, you simply answer the question. Of course, never with the exact amount, but with a salary range. Try to assume the salary range considering what you know about the company, the average salary for that specific position and considering you personally (there is a difference if you are a trainee or you have work experience and if you are applying for a position with more responsibilities).

Before you get to the interview, do some research on the salary in the company you are going to have the interview in, on the salary in your industry and generally in the job you are applying to. You have to know how much the job is worth, but also how much you are worth. With these information you will you will know how to behave when you reach this topic.

Try to reach the top of the scope. List the arguments which you will justify this. After you have said what you want and expect from the employer, don’t add new demands. Do it once, because any additional demand will have a negative effect.
If the employer offers you a low salary, don’t take the job. It is possible that this offer is just a part of their strategy and if you immediately say yes, you shouldn’t expect a raise or promotion in the future. There is a chance that saying „no“to a low salary can get you a better offer. It is a risk, so if you really need the job, be careful!

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The job application is maybe set up for the worst possible candidate. In the “friend of a friend” cue, but as a rule, in successful companies and firms, such employing is avoided – because the company is making a big risk such a way!

Today it is very difficult to find a young person who hasn’t at least once, encountered these words after finishing their education: “Dear Sir/Madam, you were not chosen in the selection process for the job of… or “We chose someone else who we found was better suited for this workplace…”

These kinds of notifications are first and foremost unpleasant, because they imply that the particular candidate in not good enough. Beside, rejection letter is also a sign that another hope of employment (and solving existential problems) has died. In a capitalist society (whatever it is) the worker is the one selling his know-how, skills, abilities and experience to the employer, who then sells it further on (most commonly to the end user).

Bearing in mind the constant crisis and recession there are some aspects we should remember:

1. It is possible that the interviewer made a mistake, as it is possible that the psychological tests made wrong prognosis or a mistake in judgment was made on the basis of former employment, stereotypes and so on. Also, the candidate can also wrongly assess that the workplace will solve all of his problems…
2. It is possible that the company is not hiring the best candidate for the job, but rather the worker who will make the most money for the amount invested. In some cases this explains hiring interns, which are (according to the current laws) employed, but the state is paying for them.
3. Maybe you will work more than the company will be present on the market In other words, if a worker is entering the company which is already on shaky grounds, maybe he will be the first one to be laid off when the financial balance of the company diminishes according to the “last to come, first to leave” law. Hiring fast and laying people off fast is a great stress to the new worker. It is possible that the new employer (especially if he’s incompetent or prone to blaming others) will blame you as a newcomer for the bad condition of the organization.
4. Maybe the people working in the personnel department/HR department think of you as a good candidate, but not for the said job position. For example, they are looking for a person for the sales department, and they think that you are not used to work in unstructured situations. It is possible that they will think of you when they are looking for someone for accounting, for example.
5. Maybe it is the problem of “bad chemistry” – that you misunderstood each other in the interview. Or maybe, on the personal level which doesn’t have to have anything to do with professional communication, the communication between the interviewer and you “didn’t click”, unlike someone who maybe isn’t a strong as candidate as you, know-how and abilities-wise. Not getting ready enough or candidate’s mood during the interview also are in this sphere.
6. Maybe you are a good and nice team player, and you are applying to the company ruled by unwritten rules of competition where the desire to maintain good inter-personal relations is small or non-existent. Or the other way around.
7. Maybe this job is not for you, or not in the context the company is expecting you to perform it. Maybe there were things they didn’t tell you in the job interview or they told you indirectly that they expect you to perform your job contrary to your work ethics and profession. If you really love your profession this dilemma is not difficult to solve.
8. The job application is maybe set up for the worst possible candidate. In the “friend of a friend” cue, but as a rule, in successful companies and firms, such employing is avoided – because the company is making a big risk such a way! Firstly, because it hands out the better candidates for the position to the competition, and these candidates will do a better and more work for the same money (and we all know what this means in the market). Secondly, they are exposing themselves to a big risk that the candidate will not adapt to the workplace and will not perform well. According to current laws, such worker is hard to fire – he can “hide in the sick leave”, be in cahoots with the local politician, use mobbing to blackmail and so on. In this case the company has to hire an additional worker or settle with the stagnation and general decrease of atmosphere in the work environment, because the profit is being shared also between those who are contributing adequately. So, it is not necessary for you to think about the job position which was intended for someone else. If this really is the case, the firm will get what it deserves and without any emotions from you.

What next?

1. Get informed on test results and interviews. Maybe they will not be able to tell you anything specific, but maybe you will find out about some other options about other jobs with their business partners.
2. If it is necessary, cry and scream in your pillow– After this, burn this emotional bridge!
3. Job hunting continues! People with the best references don’t get the best jobs, but rather people that don’t give up on looking, who are informed and are active on job interviews. But, some people find it easier to become (or stay) passive!

Anyhow, there’s life even after work and after loosing employment, rejection letters and bad employers (I have experience with all of the above).

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The person reading a letter of recommendation sometimes doesn’t have a lot of time to read it. They will usually pay attention to relevance and credibility of the person writing the letter of recommendation, then the candidate’s qualities and general impression(…)… and if you don’t have anything good to say about the candidate, you should politely say no to writing the letter.

The most important aim of the letter of recommendation is to help the employer choose between the candidates or make it easier. Letters of recommendation differ in content and form, but they still have a couple of things in common. Here you can see the usual structure of a letter of recommendation.

Recommendation is (usually) written by a former employer, professor or mentor.

INTRODUCTION

In the beginning introduce yourself. Describe who you are, what is your relationship with the candidate and how long have you been working together. In the introduction you can also state you (general) opinion on the candidate.

THE BODY OF THE TEXT

After the introduction you should write about the candidate’s qualities. Start from the best one and confirm it with a specific example. Continue listing the candidate’s qualities and examples of those qualities.

CONCLUSION

In the conclusion you should state why you believe this candidate is a good choice for them. State how he could contribute to the company. Emphasize once again who you trust the candidate and his abilities.

At the very end offer your further assistance in the case that the person reading this letter of recommendation needs more information. Don’t forget to list you contacts in the letter – e-mail, phone number and address.

It is important to emphasize that it is not recommended to change the facts in the letter of recommendations. So, you should agree to writing the letter only if you know the person well enough to refer to their qualities in the professional environment. Writing a good and accurate letter of recommendation requires time and effort and the only „compensation“is getting recommendations from other people when you need it. Imagine you are in the place of the future employer and write what you think you could use in a letter of recommendation.

What to do before writing a letter of recommendation.

Before writing a letter of recommendation it is good to write down the words/phrases you could use in the recommendation. Sort them out in a couple of groups – according to categories:

• professional skills – is the candidate a good leader, a team player, analytical or a researcher? Is he accurate? Was he absent a lot from work in the past? Is he loyal to the organization he’s working for?;
• specific skills – does the candidate have communication skills? Can he work on computers? Can he speak a foreign language?;
• personal qualities – is the candidate pleasant, fun, does he get along with his colleagues?;
• accomplishments – list several of the most important accomplishments the candidate achieved while you supervised him;
• weaknesses – what should the candidate work on in the future?;
• future potential – how do you see the candidate in the future?

The person writing the letter of recommendation usually doesn’t have a lot of time.

What happens very often is that the people writing the recommendation do not want to lose time or they don’t know what to write, so it often happen that they suggest to the candidate to write the letter himself and in the end they just sign it. If you find yourself in such a situation, just think about how the letter of recommendation should have credibility and should represent your qualities objectively.

The person reading the letter of recommendation usually doesn’t have a lot of time.

The person reading a letter of recommendation sometimes doesn’t have a lot of time to read it. They will usually pay attention to relevance and credibility of the person writing the letter of recommendation, then the candidate’s qualities and general impression(…)… and if you don’t have anything good to say about the candidate, you should politely say no to writing the letter. It is in the best interest of the candidate, because this way you are giving him the opportunity to ask someone else who will maybe be able to say something good about the candidate.

Hand-written recommendations – not very professional.

Letters of recommendation should be typed, not hand-written. Hand-written letters of recommendation leave an impression that the person is not serious and unprofessional. But, don’t forget to sign the letter! Also, it would be good if it was printed on a paper with your company’s logo.

The length of the letter of recommendation.

The length of the letter of recommendation differs. It shouldn’t be too short because in that case it won’t present the candidate very good, but you also shouldn’t overdo it with a five-page letter. Choose your words, be concise – there’s no point in writing a novel.

Writing a letter of recommendation is a big responsibility because you can help someone get a job. If you take on this work, do it seriously and try to do it good.

Literature:

• The Internet

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If you don’t ask any questions, you leave an impression that you are the kind of person that doesn’t try. Or that you are not ambitious. You are saying that you haven’t prepared, that you are not very bright or that you are scared …

A typical job interview usually ends with the offer by the interviewer to answer some of your questions. When you find yourself in this situation, use it wisely.

Two of the most common mistakes that job candidates do is that they ask questions regarding salary or they do not ask questions at all.

Question about the salary should be left for the final selection, except if it is being posed by the employer himself! Otherwise, you can come off as a person who is interested only in money, which doesn’t make you look good. Of course, there are exceptions even among employers, so there are those employers who like to know what expenses they can count on at the very beginning.

If you don’t ask a question at the end of the interview, you leave the impression of a person who is not motivated or not ambitious. You are saying that you haven’t prepared for the interview, that you are not interested in the company, that you are scared, and sometimes employers can think that you are not very „sharp“(whatever that means!).

On the other hand, you can gain advantage if you use questions, because the employer is judging you through these questions, but you have to be careful. The questions you have learned by heart and that actually don’t interest you can bring more harm, than good! Because of this it is important to adjust the questions to the context and ask that which is really important and that interests you. Also, it is possible that the examiner counters with a question of his own in which he will ask you to explain why you are interested in the topic of the question, and then you should be ready – because if you ask the question just to leave a good impression, you won’t be able to manage.

There are no rules on the number of questions. Everything depends on what interests you. Maybe you will prepare 15 questions, but won’t have time to ask everything. That’s why you need to set your priorities and ask the most important things considering the context. If you are in the first round of the interviews, ask the basic information and when you are selected for the final circle you will get your chance to ask the rest.

What can happen sometimes is that you get an answer to your question just by talking to the employer. In case that happens, you can list what you wanted to know and how you got the answer. This way you are saying that you are patient and that you listen to what the employer is saying. If you didn’t understand something, kindly ask the interviewer to explain it to you-
It is always better to ask questions that require a longer answer, rather than the yes or no questions (closed-type).Open-type questions usually get a clear and longer answer.

If you don’t know what to ask, here you can read the examples you can use. Questions listed below can be used as guidelines in forming your own questions for the employers. Of course, you have to adjust them to your own situation – the job you do, the position you are applying for and the specific employer.

• When can I expect you will reach the decision on the employment?
• If you decide to hire me, when do you expect me to start working?
• Is it necessary for me to get some sort of training before I start working? If yes, what will this look like??
• Is there a probation period?
• What are the work hours? Is it usual to work overtime? Do you work on weekends?
• What is the possibility of getting to a higher position in your company?
• Who will I work with the most?
• Who will be my superior and what is his of her work mode?
• How many employees do you have and how many people are there in the team in which I would work in if you decide to hire me?
• What are the advantages and the disadvantages of your company/organization with regard to other companies?
• What is this company/organization’s plan for the next 5 years and how important is the department in which I would work in and the job position I applied for?
• What job you did in this organization did you enjoy the most? What don’t you like and what would you change?
• How would you describe the work atmosphere in your company?
• How will the reasonability I have and my performance be measured and who will do it? Are there already set evaluation criteria? How often are the employees criticized both formally and informally?
• What are the day-to-day obligations and responsibilities of this work position?
• Can you describe the way in which this organization is managed and what kind of employee would fit the organization the best?
• How would you describe your ideal employee?
• How would you describe the ideal employee for the work position I am applying for?
• Will I have to/be in the position to travel a lot if I get the job? Are business trips often a part of the job I am applying for?
• What is the organization policy regarding moving employees into other cities?
• What are some of the skills and abilities a person needs in order to be successful in this job position?
• What is the company policy regarding seminars, workshops and employee training? Do you do additional employee trainings?
• To what extent can an employee develop his or her personal goals with counseling and help?
• I read on your webpage that the team from this organization participated in XP seminar/conference/congress. I would like to know is that the usual policy in the job position I am applying to?

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It is used in all possible situations, especially before elections, during war and after hunting. It is also used in the procedure of staff selection.

What is lying? The answer to this question is: Directly and knowingly not saying the truth when answering the question. It is used in all possible situations, especially before elections, during war and after hunting (as Churchill said). It is also used in the procedure of staff selection and not only by the candidates (code: „everybody does it, especially now when there are no jobs), but also by the employers (code: „we make false promises“).

Lying pays off if no one discovers we lied and if no one suspect what we said wasn’t true and starts checking facts. When discovered, all of a sudden lying causes a lot of trouble, because employers need someone they can trust, while workers need someone they can trust – a boss they believe and they can rely on.
It is known that the „atmosphere of mutual trust“ contributes to a stabile work atmosphere, which consequently contributes to a smaller fluctuation of workers and a lower number of sick leave and „false sick leave“. Fluctuations, sick leave and false sick leave cost the employee a lot. Also, lying on the first interview can cost you advancing in your career and sometimes even lead to terminating the business cooperation. However, if the candidate who is applying for a job is applying for the position of a spokesman for a politician, maybe lying is a good recommendation?

Apart from the conversations, that you are lying can come out in the tests. Firstly, personality test results can differ from the results of the interview. Because in the personality tests there are control scales of giving socially acceptable answers, scales of saying only the best about yourself, scales of giving uncommon answers and so on.

If the cheater wants to do „a good job on the test“, he will have to be careful about the questions that can reveal his intentions. This will take more concentration, energy, time to answer the questions, and actually more imagination that the average person needs (when someone wants to cheat, they have to be imaginative!). All of this is very noticeable, and sometimes it becomes obvious – for example, in the whole room there is one candidate left who is thinking very hard about a personality test.

Nevertheless, let’s say this step has been successfully completed. The next thing the candidate faces is the interview. During the interview it is possible to determine, using some paralinguistic signs, which are the candidates weaknesses and why. To tell the truth, if something is the candidate’s weakness, this doesn’t mean that he is immediately lying and that he has bad intentions. Today in Croatia there are some „amazing“ employers about who we cannot say anything good, so in these circumstances the candidates will probably say a couple of polite sentences and seem insincere while doing this.

However, if identical, unconvincing and empty structures are used throughout the interview, the interview will start doubting. Specifically, this implies the following:

1. unusually long pauses while answering clear, direct and exact questions
2. using buzzword verbs „I think that“, „I believe that“ and the words „maybe“, „certainly“ and similar (talking without substance and repeating words which don’t mean anything the speaker is just trying to buy time to think)
3. a sudden stutter
4. leaving out key parts and over-using emotional words
5. jumping from topic to topic and using counter-questions
6. tension and getting angry when there is no reason for it
7. unnatural movements of the body and the face

If the potential liar has passed even this test, the next method is checking out facts. Every interviewer will write at least a couple of words on the candidate, and any kind of suspicious information (including letters of recommendation) can be verified, now easier than ever. Also, the interviewer can ask for additional information with which he will verify what the candidate claims.

Interviewer can confront the candidate, he can act that he’s hooked (thus the liar believes he can lie even more) and he can simply write a NO on the candidate’s CV, calmly end the conversation and leave the candidate thinking he made a great impression.

And after all of this, if the candidate really makes a good impression, it is possible that the company will recommend such for a similar job position in, for example, a business partner’s company. The opposite also applies, if we catch the candidate lying at the interview, his chances of getting a recommendation are getting smaller.

And if the liar passed even this, final step and got the job he wanted, I am not sure he will be satisfied on the given workplace, because people of such amazing skills are desperately looking (and paying very well) for a job in another place – Hollywood.

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Using traditional unstructured interview was called into question because if fails to predicts candidate’s abilities – the metric characteristics of these methods are rather low. In fact, it does not measure what it’s supposed to measure…

Interview is a form of conversation in which (at least two) people participate in verbal and non-verbal communication in order to reach a predestined goal.
Interview has been used for a long time for the selection purposes. You could say that it is the most popular and wide-spread selection method. When compared to other selection methods the interview serves to fill out the blanks left by information obtain from other sources, examines the physical characteristics and the way the person communicates (verbally and nonverbally). The interview is a means of attracting the candidates because it enables them to get information on the company.

In the selection process, the basic division is into the traditional unstructured interview and structured interview.

While the unstructured interview relies on the subjective impression the examiner gets on whether the candidate is suitable or not and on using closed or suggestive questions, the structured interview focuses on factors connected with work and implies open-ended questions. It is important to stress that in the case of the structured interview every candidate is asked the same question (which contributes to the fact that this kind of interview is more reliable than the traditional unstructured interview). This way we ensure the method is just, which protects the employers from lawsuits.

Using traditional unstructured interview was called into question because it fails to predict the candidate’s abilities – the metric characteristics of these methods are rather low. Actually, it doesn’t measure what it’s supposed to – does a candidate have the ability to perform a certain task. The structured interview’s metric characteristics are better and this is why it should be used (more often). Cooper and Robertson (2007.) claim that the usual validity coefficient is less than 0,2, while in the case of a structured interview it is 0,44. So, the validity of a structured interview is twice as high than the validity of an unstructured interview! Despite, the fact that the traditional interview is used to widely is surprising.

The advantage of a structured interview is that it is based on work analysis, so the questions are representative of work related behavior. The probability that the candidate will be discriminated is less (whether on the basis of race, sex or age). Also, the structured interview is less susceptible to interviewer’s bias such as:

• Fundamental attribution error (is the tendency to attribute the cause of a person’s behavior to that person as an individual, rather than to situational factors – for example, a candidate who is nervous during the interview we can, because of fundamental attribution error, see as a person who is usually nervous, and maybe the person is nervous simply because of the situation they are in);
• Premature judgment (forming opinion on the candidate before the interview or in the first couple of minutes of the interview);
• Emphasizing the negative (implies that the interviewer is more influenced by the negative information about the candidate);
• Not knowing enough about the workplace (the consequence is the wrong idea of the ideal worker, so the worker selected does not actually meet the criteria of the workplace in question).

Objective information gained through relevant questions lead to the increase of the validity of the interview, because the interviewer relies on them and so decreases the influence of above-mentioned bias. The influence of this bias is also possible to reduce by talking more to each candidate.

When creating a structured interview, besides the questions, we are also creating a key for evaluating behavior, in order to provide reliability and validity of the judgment of the candidates. So, without the key, there is usually no difference between the structured and unstructured interview.

Despite the standardization, leading the interview is an important skill of the person doing the employment. In order to improve the assessment of the interview, they have to be trained to do the interview. They should be trained “in observing, interpersonal relations, skills, judging skills, leading the interview and asking questions “(Cooper i Robertson, 2007.).

In short, the interview can be improved by educating the interviewer, using numeral assessments, writing notes and through more interviewers participating in the interview at the same time (Cook and Criormatipps, 2009.).

A couple of types of the structured interview have been developed and the most popular so far have been the situational interview and behavior description interviews (Cook and Cripps, 2009.).

In a special way the interview can contribute to decreasing costs because of a worker leaving the workplace. In fact, during the interview the candidate has the opportunity to ask what he wants to know about the organization and the very job he applied for. It is less likely that a well-informed candidate will leave the workplace after being hired, if he got information on the job before hand (Cooper and Robertson, 2007.). This is why it is recommended, at the end of the interview, to ask the candidate does he have any questions and to give him all the details on the job.

There are some “unacceptable” questions which cannot be asked in a job interview, which is determined in the Labour Act. In the article „Questions for the selection interview “in this webpage you can find the article of the Labour Law referring to this.

It is important to emphasize that is it not recommended to use the interview as the only selection method!! In fact, the more information on the candidate we get, the more likely it is we will make a good choice.

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…before there were no human resources departments in work organizations, but „personnel departments“ which were responsible for employment and salaries. However, today HR departments have more and more functions and are playing a bigger role…

Human resources (HR) is a term whose basic meaning in economy refers to manpower. In big organizations this term refers to individuals within a firm and their abilities, but also to a part of organization which deals with employment, laying-off staff, training and other staff-related work.

The employees are one of the company’s most important resources. Human resources are getting more and more important, so managing these resources is considered to be the main interest of the organization the managers in higher levels of the company deal with.

The term human resources is a relatively new one. In fact, there was a lot of controversy connected with its use. While those who criticize the term believe that it is degrading to people because is supposes they are equal to the object of management, those who are in favor of the term say this is signifying the end of the practice in which all other resources are more important than people. The term human resources is also getting a new meaning – it doesn’t only signify the employees, but also their overall potential.

Human resources see the employee as a valuable asset in the organization, and considering that its value is getting bigger as it develops, human resources departments are focused on growth and development of an individual’s potential and skills.

Human resources management is defined as a strategically coherent approach to managing the most valuable means in the organization – people working in it, in order to reach the organization’s goals. Managing human resources encompasses mutually connected activities out of which the most important ones are:

• Planning the job offers and looking for human resources,
• Work analysis,
• Recruiting potential job candidates,
• Selection of the candidates who applied for the job,
• Socializing new employees,
• Training and development of the employees,
• Managing performance and behavior,
• Motivating employees,
• Abiding to the law,
• Lay-offs.

The human resources department or an external partner – a firm dealing with human resources can oversee the implementation of these processes. If these processes are implemented efficiently they can significantly influence the financial gain of the organization.

The main characteristics of the human resources approach are seeing employees as a means in which one should invest and seeing human resources as a means of succeeding through employees.

There are two different approaches to human resources that stand out – hard and soft human resources managing.

According to Cook and Cripps (2009.) hard managing tries to maximize productivity and profit and sees the worker are a resource, and the managers are primarily responsible for their partners, while soft human resources management is open towards the growth of the employees, does not lean towards lay-offs (except in extreme conditions) and takes into consideration the employees’ interests.
The point is that while they are making an assessment on awarding someone of giving someone a promotion, in the case of hard human resources management the best worker will be given a bonus, but in the case of soft human resources management sometimes a worker who is not the best could be the one selected hoping that he will improve his abilities (in the near future).

Today the situation is such that more and more organizations are using the hard method, especially when privately-owned business are concerned, while the state-owned companies use the soft approach more.

It is important to emphasize that, until recently, in firms there were no human resources departments, but rather „personnel departments“ which dealt mostly with employment and salaries. However, HR departments are having more and more functions and they play a significantly more important role that the case was with the personnel department.

Companies that in the future will not invest in the human resources departments, and by that in the employees’ potential, will not be able to compete with other firms in the market. Actually, investing in human resources is more cost-effective than investing in any other resources.

Literature:

• Cook, M. & Cripps, B. (2009)
• Wikipedia

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Many legends have been told about personality tests – from the one about it being able to read every person to that one about being able to lie and cheat on these tests …

vDuring their lifetime a large number of employees encounter the procedure of psychological testing, and this procedure usually consists of three parts: test(s) of intellectual ability, personality test(s) and a shorter or longer conversation with a psychologist.

When intellectual abilities are concerned, for adults they are defined as relatively permanent abilities of understanding new situations, unknown to the individual and characteristics of solving problems in a new situation.

There are no methods which can augment a person’s intellectual abilities, but there are strategies that can help every person to get a result according to his or her abilities.

First and foremost, you should come to the test well-rested. The first part of sleeping period helps our brain rest and the second part helps our memory and studying. If a candidate comes to the testing sleepy, there are bigger chances of not understanding the instructions and tests assignments. Memory is not only long-term remembering, but it also implies sensory (up to 2 second) and short-term memory (up to a couple of days). Without a good memory, you will have difficulties doing good on the test, that is, the result of the test will probably not represent the intelligence accurately.

Be careful with medications! Certain medications can have side-effects such as sleepiness, irritability, troubles concentrating, slowing down you psychomotor skills. You should definitely consult your doctor about taking these drugs!

Test anxiety is welcome. The average man (especially if this is a selection process for a job) feels nervous and this is a good thing. This means he cares to make a good impression and that he took the testing seriously. However, it is not good to be extremely anxious, but there are techniques and methods with which you can reduce anxiety to a tolerable level (for example, relaxation techniques). You shouldn’t take tranquilizers and various anxiolytic without consulting your doctor. Most of these pills do help your anxiety, but also slow down the thinking process and problem solving process. When alcohol is concerned, all has already been said – alcohol also affects our clarity and gives a false sense of safety and at the same time slows down the normal cerebellum functions (it is where the movement control centers are). Alcohol is an anxiolytic (reduces anxiety), but it will definitely not help you get a good score on the tests, actually quite the opposite.

Besides, if the candidate needs something like this while doing the tests, the question is how anxious will the candidate be at the very workplace, when the going really gets tough?

Personality tests have been the topic of most folk legends – from the one about it being able to read every person to that one about being able to lie and cheat on these tests. Generally, there are no right and wrong answers on a personality test, but rather a corresponding profile is modeled on the tendency of answering the questions.

Every personality test is well-tested with complicated mathematical-statistical procedures and only after it is „tested on people“.

Is it possible to lie on personality tests? Of course it is, but, the chances that a perpetrator of something like this can get „caught“are getting bigger. One of the methods is observing the behavior of the candidate during the testing itself (manipulators, whether they want it or not, think „very much“ during the testing) and the other method is applying control scales in the test itself. There are the following control scales: the scale of giving socially acceptable answers (also called „the lying scale“), the scale of describing yourselves in superlatives, the probability scale of answering the questions randomly, scale of preferences by answering YES o NO…

In short, it is advised to answer the personality tests honestly and with self-criticism, with careful consideration of the key words in these questions: always, ever, never, often, generally, in principle. In these questions „always“means – really always, „never“means – really never.

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According to latest studies, the first impression in made in 3 to 7 seconds. It takes that much time for some employers to decide whether to hire you or not. The remaining 20 minutes of the conversation is for confirming the first impression! This is the reason we insist on testing!

Prompted by many questions sent to www.selekcija.hr I will try to see this, in many aspects strenuous and painful (for the candidates) and demanding and expensive (for the employers) process from two perspectives (one of a psychologist who is doing the staff selection, but also of a candidate in the selection process).

Further on, based on my expert experience in candidate selection, I will try to explain to the candidates – competitors, how and why we choose certain candidates, and others not.

Namely, lately I have been getting a lot of e-mails from people who feel bad because they went through a couple of selection processes (or just testing) in smaller companies, but also in bigger ones in Croatia and who want to know what to do so that the same thing doesn’t happen again, so, to take the test, fail it, expect the answer they never get and feel bad again.

A question arises: why am I answering candidates that were tested by someone else? Well, here are a couple of answers:

1. As a psychologist I am becoming more and more aware that young people, after going through numerous selection processes, have their self-confidence shattered and they don’t believe in their own abilities and the need for help from an expert or support is often emphasized.
2. As a person or a candidate in the selection process, I know how I felt (in that role) and I didn’t look for an answer because I was angry, afraid, sad, vain or something else.
3. As an entrepreneur/expert who is thinking about his work in the future I know it is important to answer every inquiry and show respect to people who are trying to find an answer, but not succeeding in it.

Questions we received at www.selekcija.hr are as follows:

1. How can I get selection tests and other variations on this question, for example
   • Could you, please, send me the tests on the following address …
   • I’m working on my MA thesis, so I would kindly ask you to send me all the tests …
   • Send me the tests, I will pay for them …
2. How is it possible they did not send me the results of the tests?
3. Is it possible they use these kinds of tests for this position?
4. They didn’t give me anything to sign, how will I know where my results are going?
5. Why aren’t they telling me anything?
6. I’m sick of everything, I keep getting rejection letters and I feel bad, what am I suppose to do?
7. Could you send me a test or a questionnaire so I could select a good candidate for a school psychologist position?
8. Do you have some tests on which I can practice, I need it for work?
9. If I failed the test, what does that mean? That I’m not very intelligent?
10. Dear Sir, can I order the tests for a certain work? Also, I am also interested in the technique of conducting the tests and analyzing results.
11. I have a degree from Law school and I applied for a job of a legal assistant in a company. I am interested in what type of test are conducted at such occasions, I heard they are personality tests and IQ tests, but I want to know something more about this.

In the previously listed questions we can see insecurity, uncertainty, need for control, fear of failure, hopelessness, sadness and disappointment. I answered all of these questions, sometimes even with a long e-mail, but usually like this:

• I apologized because I am obliged by law to keep the tests a secret,
• Alongside support because of disappointment or sadness I recommended some sort of counseling,
• I expressed my support to colleagues who did the test and explained the procedure,
• I expressed my support for the candidates because of the medieval selection methods they (unfortunately) participated in …

I would like to use this opportunity to ask other HR experts who are taking part in the selection processes, to use their answers to help candidates who are feeling confused and sad and don’t trust themselves, because this sometimes leads to depression!

You have to know the following on selecting the candidates:

1. According to latest studies, the first impression in made in 3 to 7 seconds. It takes that much time for some employers to decide whether to hire you or not. The remaining 20 minutes of the conversation is for confirming the first impression! This is the reason we insist on testing!
2. Every day I test from ten to twenty people. And every day there are times when I make a mistake in assessing the abilities of certain people. And I believe I am one of the best people in my line of business! This is the reason I find funny employers who believe they can assess the intelligence (for example, of their candidates) who make mistakes according to their assessments. And you think you’re not smart enough?
3. A great number of employers finished the interview in 2 to 3 minutes, because they don’t know what to ask their candidates or they don’t know how to conduct an interview! Not because they competently assessed that you are not fit for the job position! Sometimes all the employers know is that they need a good worker, but the often don’t know how to define one!
4. A large number of employers finish the interview in 2 to 3 minutes, because they have extremely conservative or rigid attitudes or beliefs.
   For example, one of the employers automatically dismissed all the candidates whose CVs were not aligned, because for him this was a reflection of the candidates’ untidiness! One of employers dismissed female candidates with long finger nails and other male candidates with long hair!
5. Most of the employers select the candidates based on their own preferences – having nothing to do with professional assessments, but rather with personal experiences and defined patterns of people they knew in life… So, what often happens is that you get dismissed because (unconsciously) in you they recognize a person they had unpleasant experiences with or they don’t trust.
6. Sometimes employers ask pointless questions having nothing to do with a quality assessments and the candidates believe there is something important in this! Catch 22?!
7. There was a case when selekcija.hr was hired in order to cover up (political) connections in the employment. Unfortunately, we only found out about this after doing our job and recommending the most suitable candidates, who, of course, were not accepted! A bad feeling.
8. Sometimes genius people (both intelligent and with amazing personality traits) apply for the job, but they are completely not motivated for the job they applied for. They want this position because they believe they can overcome the current state of affairs, while they actually want something better/more. This can be easily spotted. And every time a contract is terminated (no matter who initiated it) the employer loses money, so we cannot play with it… we have to be serious. – both parties have to!
9. Sometimes genius people (both intelligent and with amazing personality traits) apply for the job, but they are not prepared for the interview at all. It is very important to get all the information on the company and work place, to know how to present yourself – both verbally and nonverbally. …
10. Sometimes people who are perfect in every way apply for the job, but they don’t know how to use the computer and the Internet! Even in this day and age? Yes.
11. Sometimes quality people apply for the job, but they are simply not fit for that specific position. I know that later they are mad, sad, they regret and complain, but that decisions was made for their own good, which probably sounds completely absurd to them while they are reading the rejection letter!

For example, one extremely extraverted candidate (person focused onto company and who easily approaches people he doesn’t know, a person who likes to be the centre of attention) applied for a position where he would have to spend 10 days in the office, with a huge stack of files, alone! But he was extremely intelligent!

How explain to such a man that he cannot get the job – but that he should be persistent and that he will find a suitable workplace!? How would you explain to a person who is nice and smart that he would simply burn out at a job without people who are extremely important to him (because of his personality)? How to explain this? Because, whatever you say to them the seed of doubt remains, not trusting your own abilities remains, sadness, disappointment…

Take me as an example, I (at the beginning of my career) was angry and sad, I even sent a complaint to one company where a person got the job because of connections, and now, after a lot of time, I am grateful I didn’t get that job! By the way, a colleague who is working there is burning out on the job, talks about mobbing, sick competition within the company and so on.

I had a similar experience with two other job positions I applied for and got into the inner circle and now I am happy I didn’t get the job, because of the life I had, the job I created and which I enjoy and in which I thrive. Or to put it simply: „Every cloud has a silver lining…“

At the end of this post, if you are unemployed, with all my heart I wish that you quickly find a good job in which your potential will be set free, which will make you happy and in which you will thrive professionally.

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…cognitive test give information on what people can do, and personality test tell us what people want to do …

In the practice of selection cognitive tests and personality tests are most commonly used. Using cognitive test psychologists test the intelligence – whether it is general, or its factors (for example, spatial, verbal, numerical). With personality test we test how a person behaves in a certain situation.

In the 1980’s American military services examines the process of selection within the framework of the biggest and most expensive research on this topic. The results showed that cognitive tests give us information on what people can do, and personality test show what people will do (Cook and Cripps 2009).

Cognitive tests can be divided into general cognitive ability tests and specific ability tests. This group of tests is good at predicting work efficiency and is thus used regularly in the selection process.

General cognitive ability test can almost always be included into the selection process. The application is fast and simple, and analyzing the results easy. Type of questions are usually logical reasoning, finding out the rule behind the sequence, finding out differences and similarities. This type of tests is best at predicting whether the person will be successful at the workplace where the tasks cannot be performed routinely, but rather where one needs to adjust to new tasks all the time. But, there are exceptions in the application of this type of cognitive test. It’s in the case when all the candidates’ abilities are similar (for example, all the candidates have advanced vocational training), so this type of test actually does not have any value.

Also, when there is the chance of a person being biased towards an ethnic group or other sub-group of the population, general cognitive ability test is not the best solution. Actually, studies show that people from certain minorities got lower scores on these types of tests. This is also the case with people from certain socio-economical groups (according to Cooper and Robertson, 2007). However, it is important to emphasize the following – despite the possible unfavorable effect of the test to some groups of people, the test is fair if it predicts job performance of all the groups the same.

Examples of specific ability tests are tests that measure perceptive, spatial, verbal and numerical factors. The test measuring the perceptive factor refers to the measure of the ability to quickly and accurately identify a shape. The test measuring the spatial factor refers to measuring the ability to depict and envisaging the layout of a certain area and objects in 2 or 3 dimensions. Numerical tests measure the ability to perform simple numerical operations which do not require thinking and the verbal ones measure the scope of one’s vocabulary and the identification of antonyms and synonyms.

The “popular” bias of specific tests refer to sex. Everybody knows that the results women get are in average higher on those tests measuring verbal skills, while the results men get are higher on those measuring spatial skills. Even the titles of various books on the differences between sexes talk about his (for example: „Why men don’t listen and women cannot read maps? “). We have to emphasize that the fact that women get higher scores at verbal tests and men at spatial tests does not mean that all women are better at verbal skills and all men are better at spatial skills. The distribution of results for every sex are overlapping and a man’s above-average result measuring verbal factor is far better than an average result by a woman on such a test.

It is true that cognitive abilities are extremely important, but not good enough for job efficiency. Terman’s study refers to the connection of intelligence and efficacy in life in general. He and his associates observed 1500 children whose IQ was over 140 and studied them for 40 years. The study showed that, when the children from the group grew up, although they were superior when looking at the average, not everyone succeeded in life, because of differences in personality, motivation and social adjustment. This study showed exactly how important personality is.

There are many personality tests, but a few of them are created to be applied in the area of organizational psychology. Also, there are different ways of assessing personality and the most popular ones are questionnaires and they are used in selection process. A questionnaire comprises of questions or claims on thoughts, feeling and behavior.

Personality questionnaires can be a source of important information on job candidates, but a person who uses them should have the necessary knowledge on the job position the candidates are applying to. It is good to base the knowledge on work analysis (on which you can read more in the article “Work analysis“ on this webpage). Without a clear idea on the demands of the position and what kind of traits does the candidate have to possess in order to meet the demands, using personality tests with selection purposes loses its meaning. So, using personality tests uncritically with the premise that this way we will discover some important information on the potential employer does not contribute to choosing the best person for the job and is a waste of time.

Further on, a psychologist who is using a personality test must use the manual for the test. Test manuals comprise of data how the test was developed, how to use it, they have the exact instructions to give the candidates before starting to fill out the questionnaire, instructions on how to test the questionnaire and other data needed for interpretation of results. Using manuals is not limited only to personality test, but it is also necessary to use manuals no matter what kind of psychological test you use. According to this, the same can apply to using cognitive tests.

Different personality theories talk about different number of personality traits. Currently the Big Five model is the most accurate representation of personality traits. According to this model there are 5 main personality traits – extraversion, neuroticism, conscientiousness, openness to experiences and agreeableness and studies show that conscientiousness usually predicts job performance the best. Other 4 traits mentioned generally do not predict job performance, but they can help us predict how successful will people be in certain professions. So agreeableness and openness to experiences are better at predicting how one will be successful at service activities and extraversion in management and sales. Low neuroticism, that is emotional stability predicts successfulness in police and manual labor. (Cook and Cripps 2009).

Personality questionnaires are limited when it comes to predicting job performance. They are better at predicting other aspects of work behavior, for example perseverance (Cook and Cripps 2009). But, sometimes this is exactly what the employer needs. In fact, the costs of hiring a worker are pretty high. The whole selection process costs as the eventual training of the hired candidate. The point is that it is not worth to the employer to hire someone just because this person got the best score at the cognitive ability test, if this candidate probably won’t stay at that job. That’s the reason the employer is looking for an employee who suits him the best with his personality. The costs the employer has to pay for the employee who will not stay at the job can exceed the profit made from high work efficiency in a short time period.

The problem with the personality tests lies in cheating. In fact, the answers can be false. It is logical that a person wants to, through the selection process, make themselves look the best in order to get the job. The solution to this problem lies in making scales to find out if a person is lying which are a component of most of the personality tests. So, this is a recommendation to all, be honest while filling out a personality test because it is possible that you will not get a job because you cheated! There’s another problem connected with personality tests – even if the candidate is not honest, it is questionable how well he or she knows themselves.

Considering the fact that the psychological tests with their numerous qualities also have good traits, it is not good to base your selection decisions only on the test results! In practice this is not done!! Psychological testing is usually conducted alongside an interview.

In the end it is important to emphasize that the psychologist’s professional ethics commits him to keep the results of test a secret. This means that after a test psychologist must not tell his colleagues, boss or manager what result did a candidate get on a cognitive test and what the candidate’s IQ is or discuss how the candidate answered a particular question in the test. A psychologist gives his opinion in a form of a report at the very end of a selection process. The psychologist keeps the test through a certain time period and the test is kept in a locked place, so unauthorized people cannot see it.

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Work analysis is important in the selection because we need to know what specific features of the performer are responsible for a successful performance of a certain work. When we know what these features are, we can measure them. After conducting the work analysis we an get answers to those questions, but also to questions regarding tasks, responsibilities, functions and context in which the job has been done.

Work analysis is the description and list of information about the work and the worker. About what does the worker has to do and how, in what conditions and what are the features, abilities and skills without which the job cannot be performed. Apart from professional selection, work analysis is important in other various processes:

• Assessing job performance
• Determining the salary
• Programming work protection
• Improving work efficiency
• Education and professional development

If there is not a documented work analysis in the work organization, in the beginning it is necessary to determine the sample of the main tasks in order for the organization to be successful (according to: Bahtijarević – Šiber: Management ljudskih potencijala) and to start the analysis with these tasks. This shouldn’t be over until we have not finished analyzing all, or at least the majority, of the tasks in a work organization.

Hawthorne effect got its name according to the research conducted in the Hawthorne Works (Western Electric) in Illinois, in the period from 1924 to 1933. The aim of the research was to determine how work efficiency factors which were known and well-researched by then, effect worker productivity. However, research results obtained were unexpected – the test subjects’ behavior and their work efficiency were changed by the very notion they are participating in the experiment, regardless of the variations in the factors of work efficiency!

Data for the analysis can be gathered by various methods. We will list four which are the most used ones. They are:

1. Method of observing the workers during work
2. Method of systematic interviews
3. Method of collecting data via questioners
4. Method of analyzing the documents available

Method of observing the workers is a simple method, however, it is not recommended for inexperienced observers, because they can overestimate or underestimate some aspects of the work observed. Also, it is probable that the „Hawthorne effect“ will appear. When using this method it is important to get familiar with the work observed, to explain the intentions to the workers, to act discretely, be sensitive to subjectivity when interpreting results, make notes and observe repeatedly.

Method of systematic interviews. Interview is conducted with a worker, but also with people who are his superiors (bosses), HR experts, technologists, his instructors and mentors, that is, with all who are familiar with the work analyzed. The interviews can be individual, group, more or less structured and open.

Method of collecting data via questioners. This method is considered to be the fastest, most efficient and most commonly used method in work analysis. The questioners can consist from question with given answers (closed-ended type of questions) and questions in which the respondent formulates the answers on the specified place (open-ended type).Use is simple and takes the least time in relations to other methods, however, the construction of the questionnaire and the data processing and results interpretation require additional experience and knowledge.

Method of analyzing the documents available. This method refers to the analysis of all documented and available work activities, injuries, treatments and previous analyses.

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Read more at http://dash.harvard.edu/bitstream/handle/1/11189976/dunn,%20aknin,%20norton_prosocial_cdips.pdf?sequence=1

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In one scene of the movie „To kill a mockingbird“ the character of Atticus Finch played by Gregory Peck turns to little Scott and says:

If you learn one single trick, Scott, you’ll get along a lot better with all kinds of folks. You never really understand a person until you consider things from his point of view – until you climb into his skin and walk around in it …

No one can object to the previous claim – it is the basis of empathy, emotional and social intelligence, business and general success in life. And accordingly we will try to climb into the skin of experts whose main task is finding staff, so called head hunters and walk around in it!

The job of a head hunter is comprised of the following:

• Searching: If there are no positions to be filled, a head hunter has nothing to do. So, for a head hunter the most important thing is to keep a constant flow by various forms of marketing, lobbying, random calls to potential clients, servicing and marinating contacts with current clients, recommendations and advertising.
• Candidates: A head hunter has to make contacts and search for quality workers all the time in order to fill their client’s (employer’s) job positions or in order to maintain his CV databases/candidates. It’s important to keep things flowing. No matter if the candidates are looking for information through the Internet, newspaper, recommendations or through calls to professionals who are already employed. A successful head hunter is constantly updating his candidate database, connections and CVs.
• Connecting the candidates with the employee: Only the most suitable candidates (2 or 3 candidates) who have been thoroughly checked, tested and which are believed to efficiently fill the position are steered towards the employers. By this time both parties are already interested, both the candidate and the employer (or the HR department manager in the company which hired the head hunter). Some head hunters additionally prepare their candidates for the interview, especially if they believe that the candidates themselves during the interview will not be able to emphasize their advantages enough without the help of a head hunter.
• Employment:  Putting the right person in the right position and at the same time making money, with the both parties satisfied is the peak of business success in staff recruitment. It is the final, magical moment in which everything fits into place… As in happy relationships which end in marriage, in the staff recruitment process everything ends in employment. However, this in not always the case because, unlike marriage, the candidate and the company are not obliged to spend their whole lives together. Employment process is sometimes not so „magical“and the staff recruitment expert is expected to be an experienced go-between with exceptional communication skills and psychological consultation. Finishing the employment and sealing the deal are the main activities in staff recruitment, but it often depends on previous steps which have to be done perfectly: marketing, looking for candidates, directing and counseling the candidates and social and negotiation skills of the head hunter.

The head hunter’s networking is also very important because head hunters cannot always rely on their candidate databases, nor can they influence the demand and supply. In their databases they do not always have the right candidate, so head hunters often talk among themselves, exchange candidates and share commission.

To put it in simpler terms, the success of a head hunter does not depend solely on the personal activity (getting, searching, finding, testing and selection of the staff), but it rather increases exponentially with the amount of networking which the head hunter does in the bigger part of his time.

People often give up on the head hunting job even before they try to understand the basic work tasks, because they often think that the process of finding staff is extremely precarious, and sometimes not in their control, but rather under the control of some weird force. People get discouraged when the employment backfires because of unknown or incomprehensible reasons. However, the truth is that employment happens, from one day to the other.

According to the introduction to this text, the candidates who are interested in the job should understand the way the head hunting agencies work, so they can choose the best strategy, infiltrate the recruiting system and stress their own advantages. They also have to bear in mind that head hunters are also stressed because of constantly searching, updating their databases, business meetings and numerous consultations with clients. So, you should make them interested in you discreetly!

According to Darrella W. Gurneya text:  „A Day in the Life of a Headhunter“

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