The 10 Most Effective Selection Methods

Unpacking selection methods that you can use in the hiring process to make candidate selection bias-free, less time-consuming, and more aligned with your company culture and goals.

What is Selection?

The process of finding the best suited candidate for a role. The steps you follow depend on the role, your budget, the seniority of the position, available resources, and business needs. Rather than relying on one method, your selection methods should be combined to accurately predict job success and cultural fit.

1. COGNITIVE ABILITY

Cognitive ability is the number one predictor of job performance across all employment levels and industries. Cognitive ability assessments are a form of psychometric testing used to evaluate how well candidates use a wide range of mental processes, such as working with numbers, abstract thinking, problem-solving, reading comprehension, and learning agility.

2. LEARNING AGILITY

“The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn and relearn.”- Alvin Toffler

Learning agility is the ability to be in a new situation, not know how to handle it, and then figure it out anyway. An agile learner can apply his or her past learnings to new scenarios that they have yet to experience.

3. SITUATIONAL JUDGEMENT TESTS

An SJT presents a candidates with scenarios they might experience in a role. These tests assess how well an applicant prioritises client inquiries, follows instructions, and handle situations in the workplace. They’re highly predictive of job performance and culture fit and can provide candidates with a realistic job preview early on in the application process.

4. INTEGRITY

Employee integrity tests allow you to collect insights into candidates’ honesty, dependability, trustworthiness, credibility, values and work ethic. Of all organisations that use some kind of pre-employment testing 24% use integrity tests. Companies viewed as having Integrity are seen as more credible to investors, clients and employees.

5. TEST JOB SKILLS

Does the candidate have the actual knowledge needed to do the job in question? While most of the time that knowledge can be learned on the job and other factors are more important, there are certain roles that require applicants to possess specific job knowledge and skills already.

6. SIMULATIONS & ROLE-PLAYS

See candidates’ hard and soft skills in action. Role plays and simulation exercises help the assessors accurately assess how candidates would perform in everyday business activities. These exercises simulate work-related tasks in a business environment, allowing the candidates to demonstrate their aptitude related to the requirements of the job.

7. PERSONALITY AND EQ

60-70% of employers use pre-employment personality testing to vet job applicants and recruit the right fit- Forbes. Organisations are increasingly embracing personality and EQ assessments to make hiring decisions as they help build top-quality teams, inform recruiters about an individual’s personality traits, motivation, values and work preferences for a specific job role, ensuring they are the right fit.

8. CONDUCT PEER INTERVIEWS

It’s always a good idea to involve the team you’re hiring for, as they know the day-to-day responsibilities and current skills gaps better than anyone else. Peer interviewing helps ensure that you remain objective in your hiring efforts, as well as on the same page as the hiring manager and internal team.

9. REFERENCES AND BACKGROUND CHECKS

Reference checks are more than just a formality, they reveal valuable insights that help you identify top candidates and better understand your applicant. Checking references and doing background checks like criminal checks and qualification verifications allows you to find out more about candidates and how they work and can bring red flags to light before you make your employee selection.

10. AN HOLISTIC APPROACH

Combine all the tools available to you. An Holistic Selection process is the most fool-proof way to ensure you select the best, competent employees who will perform, stay longer and fit in with your company values.

Encapsulate which means “to express the essential features of (something) succinctly”, was founded with the vision to partner businesses to make informed recruitment decisions by knowing the essential features of a job applicant. We aim to encapsulate various measures of the head, hands and heart utilising scientifically proven tools to give our clients a clear understanding of who they are employing.

www.encapsulate.co.za