Hiring decisions are about finding the people who will be a good fit with the job and the organization. The organization’s decisions about selecting personnel are central to its ability to survive, adapt, and grow. Selection decisions become especially critical when organizations face tight labor markets or must compete for talent with other organizations in the same industry. There are ways for organizations to minimize errors in employee selection and placement.

Through personnel selection, organizations make decisions about who will or will not be invited to join the organization. Selection begins with the candidates identified through recruitment and with attempts to reduce their number to the individuals best qualified to perform the available jobs. Supervisors and team members often are involved in the interview stage of the process and select a person to receive a job offer. In some cases, the candidate may negotiate with the organization regarding salary and benefits.

If the candidate accepts the job, the organization places him or her in that job. The ease of applying online has made this processing overwhelming for many recruiters. A simple job posting online could generate hundreds of résumés in one day. A well-designed applicant tracking system provides the ability to receive applications, initiate background checks, coordinate interview schedules, and maintain all candidate documents in one place.

A strategic approach to selection requires ways to measure the effectiveness of selection tools. From science, we have basic standards that the method provides reliable and valid information. The reliability of a type of measurement indicates how free that measurement is from random error. A reliable measurement therefore generates consistent results. For a selection measure, validity describes the extent to which performance on the measure (such as a test score) is related to what the measure is designed to assess (such as job performance).

One way to determine whether a measure is valid is to compare many people’s scores on that measure with their job performance. Another consideration is the cost of using the selection method. Selection procedures such as testing and interviewing cost money. They should cost significantly less than the benefits of hiring the new employees.