There is a variety of different methods of selecting the best candidates to hire. Among them there are clinical prediction, unit weighing, rational weighing and multiple hurdle selection procedure. Tanglewood leaders are searching for the optimized ways to reduce the costs of the recruitment and selection procedures and this is why they need alternative ways of evaluation of the applicants that will help them reduce the number of candidates for the future interview.
Currently, there are ten potential candidates in the list. Each of them have a set of scores based on their performance during the Marshfield Applicant Examination, biographical data, personality and retail knowledge tests and resumes. Their scores have been evaluated based on clinical prediction, unit weighing and rational weighing. Applying the first method I relied on the personal intuition and my choice of the three leading candidates includes Maxine Renoir, Bruce Binghome and Jane Heckman. Evaluating the candidates I tried to prioritize such predictors as biographical data and knowledge of retail, so the candidates with the highest scores in these areas were selected as the leaders.
Unit weighing method showed slightly different results. This method works by means of total score calculation so all of the points the applicants scored need to be added together and the leaders are determined based on the final figures. This way, unit figures showed that the three leading candidates are Jane Heckman with 380 points, Thomas Reznor with 365 points and Maxine Renoir with 350 points. Further, in order to conduct rational weighing procedure I had to determine the individual value for each of the predictors. For that I used the corporate and managerial average data for each of the markers.
Based on the calculations according to the formula of rational weighing the three leading applicants are Jane Heckman, Thomas Reznor and Shauna Greer. Analyzing the results of all the three methods it is easy to notice that Jane Heckman is among the three leaders in each of the lists. At the same time, multiple hurdle selection procedure first filters the candidates based on their test scores and then evaluates the resumes and interviews with five strongest leaders. According to the test scores Jane Heckman does not make it to the leading five, but the other strong candidates such as Thomas Reznor and Maxine Renoir do.
This way, it becomes difficult to establish the most suitable of the four selection methods. In my opinion, the method that works best and provides the most objective results is rational weighing. This method was chosen first of all, because clinical prediction is extremely subjective and the selection of the leading candidates may vary depending on the manager involved into the recruitment procedure (Heneman III, Judge and Kammeyer-Mueller 552).
Secondly, unit weighing is based on total score of the applicants’ points which again is not reliable enough due to the fact that less important markers can compensate for the candidate’s low scores in more valuable areas. Finally, test score is too general and can hardly be used as the first filter to select candidates. At the same time, rational weighting covers the widest amount of data and predictors and is flexible based on the importance and value of each of the predictors. Based on this, I believe that rational weighting is the most reliable way to evaluate the candidates in order to select persons who are the most suitable for Tanglewood.
The current method for selection the candidates to fill in the managerial positions at Tanglewood consists of two stages, this process bears some resemblance to the process for hiring store associates, but is held at a higher level, of course (Tanglewood Case Seven: Selection Decision Making 2). The managers of Tanglewood are working on the improvements of their recruiting procedures. Since interviews are rather expensive in terms of staff time, the company is looking for the ways to minimize the number of candidates to interview based on the collection of data concerning their knowledge of retail, resumes, Marshfield Applicant Exam, biographical data and personality tests.
The data provided by all of these means is sufficient for the managers to conduct valid and objective evaluation of the candidates prior to interviewing them. The knowledge of retail, the scores of Mashfield Applicant examination and biographical data can be easily measured based on the features most wanted in the potential candidates. Resumes can be scored based on experience and education check of the candidates. As a result a set of variables can be worked out to conduct rational weighting of the applicants scores.
This way, the official guide for the recruitment team needs to include Marshfield Applicant examination, retail knowledge test, personality test, resumes and biographical data collection. This will be the first step. For the second step the recruitment team will have to conduct rational weighting of the scores of each applicant. In order to determine the value of each predictor the recruiters will have to take managerial and corporate average scores of Tanglewood professionals. The recruiters will multiply the scores of each applicant within every predictor by the value of this predictor and then add all of the scores together.
This will allow the recruiters to obtain more objective scores for each of the candidates. By means of comparing the final scores the team of the decision makers will be able to determine the best candidates who showed the highest results. Besides, to make the procedure less mechanical the team of recruiters will provide clinical prediction for the employees based on personal impression. The results of the two methods need to be synthesized in order to determine the leading applicants. After that the recruiters may proceed with the interviews. The process of interviewing of the candidates will be based on a number of behavioral and situational questions targeting specific KSAOs required for the positions.
Besides, since the position the leaders of Tanglewood are trying to fill in is so important, it is vital to pay attention to the resumes of the applicants and evaluate their previous experience. Even though some of the candidates were selected externally based on referrals, Tanglewood needs to remember the importance of the knowledge of the internal organizational culture. The managerial positions at Tanglewood need to be given to the individuals who have previous experience of working in the company. This is why the candidates with Tanglewood background would have better scores. Besides, the three of the candidates who stood out based on the scores of clinical prediction, unit weighting and rational weighting conducted by me (Jane Heckman, Thomas Reznor and Maxine Renior) have years of experience of working at Tanglewood and occupying managerial positions such as Store Manager, Department Manager, and Assistant Manager.
Works Cited
Heneman III, Herbert, Timothy Judge and John Kammeyer-Mueller. Staffing Organizations. 8th ed.New York, New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2012. Print.