Practical Steps to Employee Selection.

Practical Steps to Employee Selection | While keeping within the law, who an employer hires is pretty much her determination--but one that ought not be taken casually. Hiring the right person for the job may be the most critical management decision you will make. Consider the farm manager who lost $80,000 in alfalfa. He had trusted an employee who claimed to know how to bale. Or, the thousands of dollars lost by a hog producer in only three months as a result of hiring the wrong person. Although employee termination is normally an option, it is one plagued with both legal and practical consequences. Once a person is hired, there often needs to be a compelling reason for termination. If an employee is not working out, action must be taken promptly, however. The longer a worker is permitted to retain a job, the greater the potential consequences associated with a discharge (see Chapter 14).Given the importance of employee selection, two chapters are dedicated to the topic. This one describes a step-by-step sequence to selection. We consider such factors as needed skills for the job, the design of a selection process, getting the most out of the various selection tools, and conclude with suggestions on how to bring the new employee aboard the organization.The next chapter illustrates the process of validating your selection approach. An outline of a practical, yet comprehensive, approach to selection follows. You will need to adapt it to your needs and special circumstances.Decide What You NeedStep 1: Determine whether a temporary employee is neededNecessity can often be the catalyst for haphazard selection. When your milker leaves, the choice may be between taking the shift yourself, or hiring the applicant who just drove up to the barn. Such a casual approach sometimes yields excellent results. "A while back I got lucky when I hired someone the traditional way," Bruce Burroughs, of Vista Farming in Merced, recalled. "This person worked out so well that I