Chapter 4

1. Chapter 4 Recruitment and Selection for Sport Organizations

2. Learning Objectives • Understand the strategic importance of recruitment, selection and placement to an organisation and arguments in support of judicious hiring • Understand the links between recruitment and selection and other HRM activities • Describe different sources and methods for generating a pool of job applicants • Describe current trends in recruitment • Describe a variety of selection techniques and the advantages and disadvantages of each • Understand sources of bias in selection decision making

3. Getting the right individuals for the sport organization A critical SHRM decision • people are at the centre of all organisational processes • people can make a difference to the organisation’s culture • Importance of internal transformation processes • direct and indirect costs associated with sub-optimal hiring decisions provides compelling reasons to recruit and select carefully

4. Figure 4.1 An Overview of the Recruitment and Selection Process

5. Recruitment aims to: • Source a pool of appropriately qualified job applicants who are likely to stay with the organisation • Meet the organisation’s legal and social obligations of staffing • Identify potential job applicants • Evaluate techniques and locations for sourcing job applicants

6. Recruitment Methods Internal recruitment • accessing current staff who have the ‘right’ qualities • Intranet bulletin boards • searching the HR information system for qualified candidates • use succession or talent management processes

7. external recruitment • Position organization as an ‘employer of choice’ • advertisements • public employment agencies • internships and recruitment of graduates direct from universities • e-recruitment • use referrals and networking channels • outsource to a professional employment organisation

8. Recruiting volunteers • typically informal • through friends, family or individuals already involved in the sport or via a ‘tap on the shoulder’ • board members may be elected or appointed on an ex-officio basis • mega sport events such as the Olympic Games recruit via advertisements, announcements, partnerships, volunteering associations, sporting organisations, professional groups, sponsors etc. • emphasise the benefits for volunteers

9. Selection Methods

10. Cognitive ability tests • differentiate people on their mental capacity and can involve tests of verbal comprehension, numerical ability, abstract reasoning, inductive reasoning, pattern recognition and memory • typically used for middle- to senior-level positions such tests have shown high validity for jobs requiring these abilities

11. Work sample tests • attempt to simulate a job in the controlled conditions of a selection process or require candidates to provide samples of their actual work • Candidates tested via a simulation are asked to complete verbal or physical activities that closely mirror real work tasks • An issue is the possibility of less than optimum performance due to anxiety in the testing environment

12. Aptitude tests • attempt to simulate work sampling tests in situations where the candidate has not previously worked in the job for which she/he is being recruited • Tests can be used to cover a range of areas, with the most common relating to clerical and numerical aptitude and mechanical or physical dexterity tests

13. Personality Inventories • measure an individual’s personality traits or characteristics • comprise statements or questions relating to behaviour, attitudes or beliefs which subjects are asked to agree or disagree with The ‘Big Five’ dimensions of personality are: • Extraversion (social, gregarious, assertive, talkative, expressive) • Adjustment (emotionally stable, non-depressed, secure, content) • Agreeableness (courteous, trusting, good-natured, tolerant, co-operative, forgiving) • Conscientiousness (dependable, organised, persevering, thorough, achievement oriented) • Inquisitiveness (curious, imaginative, artistically sensitive, broad minded, playful)

14. Assessment centres • employ a comprehensive approach to selection, and are usually used for management candidates • often used at entry to mid-manager level where the organisation is trying to assess potential beyond the immediate position • incorporate a range of techniques typically based on behaviour assessment • Candidates undertake a range of observed group-based and individual problem-solving exercises that simulate actual managerial tasks • performance is evaluated by multiple, professionally trained raters

15. Standard Interviews • the standard or traditional interview is the most commonly used selection technique • However - it is susceptible to error because of its inherent subjectivity. • common subjectivity problems - ``halo’’ and ``horn’’ effects, where interviewers either like or dislike one characteristic of a candidate and this biases all other judgments • bias in interviews can be minimised by keeping interviews standardised, structured and by having multiple, well trained staff for each interview

16. Behaviourally based interviewing • past behaviour and performance is the best predictor of future performance, and past behaviour can be closely examined via a structured interviews based on: • questions built around job-related information; • questions aimed at revealing in some detail how candidates have handled situations and tasks involving similar competencies to those of the job in question, and the results of those actions; and • questions that unearth the true nature of the candidate’s knowledge, behaviours, motivation and values.

17. The final steps • check candidate references • check qualifications the candidates claim to hold • rank candidates by order of preference and make offers accordingly – or - • deem candidates ‘employable’ or ‘not employable’ and work through the employable list in order of preference

18. Summary • recruitment and selection is critical to a sport organisation’s success and judicious hiring a process requires much attention. • recruitment and selection should be strategically linked to other HRM activities • In choosing selection techniques it is important to be aware of their advantages and disadvantages as well as issues relating to reliability and validity. • while no single technique is without the possibility of error some are clearly better than others • Uncertainty in selection can best be reduced by the use multiple techniques providing the time and resources are available