I need a discussion response to my peers discussion post 1) When selecting exter

Question

I need a discussion response to my peers discussion post

1) When selecting external job applicants, HR departments often perform a background check on potential employees. They also ask for recommendation letters and a list of 3 references.

How effective you do believe those (recommendation letters, background check, and checking references) are in selecting the best possible employees?

            I think that a thorough background check and checking references are the most effective methods when selecting the best possible employees. The reason why I didn’t include recommendation letters as the most effective method is because a letter of recommendation does little help to the organization to distinguish a more qualified applicant from the less qualified (Heneman III, Judge, Kammeyer-Mueller, 2015, p. 391). Our text also tells us that a study indicated that letter of recommendations had more to with the person who composed the letter rather than the person who the letter is about (Heneman III, Judge, Kammeyer-Mueller, 2015, p. 391). While conducting a background check may be the most efficient method to select the best possible employee; for several reasons such as concerns for the organization's security, ethical lapses, workplace violence, and legal protection against negligent hiring which can be averted with a thorough background check (Heneman III, Judge, Kammeyer-Mueller, 2015, p. 394-395).

2) Are recommendation letters objective? Why or why not?

            I believe recommendations letters can be objective as well as they can be biased. Our text revealed a study that letter writers who possessed a disposition tendency to be positive wrote consistently more favorable letters than the letter writers with a propensity to be critical or negative(Heneman III, Judge, Kammeyer-Mueller, 2015, p. 391). A recommendation letter can be objective, if the person who wrote it is a neutral leader that doesn’t have favoritism with employees and state facts that shows validity.

3) What types of questions should HR be asking when calling a reference?

                        Our text tells us the most common information sought is on criminal background and verification of employment eligibility, former employers, dates of previous employment, and former job titles(Heneman III, Judge, Kammeyer-Mueller, 2015, p. 391-392). Other examples of questions HR should be asking are what was her/his position? Can you describe the job responsibilities? Or How did s/he support co-workers? (Doyle, 2018).

References

Doyle, A. (2018, February 14). Questions Employers Ask When Conducting a Reference Check. Retrieved from The Balance: https://www.thebalance.com/questions-employers-ask-when-conducting-a-reference-check-2062965

Heneman, H., III, Judge, T., & Kammeyer-Mueller, J. (2015). Staffing Organizations (8th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

Explanation / Answer

1) I think that thorough background check, recommendation letters and references are some methods to rule out unwanted candidates. However, none of these methods can be a key factor for how suitable the candidate is.

The argument provided by my peers are valid that recommendation letter talks more about the person who wrote the letter than about the candidate.

We need to look at what can a background check and references tell us? Background checks tell us that the person does not have any criminal record or fraudulent documentations in his application. However does it mean that everyone who is not a fraud or an ex-criminal is a suitable candidate? No.

References are a little more powerful tool. They give you the knowledge about how the candidate was in his previous work places. While this may be a good test of his character and behavior, it does not take into consideration the actual skill set or cultural fit required for the new organization.

These three activities by themselves and with together are not sufficient to judge if the candidate is best fit for the role. In addition to these, we must also include personality factors, cultural factors and organization’s internal factors to determine the best candidate.

2) Recommendation letters are mostly positive in real world. This is because human tendency to part ways in good terms. This very fact that we have the urge to provide good recommendation letter to others makes it nearly impossible for us to write or receive an unbiased and objective recommendation letter. The answer? Recommendation letters are not objective (in majority of cases).

3) The common questions that are asked during reference call are regarding criminal records, employment eligibility, former work history and behavioral queries. These are pretty straight forward questions. As informed in the answer (1), these can only prove if a person is a poor fit for the role or not. These questions do not provide answer to the good fit conditions.

In order to determine if a person is a good fit for the role, we must ask more role based questions. Such as, does he/she have leadership skill? Were his/her direct team members happy with him? Did he demonstrate problem solving ability? Was he punctual?

Even these kinds of questions may fall short to determine the most suitable candidates. However these will bridge some gap. The challenge with such question is that these needs to be asked to the previous reporting manager rather than HR.

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