Employee Selection and Training free essay sample

Industrial and Organizational psychologist are able to walk into most any corporation and identify problem areas. The specialty skills that the industrial and organizational psychologist possesses are able to better equip the corporations to reduce employee turnover and improve the workplace. Having the ability to survey the employees and find weak spots allows the industrial and organizational psychologist to determine the best measures to improve the company from the inside out. Using surveys on current and potential employees as well as assessments can cause the company to find weak employees and strong leaders that might have been previously overlooked. Industrial and organizational psychologist can improve the potential employee selection process, train employees properly all while abiding by the law. Selecting and training employees The role of industrial and organizational psychology is one of the most important areas in the field of psychology and it entails research and analysis in the areas of hiring employees. I/O’s duties can range from conducting evaluations, analysis, and training, hiring, and consulting. Three examples of how industrial and organizational psychologists are an asset to a company are seen in positions like consultants, human resources specialist, and employee assessors and evaluators (Cascio, 1995). All these examples have one thing in common: they all work closely on selecting and training employees, and ensuring the best match for the position needed. Consulting IO’s, are hired by management to offer the best plan for success. These consultants are hired to design the best strategies for the business to work as a whole. Consultants offer strategic planning to achieve companies’ goals as well as employee’s goals. Through performance, selection, and intervention, they consult to the employer of what changes need to be done (Cascio, 1995). Their job is designed to offer the best possible advice to both parties with the goal of having a full functioning and effective business. They provide the best guidance and direction on how to work in an efficient and positive atmosphere. The next example would be human resources specialist, which would be running all aspects of the hiring process. This would include advertising, application process, interviewing, and training. They would assist management in taking care of all the angles needed to find personnel. They would normally advise management on which candidates they should consider interviewing. Human resources specialists would take care of checking references, background, education, and all aspects of the application process. They would take care of the training sessions through meetings, orientations, and any other process of that nature (Cascio, 1995). The next example: assessors and evaluators would be what would follow the human resources process. These evaluators would review all the information collected by human resources specialist, and all the candidates that have been selected, would be scheduled for a more in depth interview. These evaluators would conduct surveys, skills tests, personality tests, questionnaires, and many more evaluation methods. Their job is to screen the applicants that have been selected to see if they are indeed a perfect match for the job. Evaluators and assessor use scientific selection methods when conducting job analysis. Through statistical and correlation data, they evaluate all intellectual, psychological, physical and emotional aspects of the candidate before the hiring process is done (Cascio, 1995). Legal Issues An organization must have a training program to establish a standard operation uideline that must be followed. During this training the organization must ensure the material and presentation is not legally or ethically controversial in any manner. The training provided must be unbiased and sensitive to race, age, national origin, sex and religion. If an individual feel any sort of discrimination during training, the organization can be subject to legal action. The tr aining provided must not display negative attention or single out any specific group, this may provide circumstantial evidence for that group of people to pursue legal action for discrimination in the workplace. Another issue in training could consist of ethical issues; the trainer must conduct themselves with respect, tact, honesty, trust and leadership. The organizational values, ethical guidelines, policies, procedures and accountability should be addressed. By planning ahead, industrial and organizational psychologist can work with trainers to address the ethical issues within the training period. The health and welfare of the employees are important; injury to an employee during training can lead to lawsuit and worker’s disability compensation. The ailure of an organization to abide by laws that protect employees can lead to court and be liable to pay the employee up to $300,000. Evaluation of study â€Å"There is little difference between conducting an evaluation of study for a training program and conducting a research study to determine the effects of any intervention that is tried in an organization† (Specter, 2008). The training program is not considered completed unt il it has been evaluated. There are five stages in performing a training evaluation. The first step is to define the criteria for evaluation. There are several criteria to determine. One of the criteria is the training- level criteria and the other is the performance- level criteria. The training level is directed to what was learned and the performance level is directed with the levels of effectiveness. It is also possible to brake down criteria into four groups. The four smaller levels include reactions, behaviors, learning, and results and are sub levels to performance and training levels. Second a design of the study must be selected. The structure of the study is determined by how the data is collected. Third the measures used to assess need to be determines. Fourth the data needs to be collected. The third and fourth steps are two steps preformed at the same time. Collecting data can be without bias can be a difficult task and following the measuring criteria is vital for accurate results. The final step is analyzing the collected data to determine a conclusion. The conclusion will tell the effectiveness of the training program. An evaluation carried out properly will generate valuable information on the training program’s effectiveness. Conclusion When selecting and training employees there are various forms that can improve performance such as; training assessments, employee evaluations, and consulting. Once a foundation was completed more in depth surveys, personality interviews, questionnaires, skills tests would ensure that the job is filled with the most suitable person to perform the job. Industrial and organizational psychologist can assist the corporation to stay within the law while completing training which keeps both the employee and employer safe from bias, sexism, discrimination, and racism. Evaluating a training program can provide tremendous benefits when the data is properly analyzed. Industrial and organizational psychology will provide multiple benefits to a corporation on many levels from potential employees, training, internal employee promotion selection, and determining employee terminations. Reference: Cascio, W. F. (1995). Whither Industrial and Organizational Psychology in a Changing World Of Work? American Psychologist, 50(11), 928 Spector, P. E. (2008). Industrial and organizational psychology: Research and practice (5th ed. ). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Society for Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Inc.. (2011). Student Resources. Retrieved from http://www. siop. org/studentdefault. aspx