the role of personal specialists

Chapter 1- General Introduction
1.1 Background to the Study
Too little is thought of personnel specialists in Nigeria. The task of the
personnel specialist plays a tremendous role in boosting the fortunes of
any business organisation.
The personnel specialist or personnel management has the prime
responsibility for the following:
• Formulating, proposing and gaining acceptance for the personnel
policies and strategies of the organisation,
• Advising and guiding the organisation’s managers on the
implantation of personnel policies and strategies,
• Providing personnel services for the organisations to facilitate the
recruitment, motivation and development of sufficient and suitable
employees at all levels,
• Advising the organisation’s managers of the human consequences
of change.
These four responsibilities mustn’t be a hit and miss affair, but rather a
systematic approach to getting the best out of a business organisation.
Therefore the role of the personnel specialist cannot be overstressed. This
research project will focus on the recruitment of personnel.
The aim of recruitment is to ensure that the organisations demand for
employees is met by attracting potential recruits in a cost effective and
timely manner; and then afterwards identify from those who come
forward, the individuals most likely to fulfil the requirements of the
organisation.
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Recruitment refers to the process of attracting, screening, and
selecting qualified people for a job at an organization or firm. For some
components of the recruitment process, mid- and large-size organizations
often retain professional recruiters or outsource some of the process to
recruitment agencies.

The recruitment industry has four main types of agencies: employment
agencies, recruitment websites and job search engines, "headhunters" for
executive and professional recruitment, and in-house recruitment. The
stages in recruitment include sourcing candidates by advertising or other
methods, and screening and selecting potential candidates using tests or
interviews.
1.2 Statement of the Research Problem
1. Over reliance on the class of a degree for assessing the
worth of a recruit.
2. Unsystematic method of hiring workers.
3. Poor job descriptions. No criterion by which candidates for
seeking jobs may be tested.
4. No real vacancies at the time of taking on fresh recruits.
5. Internal bureaucracy whenever vacancies arise.
6. Good information does not reach potential recruits such as
where to apply or in what form.
7. Standard policies for recruitment non-existent.
1.3 Objectives of the Research
I have often heard my elders in the society complaining about their
staffs’ inability to do simple tasks like writing a memo. They often
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complain how such unqualified people are engaged for service. This
research intends to illustrate the proper of selecting new staff for service
and different ways of testing the suitability of recruits. It is a reference for
personnel specialists.
I also feel this research will be a good learning experience for me. I
believe my strong point is in motivating people. I intend to specialise in
recruitments matters.
1.4 Significance of the Study
Of course the quality of workers employed has a considerable effect

on the morale of existing workers as well as the efficient running of the
business. For example, a middle manager may not be so happy if his new
personal assistant can’t speak very good English; the work of the personal
assistant will be unsatisfactory and those around will be demoralized.
Therefore it is rational to find out what works and what doesn’t work,
what to fix and what to eliminate so as to identify what developments to
make in future for the benefit of the company.
1.5 Scope and Limitations of the Study
From the title of the research project, the scope of this project is
confined to the work of a personnel specialist in recruitment. Recruitment
is a very wide subject. As with all studies, there is the problem of finding
good and relevant information. The information in this project is
restricted whatever relevant information the researcher can find that is
related to the subject matter.
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1.6 Hypothesis
Hypothesis: Personnel Specialists are relevant in today’s business
organisation.
Null Hypothesis: Personnel Specialists are not relevant in today’s
business organisation.
1.7 Chapterisation
This project consists of 5 chapters namely General Introduction;
Literature Review, Research Methodology; Data Presentation Analysis;
Summary Conclusion and Recommendation. The first chapter which is
the introduction gives a picture of what the rest of the chapters consists
of. A little information about what recruitment is all about.
Chapter 2 which is the literature review gathers all information
about what a recruitment process should look like, as well as its
challenges and prospects. Online recruitment seems to be acquiring a
strong foothold these days so it was important to include some notes on

it.
Chapter 3 is the research methodology. All information about the
way I intend to carry out my research is in there. For example, the type of
sampling, population size etc.
Chapter 4 is closely linked to chapter 3. The result of the research,
after it has been conducted as specified, is found here.
Finally, chapter 5 summarizes the project as a whole. It includes
the summary, conclusions and recommendations.
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Chapter 2-Literature Review
2.1 Introduction
Finding and hiring competent, capable and quality staff is a constant
challenge facing large, medium and small businesses. Many companies
find that it is even tougher today to compete for talent and that as a result;
many hire new staff quickly just to have somebody fill a position. This
often leads to the expensive consequences of a bad hire - workplace
disruption, lost productivity, increased stress, and deceased morale. In
addition, firing a "bad hire" creates workplace anxiety and legal and
personal complications and expenses.
To make the best hiring choice, companies must make a commitment
to the importance of the hiring process, instead of rushing through it.
Creating Recruitment Policies is the first step. Companies who develop
common-sense recruitment policies are the most effective at identifying,
attracting and retaining quality employees. However, few companies and
recruiters have policies in place that address issues surrounding effective
recruitment. Good personnel managers will help a company develop
sound policies that will eliminate expensive errors of judgment and
procedure.

As organizations begin to recognize the importance of effective

recruitment to the bottom line, the need for clear and concise policies that
outline how new staff are treated become paramount. High orientation,
recruitment and turnover costs can be avoided if all new staff are treated
equitably. Constantly hiring new staff hinders production which in turn
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hurts the bottom line. This can easily be avoided if new employees are
hired using the same criteria and if they know how they will be treated as
new employees
Recruitment is the premier major steps in the selection process in
the Organizations. It has been explained as an activity directed to obtain
appropriate human resources whose qualifications and skills match
functions of the relevant posts in the Organization. Its importance cannot
be over-emphasized and can also be best described as the ‘heart’ of the
organization.
It will be helpful to distinguish recruitment sub processes from
selection sub processes. The aim of recruitment is to ensure that the
organisations demand for employees is met by attracting potential
employees (recruits) in a cost-effective and timely manner. The aim of
selection is to identify, from those coming forward, the individuals most
likely to fulfil the requirements of the organisation. To put it another way,
recruitment is concerned with assembling the raw materials, and selection
is concerned with producing the right blend for the organisation, at a
particular point in time.
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• The Purpose and Importance of Recruitment are summarised
below:
•Attract and encourage more and more candidates to apply in
the organisation.
• Create a talent pool of candidates to enable the selection of
best candidates for the organisation.

• Determine present and future requirements of the
organization in conjunction with its personnel planning and
job analysis activities.
• Recruitment is the process which links the employers with
the employees.
• Increase the pool of job candidates at minimum cost.
• Help increase the success rate of selection process by
decreasing number of visibly under qualified or overqualified
job applicants.
• Help reduce the probability that job applicants once recruited
and selected will leave the organization only after a short
period of time.
• Meet the organizations legal and social obligations regarding
the composition of its workforce.
• Begin identifying and preparing potential job applicants who
will be appropriate candidates.
•Increase organization and individual effectiveness of various
recruiting techniques and sources for all types of job
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applicants
2.2 Recruitments: Policies and Procedures.
Recruitment policies constitute the code of conduct which the
organisation is prepared to follow in its search for possible recruits in the
marketplace. Some examples of reputable policies in this field are as
follows.
In matters of recruitment, this company will:
- advertise all vacancies internally before making use of external
sources,
- Always advertise under the company name when advertising
externally,

- endeavour to ensure that every applicant for a position in the
Company is informed in advance about the basic details of the vacancy,
and the basic conditions of employment attached to it
- Endeavour to ensure that applicants are kept informed of their
progress through the recruitment procedures,
- seek possible candidates on the basis of their ability to perform the
job required. ‘In matters of recruitment, this Company will not:
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- Knowingly make exaggerated or misleading claims in recruitment
literature or job advertisement,
- discriminate unfairly against possible candidates on the grounds of
sex, race, age, religion or physical disablement.’
The recruitment activities of an organisation are carried out mainly
by Personnel staff. These activities represent the marketing role of
Personnel, reaching out across the organisation’s external boundaries in
the labour market. It is important, therefore, that such activities are
conducted in manner that sustains or enhances the good reputation of the
organisation. People who are treated well when they seek employment
with the organisation are potential ambassadors for the organisation,
whether they are successful in their application or not. Conversely, those
who are treated badly in this situation are quick to spread their criticism.
Examples of bad treatment of applicants include omitting to reply to a
letter or form of application, keeping applicants waiting for an interview,
and failing to inform applicants who have been unsuccessful.
Well-organised Personnel departments work to a checklist of
recruitment procedures designed to minimise errors and thus avoid
marring the organisations image externally and Personnel’s reputation
internally. A typical checklist is shown below. It helps to ensure a
rational and logical approach to the recruitment of employees throughout
the organisation.

Questions to be considered
1 Has the vacancy been agreed by the responsible manager
2 Is there an up-to-date job description for the vacant position?
3 What are the conditions of employment (salary, hours, etc) for the vacant position?
4 Has a candidate specification been prepared?
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5 Has a notice of the vacancy been circulated internally?
6 Has a job advertisement been agreed? Have details of the vacancy been forwarded
to relevant agencies?
7 Do all potential candidates (internal or external) know where to apply and in what
form?
8 What arrangements have been made for drawing up a shortlist of candidates?
9 Have the interviewing arrangements been agreed, and have the shortlisted
candidates been informed?
10 Have unsuitable candidates or candidates held in reserve, been informed of their
position?
11 Have offer letters been agreed and despatched to successful candidates? Have
references been taken up, where necessary?
12 Have suitable rejection letters been sent to unsuccessful shortlisted candidates,
thanking them for their attendance?
13 Have all replies to offer letters been accounted for?
14 Have the necessary procedures for placement, induction and follow-up of
successful candidates been put into effect?
Figure 1. Recruitment checklist
The job description referred to in item 2 would usually contain at
least the following information about the job concerned.
o Title of job
o Grade/salary level of job
o Title of immediate superiors job
o Number of subordinates

o Overall purpose of the job
o Principal responsibilities of the job
o Limits of authority
o Location of job
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In most organisations this information is contained in a formal
document, completed following an analysis of the job. In some cases it
may be less formally expressed, but nevertheless covers the points noted
above.
The candidate specification, or personnel specification, as it is
frequently called is a summary of the knowledge, skills and personal
characteristics required of the jobholder to carry out the job to an
acceptable standard of performance. This is an extremely important
feature of the recruitment process, because it sets down a standard by
which candidates for interview may be tested. There are two very well
known classifications for personal requirements: the seven point plan
developed by Professor Rodger of the National Institute of Industrial
Psychology in the 1950’s, and the Five-Point Plan produced by J. Munro
Fraser at about the same time. These two attempts to produce general
profiles of candidates for selection are compared in Figure 2.
Seven-Point Plan Five-Point Plan
(A. Rodger) (J. Munro Fraser)
1. Physical make-up 1. Impact on others
2. Attainments 2. Acquired Qualifications
3. General Intelligence 3. Innate abilities
4. Specialised aptitudes 4. Motivation
5. Interests 5. Adjustment
6. Disposition
7. Circumstances
Figure 2 Personal Classifications

It can be seen that there are many common features between the two
classifications. In practice, the Seven-Point plan tends to be the most
popular, and individual firms often model their personnel specifications
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on it. A formal layout for a specification is shown in figure 3. Note that
the form enables a distinction to be drawn between points that are
essential in order to fulfil the job requirements and those that are
desirable, but not essential, for adequate performance.
Essential Desirable
Formal Qualifications
Knowledge
Experience
Skills
-Manual
-Social
-Other
Personality/Motivation
Physical Requirements
Interests
Circumstances
Figure 3 Personnel specification
In cases where a tight specification is drawn up, i.e. where the
emphasis is on the essential requirements of the job, the job market is
being effectively segmented, and the response will be specialised. Where
a loose specification is drawn up, the emphasis will be more on what is
desirable than on what is essential and the response will tend to be
proportionately larger. When skilled manpower is plentiful, specifications
will tend to be tight, and vice versa in times of manpower shortages.
To illustrate the use of such a document as show in figure 3, we could
take the example of a Chief Accountants position in engineering

company employing, say 1500 people. In this case a formal accountancy
qualification would be regarded as essential, as would a practical
knowledge of the accounting systems used in engineering companies.
Experience of deputising for the chief accountant in an accountancy
department would be desirable. Any reference to skills would tend to
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relate to social skills (e.g. ability to work with line colleagues) and
intellectual skills (e.g. ability to see opportunities for developing
computer-based control systems).
The requirements for personality/motivation would probably include
an ability to work under pressure and a willingness to adapt accountancy
procedures to meet the needs of marketing and production, where existing
systems are not working effectively enough. Physical requirements would
probably be omitted, and interests might be related only to work interests.
The circumstances of the position might require the Chief Accountant to
live within a reasonable travelling distance of the company’s head office,
and might require him to be away from home for short periods on
company business.
The job advertisement referred to in item 6 in figure 1is the external
advertisement in the press and trade or professional journals. The basic
principles of an effective job advertisement (i.e. on that attracts sufficient
numbers of the right kind of candidates) can be summarised as follows:
o Provide brief, but succinct, details about the position to be filled,
o Provide similar details about the employing organisation,
o Provide details of all essential personal requirements,
o Make reference to any desirable personal requirements,
o State the main conditions of employment, especially the salary
indicator for the position,
o State the main conditions of employment, especially the salary
indicator for the position,

o State to whom the application or enquiry should be directed,
o Present the above information in an attractive form,
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Short-listing arrangements are necessary to select from the total
number of applicants those who appear, from their application form, to be
worthy of an interview. If an external advertisement has hit the target
segment correctly, then only relatively small numbers of applications will
be forthcoming, and most of these will be strong candidates for interview,
and the difficulty will be to decide who not to invite. If the advertisement
has been drawn up rather loosely, or has deliberately sought to tap a large
segment of the labour market, then large numbers of applications can be
expected, many of whom will be quite unsuitable. In drawing up a short-
list, it is common practice to divide the applications into three groups as
follows
1. Very suitable – Must be interviewed
2. Quite suitable – call for interview if insufficient numbers in
category (1), or send holding letter
3. Not suitable – send polite refusal letter, thanking them for their
interest in applying
If there are numbers of very suitable candidates, then it may be
necessary to have two or more sequential interviews, until only the best
two or three candidates remain. This whole procedure may sound quite
long-winded, but when purchasing the human assets of the organisation it
is worthwhile spending time over the selection of these most valuable
assets of all
2.3 Selection Processes
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In the overall process of tapping the labour market for suitable
skills and experience, recruitment comes first and is followed by
selection. Recruitments task is to locate possible applicants and attract

them to the organisation. Selections task is to cream off the most
appropriate applicants, turn them into candidates and persuade them that
it is in their interests to join the organisation, for, even in times of high
unemployment, selection is very much a two-way process – the candidate
is assessing the organisation, just as much as the organisations is
assessing him. The main objective of selection, therefore, is to be able to
make an acceptable offer to the candidate who appears, from the evidence
obtained, to be the most suitable for the job in question.
The most widely used technique in the selection process is the
interview. Well behind the interview, in terms of popularity, comes
psychological testing, and both interviews and tests will be considered
shortly. However, before turning to them, it is important to reflect on the
role of application forms and letters of application in the selection
process.
2.4 Application Forms
An application form or a letter of application tells an organisation
whether or not an applicant is worthy of an interview or a test of some
kind. This initial information constitutes the bedrock of the selection
process, i.e. prima facie evidence of an applicant’s suitability of
unsuitably for the position in question. An applicant, who is deemed
suitable on this evidence, then becomes a candidate for interview. Many
organisations require applicants to write a letter explaining why they are
interested in the vacant post and how they propose to justify the role they
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think they could play in it. This approach enables the organisation to see
how well applicants can argue a case for themselves in a letter, but it has
the disadvantage that the information provided is controlled by the
applicant – he can leave out points which may not help his case, and build
on those which do. Thus most organisations prefer to design their own
application forms, so as to require applicants to set out the information

about themselves in a standardised way.
Application forms vary considerably in the way they are set out.
Some, for example, as in figure 4, require prospective candidates to
answer routine questions in a form that gives them to opportunity to
discuss their motives for applying or to talk about themselves in a general
way. Others, as in figure 5 are very open-ended in their format, and
require applicants to expand at some length on themselves and on how
they see the job. In between the two forms illustrated are several
compromise versions, which aim to establish some kind of balance
between closed and open questions. The answers to the closed questions
supply the organisation with routine information in a standardised form;
the answers to the open questions provide a clue to the motives,
personality and communication skills of the applicants.
2.5 Selection Interview
The selection interview is far and away the most common
technique used for selection purposes. Unlike most other management
techniques, it is employed as much by amateurs as by professionals.
Whereas in work study, for example, only a trained work study analyst
will generally be permitted to conduct method studies and work
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measurement exercises, in the selection of staff everybody is deemed
capable! Few managers and supervisors carry out selection interviews
regularly; many of them have received no formal training in the technique
either, so it not surprising to learn that research has shown that such
interviews are frequently neither reliable nor valid. The measure of the
reliability of an interview is the extent to which conclusions about
candidates are shared by different interviewers; the measure of the
validity of an interview is the extent to which it does measure what is it
supposed to measure, i.e. the suitability of a particular candidate for a
particular job.

The main reasons why so many poor interviews are carried out are
two-fold:
1. lack of training in interviewing technique, and
2. Lack of adequate preparation for an interview.
Training designed to enable appropriate staff to conduct competent
interviews generally involves two major learning methods: firstly, an
illustrated talk/discussions; and secondly, the process that is taking place
during an interview, and to acquire a method for harnessing that process
(i.e. an interview plan). The second method helps trainees to experience
the process by means of role-playing exercises, and to understand how
they may need to adapt their behaviour in order to meet the aims of this
kind of interview
Questioning plays a vital role in a selection interview, as it is the
primary means by which information is obtained from the candidate at
the time. Questions have been categorised in a number of different ways.
For our purposes, it is enough to distinguish between closed questions
and open questions. The major differences between them are as follows:
Closed questions
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These are questions which require a specific answer or a YES/NO
response. For example ‘How many people were you responsible for in
your previous job?’ (Specific); ‘Were you personally authorised to sign
purchase orders?’ (Yes/No); have you had experience of….?’(Yes/No)
Open questions
These are questions that require a person to reflect on, or elaborate upon,
a particular point in his own way. Examples of open questions are: ‘What
is it that attracts you about this job?’ ‘Why did you leave… Company?’
Open questions invariably begin with what? Or How? Or Why?
Post applied for:
Surname:

First Names:
Address:
Telephone No.:
Date of Birth:
Marital Status:
Details of Examinations Passed/Qualifications Obtained:
Current Post:
Last Three Posts:
What attracts you to this post?
How do you think you can contribute to the post?
How do you see your career developing over the next ten years or so:
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Signed: Date:
Figure 5. Open-ended application from
It is usual to ask closed questions to check information which the
candidate has already partly supplied on his application form, and to re-
direct the interview if the candidate is talking too much and/or getting off
the point. Open questions tend to be employed once the interview has got
under way, with the object of getting the candidate to demonstrate his
knowledge and skills to the interviewer
Controlling the interview is sometimes a problem for interviewers.
Lack of control can be manifested in the following ways:
o The candidate takes over the interview, dominating the talking,
following his own interests and interrupting the interview,
o The candidate is allowed to spend too long over his replies, and to
repeat things he has already mentioned,
o The interviewer appears to be tentative in asking questions, and
appears to accept whatever the interviewer says,
o The candidate patronises the interviewer
Interviewers can help themselves to maintain control in a firm, but

in a diplomatic way by:
o Proper preparation, especially to preparation of key questions to be
put to the candidate,
o Returning the questions which they feel have not been adequately
answered by the candidate, i.e. they are showing that they will not
be fobbed off by a plausible non-answer,
o Politely, but firmly, cutting short a response which has gone too
long,
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o Taking an opportunity themselves to supply information to the
candidate, thus requiring him to listen
o Using the application form as a map of the interview, on which
progress can be plotted,
o Resisting the temptation to get involved in an interesting , but time-
consuming, issue raised by the candidate,
o Allocating the time available for the interview between the key
phases to be covered.
It is usual for interviewers to supply a certain amount of information
to candidates. It is better not to treat the candidate to a ten minute account
of the job and its conditions right at the beginning of the interview, when
he or she is feeling tense and wants to get started. If possible, it is better
to feed in information as the interview progresses and to round off the
final stage of the interview with any routine information about condition
of service. Candidates’ questions may be left to the end or dealt with
during the course of the interview. In general, the more information that
can be supplied before the interview, the better.
Ideally, the time available for the interview should be spent in
assessing the candidate as a person, and adding a feedback dimension to
the information obtained from the application form, references and any
other previous data about the candidate. Thus the hallmark of a good

interview is a lively exchange of relevant facts and impressions between
the interviewer and the candidate, which enables the interviewer to decide
if the candidate is suitable, and which enables the candidate to decide if
he or she still wants the job.
Interviews are usually conducted on a one to one basis, but two to
one situation is also widely favoured, and there is still a lot of support for
panel interviews, especially in public services. In a two to one situation,
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the two interviewers usually agree amongst themselves as to how they
will share the questioning and information supplying during the
interview. Frequently, in medium and large organisations, one of the
organisation representatives is a personnel specialist, and the other is the
client, seeking to fill the vacancy in question. The advantages of this type
of interview are that whilst one interviewer is asking a question, or
pursuing a point, the other can observe the candidates reaction and make
an independent evaluation of this response; and that each interviewer can
specialise in his own areas of interest in the selection process, the client
concentrating on technical capability and the ability to fit into his team
and the Personnel member concentrating on the wider aspects of having
such a person as an employee of the organisation. The slight advantage of
this approach is that the candidate may be less forthcoming if there are
two people present to interview him.
The panel interview is an altogether different prospect for a
candidate. In this case the individual candidate is faced by several
interviewers – at least three and possibly as many as eight of ten. In the
case of a panel interview, it is of great importance to decide who is going
to ask the questions, and how the panel is be chaired. In some public
sector panels, there are members who do not ask questions and who do
not comment either – they are simply as observers, until after the
interviewing process is over, when they contribute their impressions to

the final decision-making discussion. Generally, however, panel members
agree beforehand how they will allocate questions, and then they rely on
the discretion of the chairman to deal with the allocation of
supplementary issues. The advantage of this type of interview is that it
ensures the fairness of the proceedings. There are several disadvantages,
however – the candidate will find it difficult to feel at ease in such a
formal atmosphere than being concerned to listen to what the candidate is
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saying; and there is also the problem that the interviewers are often not
able to follow up points with the candidate because they are under
pressure from their chairman of their colleagues to move on to the next
question.
Taken as a whole, interviews are most useful for assessing the
personal qualities of an individual. They help to answer questions such as
‘Is this candidate likely to be able to fit into our team or our
environment?’ and ‘Has this particular candidate any special personal
characteristics which give him an advantage over his rivals?’ Interviews
are not so useful for assessing technical ability or the value of past
experience. This is one of the reasons why organisations may consider
using psychological tests to supplement information gained during
interviews.
2.6 Psychological Tests
Psychological tests, or selection tests as they are often called, are
standardised tests designed to provide a relatively objective measure of
certain human characteristics by sampling human behaviour. Such tests
tend to fall into four categories as follows:
I. Intelligence tests
II. Aptitude tests
III. Attainment tests and
IV. Personality tests

Intelligence tests and others are standardised in the sense that the
same set of task have been given to many other people over a period of
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many years, and bands of typical results have been developed to provide
standards against which subsequent results can usefully be compared.
Publishers of tests invariably insist that only trained personnel should
administer their material so that the standard conditions of each test are
adhered to strictly, and so that the scoring of tests can be relied upon. All
reputable tests have been carefully checked for their validity and their
reliability. Checks for validity are designed to ensure that any given test
measures what it sets out to measure, e.g. an intelligence test should be
able to measure intelligence, and a manual dexterity test should be able to
measure manual dexterity. Checks for reliability are designed to ensure
that tests produce consistent results in terms of what they set out to
measure. Thus, if a test which is carried out on an individual at a
particular point in time is repeated, the results should be similar.
The different categories of tests are as follows
• Intelligence Tests
These tests are designed to measure thinking abilities. The word
‘intelligence’ has no generally accepted definition, as yet, and has
to be defined in terms of a number of different interpretations of its
meaning. It is enough for our purposes to understand that general
intelligence can be manifested by verbal ability, spatial ability or
numerical ability, or a combination of these. Popular tests in use
for personnel selection are often composed of several different
sections, each of which aims to test candidates on the key ability
areas just referred to.
• Aptitude Tests
these are basically tests of innate skills. They are widely used to
obtain information about such skills as mechanical ability, clerical

and numerical ability, and manual dexterity. Several standard tests
are available for the use of organisations, and it is also possible to
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have tests specially devised, although this is much more expensive
business, since the tests have to be validated before they can be
implemented with any confidence.
• Attainment Tests
these tests measure the depth of knowledge or grasp of skills which
has been learned in the past – usually at school or college. Typical
attainment tests are those which measure typing abilities, spelling
ability and mental arithmetic, for example.
• Personality Tests
the use of personality tests derives from clinical situations. Their
application to personnel selection is rather restricted, because of
the problems associated with the validity of such tests. Where they
are employed in work situations, they usually take the form of
personality inventories – list of multiple choice questions in
response to theoretical situations posed by the test designers – or of
projection tests – where the candidate is required to describe a
series of vague pictures or a series of inkblots. The aim of
personality tests is to identify an individual’s principal personality
traits or dimensions, e.g. introverted or extroverted, sociable or
isolate etc.
Psychological tests can provide useful additional or confirming
information about a candidate for a position. They can supplement the
information obtained from application forms and from interviews, and are
particularly useful where objective information would be illuminating.
They are probably most economically applied in situations where
reasonably large numbers or recruits are needed every year e.g. school
leavers, college leavers and other young employees. Apart from

attainment tests, most of the categories still remain relatively unpopular
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with employers, and there is no question of psychological tests ousting
the need for application forms and interviews.
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