THE ROLE OF PSYCHOLOGISTS IN SELECTION

Occupational Psychologists are often tasked with optimising human performance in the workplace. This optimising refers to maximising benefits for both the applicant / candidate and the organisation. A key separator of the Occupational Psychologist from the Human Resource specialist is the former's focus on the gathering and utilization of scientifically based knowledge of human psychology.

In historic terms it has been known for Occupational Psychologists to be accused of having a pro-management bias, in other words being in the pocket of the organization, who are often the paying client, at the expense of the interests of the individual employee. However, as this module shows effective selection requires that the views and needs of both candidates and organisations need to be taken into account.

The "maximizing of benefits for both the individual and the organization" may include generating the best available group of candidates for a vacancy, from whom the most appropriate candidates may then be selected. When an organisation takes a decision that it has a vacancy due to natural wastage or a new position being created, there are a number of steps that must be taken:

- Determine what the role actually involves, which may be different from what people assume from the job title or even what is contained in an existing job description;
- Generate a person specification, incorporating both essential and desirable characteristics of the ideal candidate;
- Design a selection process (i.e. choose and / or design selection tools)
- Generate a pool of appropriate applicants;
- Select from among the pool of applicants a number who most closely meet the requirements of the role;
- Invite this reduced number of applicants to take part in a selection process, involving one or more elements;
- Based on the outcomes of the selection process, decide on the applicant most suited to fill the vacancy.