A Small Business Guide to Employee Selection: Finding, Interviewing, and Hiring the Right People

Peter Strathy is Vice-President Planning, Doctors’ Hospital, Toronto.

Recruitment and hiring of high-caliber employees at all levels of an organization has over the past decade become more complex, competitive, costly, and sophisticated. Human rights legislation demands a process that treats potential employees fairly; organizations of all kinds compete vigorously for highly qualified workers and spend substantial sums in the process; individual candidates use professional writers and other methods to polish resumes and to enhance their overall attractiveness. In short, recruitment has become a specialization within the personnel field.

The author is a professional writer with a focus in business and personnel subjects. Her book covers all areas of the employee recruitment function, from job analysis and specifications, through sources of potential candidates, the development of effective recruitment advertisements, application forms, interview theory and techniques, checking references, making a selection, legal considerations, and orientation and training of the new employee. Samples of useful forms, such as a job description outline, are provided.

Treatment is detailed, well organized, and covers every facet of the recruitment process. The book could be used as a reference tool for specific aspects of the recruitment process. A great deal of very practical information is supplied, including the 10 most common mistakes made in employee selection.

This book will be useful as a text in personnel management courses at all college and university levels and will be of value to anyone who recruits and employs staff. It will also be found in business and public library reference collections.