Yes it is vital that you have well thought–out selection criteria – but some criteria are more important than others. A common problem is that sometimes a person that meets most selection criteria still does not work out. This is often caused by not recognizing that some selection criteria is essential. This is especially true regarding the harder to evaluate soft skills qualities such as good customer service, or leadership abilities. So a seemingly good applicant might tick nearly all the boxes, but be missing some essential job requirement.
So it makes sound sense that if a person cannot demonstrate that they have essential role requirements, they will not get the job.
Many professional recruiters recognize this, and a sort of industry-standard classification has developed weighting selection criteria as Essential, or Highly Desirable, or Desirable.
This enables clarity for evaluation job applicants, and for creating a level playing field. It also facilitates screening out of applicants, as the first to be eliminated should be those that do not meet your job essential selection criteria. It is particularly useful that SME’s and occasional recruiters understand this distinction, as it makes the recruitment task easier, with a higher likelihood of selecting an applicant that really will be able to do the job.
There is a very interesting and free Recruiting handbook available from http://www.mysmesite.com/recruiting-book that explains the terminology and use for selection criteria, and a relevant excerpt from it is as follows:
“Weighting of Selection Criteria
Weight – All selection criteria is not of the same importance in determining satisfactory job performance.
• Essential – It is essential that the person possesses this quality, otherwise he or she in unable to do the job. If a person cannot meet this essential requirement, he or she is eliminated as an applicant.
• Highly Desirable – It is highly desirable that a person possess this quality as difficulty and job under-performance is likely to be experienced if lacking. However, training, education and experience over time may enable an applicant to acquire this quality.
• Desirable – Whilst desirable that a person possesses this attribute, it is not necessarily vital for job performance.”
1.2 Weighting of Selection Criteria
All selection criteria are not of the same importance in determining satisfactory job performance. It is recommended to weight each selection criteria based upon the importance of that criteria for effective job performance. As mentioned before under Terminology, you can attribute weighting of Essential, or Highly Desirable, or Desirable to each criterion.
The optional Apollo Select DIY Recruitment System provides a system and forms to record and report and weight your selection criteria if you wish. See details of the Apollo Select DIY recruiting system at http://www.mysmesite.com
An example of weighting selection criteria follows:
POSITION: Store Manager LOCATION: Springwood
| Selection Criteria | Weighting |
| Experience managing retail trade store | Essential |
| Focus on results | Essential |
| Hands on manager | Essential |
| Builds customer/staff relationships | Highly desirable |
| Strong communication skills | Highly desirable |
| Presentation | Desirable |
| Tradesperson/experience in paint industry | Desirable |