3 of March, 2025

In order for the process of personnel selection to be a success, it is necessary to complete the basic steps that will allow the right candidate to be found. The human resources team increasingly has more technological tools for managing selection processes, but no matter how much help they receive, it is hard to believe they will make the right choice if they do not comply with these 9 phases of the personnel selection process.

Needs detection

Any selection process begins with the identification of the company’s needs, of the vacancy that must be filled. It can be a need resulting from an employee’s departure, it could be related to a temporary absence such as leaves, time-offs or vacations, or it may even arise due to the company’s own growth, which requires more manpower. The need may be occasional, temporary or permanent.

Profile definition: drafting the offer

Based on the needs that need to be met, it is required to draft the job offer. For this, it is essential to define the profile being sought. From the very beginning it is necessary to have that sketch of the ideal candidate. Are we looking for a versatile employee or one specialized in a specific aspect? With great experience or young talent? What languages or skills should they command? If the drafting is spot-on, the following phases will be simpler.

Candidate search: publication and reception of applications

In this third stage of personnel selection, the offer is published and the resumes of the applicants are received. It is as important to ensure the offer reaches the greatest number of potential candidates as is to clearly define the period and method of submitting applications. An alternative is passive recruitment, where the company contacts potential candidates, or collaborative recruitment based on the recommendations of workers themselves.

Application preselection

This basically consists of separating the wheat from the chaff by discarding candidates who do not meet what the company is looking for. The offer description should be referenced, hence the importance of defining well what is being sought. Here we can already resort to a personnel selection program like Sesame HR to start filtering resumes and creating a profile of each pre-selected application for the following steps.

Interviews and tests

This is the first real contact between the company and potential candidates. Many businesses choose to administer tests to the pre-selected candidates to make a second candidate screening. Psychometric tests or skill tests are the most common, and they serve to give the company an idea of the applicant’s personality and abilities in relation to the job being offered. In a way, it is a profile verification.

Interviews can be individual or group-based, the latter being a part of candidate testing. Utilizing the personnel selection chart, emphasis should be placed on experience and training, but also on the expectations of applicants for the job they are applying for. The use of tension-filled or unexpected questions is an excellent resource to see how they react to unanticipated situations.

Candidate report

It is likely that not the entire human resources team will have the opportunity to interview each applicant. For this reason, a corresponding report should be drafted after each interview with the recruiter’s assessment. This will appear on the personnel selection chart, and the strengths and weaknesses of each candidate should be highlighted. This way, once the interview process is finished, applications can be compared based on a solid foundation and we can move on to the next phase of the personnel selection process.

The final decision

According to the results of the interviews, the candidate best suited for the profile defined in the second phase of the process is selected. For this, additional interviews can be held with the most qualified candidates. It should be an analyzed and agreed upon decision by the HR team. If the decision is made hastily in order to fill the vacancy as soon as possible, it is easy to make mistakes.

Hiring and onboarding

The personnel selection process has not yet finished, two more phases remain. The penultimate one is the signing of the contract which will include previously announced conditions: the duration, hours of work, or the salary that the employee will earn. Also, the first day of work of the new employee is included. On this first day, it is always advantageous for someone to introduce them to their new colleagues, explain how the company operates, etc.

Probation period and training

It is likely that the contract will detail the probation period that the new recruit will need to pass. Throughout the first weeks, management or human resources should show interest in the adjust process. A final key element in the personnel selection process is to offer the newcomer the necessary training so they can meet the standards of their new colleagues as soon as possible.

Following these phases and counting on the help of a HR software like Sesame HR, is the best way to guarantee success in hiring and thus improve the experience of candidate employees for the processes. In addition to sharing with the team the information from the personnel selection process, you can create a pool with potential candidates that have reached the final stages of the process to accelerate it in case a new vacancy arises in the future.

Professional with over 20 years of extensive experience in various areas of Human Resources (Recruitment, Training, Occupational Risk Prevention, and Personnel Management). Experience in the Management Department: Broad understanding of the company and HR.

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cristinamartin

HR Content Specialist

Essential phases of a personnel selection process