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Virtual Selection At National City Corporation National City Corporation, a mult

ID: 389679 • Letter: V

Question

Virtual Selection At National City Corporation

National City Corporation, a multistate banking firm with headquarters in Cleveland, Ohio, employs around 32,000 people. The company has been named one of "The Top 100 Employers” by The Black Collegian magazine. National City, founded in 1845, is one of the nation's largest financial holding companies.

National City uses a computerized simulation of specific job-related tasks known as "Virtual Job Tryout” to select candidates for jobs. In effect, job candidates get to audition for the job they want. The company believes that this type of assessment does more than help the company select the right people. The process also gives National City Corporation a distinctive recruiting experience that creates a unique impression on applicants and helps build the employer brand of the company.

National City worked with a consulting firm to develop several virtual simulations. The simulations have audio and video interactivity and are quite appealing to younger job applicants such as Gen Y'ers. Call center applicants, for instance, are given scenarios requiring them to solve customer service problems. Branch manager applicants have to demonstrate their skills at developing client relationships and making quick personnel decisions. Of course, these online assessments are just part of the overall selection process, but they are the next step in getting hired after completing the application process.

The firm believes that this part of its selection process is an educational tool that helps potential employees learn about the company. According to one of the consultants involved in the development of the simulation, innovative companies are looking for unique experiences such as this one to make their selection process stand out.

Answer the following questions by applying the concepts learned in Chapter 7. Also, conduct literature reviews on the subject of discussion and use to support your case study answers:

Discuss the pros and cons of using virtual assessment for employee selection. To answer this question, you may want to do further research on the concept of virtual assessment for selection.

What concerns would you have about this selection process if you were an applicant?

Describe the steps the company would need to take to ensure that the selection process is nondiscriminatory and fair.

Do you think all types of employees would react the same to virtual assessment? Why? Why not?

For what type of skills is the virtual assessment best suited (e.g., hard, soft, business, engineering, other)? Explain your response.

Are there jobs for which this type of assessment would not be appropriate?

Explanation / Answer

Pros and Cons of using virtual assessment for Employee Selection

Online assessment systems allow companies to attract applications from all over the world and filter them in a time- and cost-effective way. More importantly, they offer a tangible way of assessing an individual’s skills for a particular role and how they would fit within an organization.

Pros:

Cons:

What concerns would you have about this selection process if you were an applicant?

Answer: If I was an applicant, I would be concerned about the possibility of discrimination, how co-workers accept the new person from overseas.

Describe the steps the company would need to take to ensure that the selection process is nondiscriminatory and fair.

Answer: The Company must define their job posting clearly. They should define what competencies are required for the specific position. They must develop the same set of question and must ask the same questions for every candidate. Potential applicant’s responses should be recorded and the company must select the best-suited applicant.

Do you think all types of employees would react the same to virtual assessment? Why? Why not?

Answer: No, each individual is different from each other. So, its natural every response has its own voice and thought process. VA may eliminate someone who has any kind of disability be it learning or physical. Also, Some find this more effective and modern one while on other hand find this as a way to bias and give less priority to body language and work nature. So employees react differently to this selection process.

For what type of skills is the virtual assessment best suited (e.g., hard, soft, business, engineering, other)? Explain your response.

Answer: I would say that interpersonal and business skills are best suited to test using virtual assessment which includes the position in call centers, consulting, etc.

Are there jobs for which this type of assessment would not be appropriate?

We discussed virtual assessment (VA) can be applied to select candidates for a job where checking knowledge level and interpretation ability is enough but VA might view the negative result on selecting candidates for a job which require special experiences, skill and physical abilities. We can select candidates for marketing, sales and call center by VA because there is nothing to do or test calling those candidates physically but for mechanical, engineering and medical sector VA will have to have to pay the high cost on failing to choose best one.