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228 Part 3 • Organizing
selection process
Screening job applicants to ensure that the most Watch it 1!
appropriate candidates are hired If your professor has assigned this, go to the Assignments section of mymanagementlab.com to
complete the video exercise titled CH2MHill: Human Resource Management.

2B How Does a Manager Handle Layoffs?
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Coca-Cola laid off 1,600 to 1,800 of its corporate U.S. and international employees. American
Express cut costs by eliminating 4,000 jobs after failing to meet long-term revenue growth tar-
8
gets. eBay cut 2,400 jobs (7 percent of its workforce) to adapt to changing conditions. 9
In the past decade, and especially during the last few years, most global organizations, as
well as many government agencies and small businesses, have been forced to shrink the size
of their workforce or restructure their skill composition. Downsizing has become a relevant
strategy for meeting the demands of a dynamic environment.

What are doWnSizing oPtionS? Obviously, people can be fired, but other
restructuring choices may be more beneficial to the organization. Exhibit 7–4 summarizes a
manager’s major downsizing options. Keep in mind that, regardless of the method chosen,
employees suffer. We discuss downsizing more fully—for both victims and survivors—later
in this chapter.

3 How Do Managers Select Job Applicants?
Once the recruiting effort has developed a pool of applicants, the next step in the HRM process
is to determine who is best qualified for the job. In essence, then, the selection process is a
prediction exercise: It seeks to predict which applicants will be “successful” if hired; that is,
who will perform well on the criteria the organization uses to evaluate its employees. In filling
a network administrator position, for example, the selection process should be able to predict
which applicants will be capable of properly installing, debugging, managing, and updating
the organization’s computer network. For a position as a sales representative, it should predict
which applicants will be successful at generating high sales volumes. Consider, for a moment,
that any selection decision can result in four possible outcomes. As shown in Exhibit 7–5, two
outcomes would indicate correct decisions, and two would indicate errors.

Exhibit 7–4 Downsizing Options

option deScription
Firing Permanent involuntary termination
Layoffs Temporary involuntary termination; may last only a few
days or extend to years
Attrition Not filling openings created by voluntary resignations
or normal retirements
Transfers Moving employees either laterally or downward; usually
does not reduce costs but can reduce intraorganizational
supply–demand imbalances
Reduced workweeks Having employees work fewer hours per week, share
jobs, or through furloughs perform their jobs on
a part-time basis
Early retirements Providing incentives to older and more-senior employees
for retiring before their normal retirement date
Job sharing Having employees, typically two part-timers, share one
full-time position