Recruitment and Selection in the Public and Nonprofi t Sectors 209
city managers, residents, the leadership of community organizations,
and employees are asked to meet the candidates. For nonprofi ts, often
funders, clients, and elected offi cials and public employees in that area
who work closely with the nonprofi t may be asked to meet the prospective
candidates.
For executive selection to be successful, organizations must invest
the time and effort to recognize the interrelationships among individual
behaviors, managerial effectiveness, and organizational success, and they
must plan the search process accordingly (Cascio, 1991).
Conclusion
Organizations periodically need to attract applicants for their existing or
future staffi ng needs. Recruitment is the process of locating qualifi ed candi-
dates. Recruitment strategies should be planned in advance of the agency ’ s
needs. Strategic job analyses and audits of positions and employee skills
should be updated on a regular basis to determine whether incumbent
employees are qualifi ed for promotions or newly created positions. For
some positions, depending on the qualifi cations and experience needed,
agencies may prefer to seek applicants from the external labor market.
After applicants submit r é sum é s or employment applications, the
organization must use job - related criteria to screen the applicants ’ quali-
fi cations for the positions. Those who do not meet the initial criteria are
eliminated from consideration. A variety of selection techniques is avail-
able for organizations to use to help assess applicants ’ skill levels or poten-
tial for success. Cognitive ability tests, personality or interest inventories,
performance tests, ratings of experience and training, assessment centers,
and structured interviews are some of the techniques for evaluating appli-
cants. Organizations must be vigilant that their recruitment and selec-
tion procedures do not violate federal, state, or local equal employment
opportunity laws.
The recruitment and selection process should not end with the hiring
and promotion of employees. Agencies should record their recruitment and
selection procedures so they can be evaluated. The evaluation should iden-
tify the successes and failures at each step in the recruitment process so that
modifi cations can be made if necessary. Future recruitment and selection
strategies should be based on the procedures that attracted the most quali-
fi ed applicants and the screening techniques that best predicted successful
