[MBA] Case Study : 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?

National City Corporation is headquartered on Cleveland and working as banking firm that employees around 32,000 people. Being one of top 100 employers the selection process might have been harder unless it implements Virtual Job Tryout for selecting candidates for job.So it help company select right people and save resources too.The process distinguished it from others and helped build employer brand too. National City coordinates with consulting firm for development and selection of appropriate simulation process. Implementing online system saves time and helps efficient selection process. Furthermore the online assessment is not final one but just a phase for further process.The firm believes such process help finding appropriate employee for company.

Analysis of Case

There are many firms that implements selection virtual selection process. Online selection process is not applicable for final decision making or decide whom to recruit but whom to not recruit. Virtual Job Tryout are widely implemented in Banking, Distribution/Logistics, Financial Services, Heal care and many more (Shaker, 2015).It is more appropriate for organization that seeks candidates over the globe and with large number of application droppings.

Pro and Cons of Virtual Assessment

Virtual assessment is widely applicable but is not possible on every sector. Virtual assessment is a phase on candidate selection but not the final one to decide whom to hire. VJT creates interactive simulation on the same way experience on video games and fight simulations. We can list the pro and cons as:

Pros

Implementing VJT gives candidates a real picture of his role on company. Just verbal description cannot met such simulation scenario
Selection can be done from other end of globe too, geographical and territorial difficulties couldn’t bar applications
The selection process be faster and consumes less time, since candidates don’t have to visit company physically
VJT is proved to be cost effective and consume less manpower to interview candidates
Employer can extract huge information and analyze candidate with VJT rather than verbal communication
Cons

Having said that we can collect many information via VJT the validity of information extracted is a big question because candidate may provide false academic qualification, wrong CVs or overact of being well known of any scenario
Distant interview lacks ability to get candidates attitude and behavior because there is not direct eye to eye contact.
Not all companies are able to afford such high requirement of technology nor candidates on other end might have access to high speed internet and reach on VJT environment
VJT is not applicable for every nature of jobs

Concerns aboutVirtual Assessment

Being efficient and ease of execution VJT have some concerns when I were an applicant like:

VJT might have biasness because there is communication gap between interviewer and interviewees. Having said employer choses best among the candidates we might not be sure of it.
Scenario given to each candidate might give different answer and perspective but how employer understands, interprets and decides is not highly reliable on all cases.
Job description and working environment employer describes on virtual meeting might not assure me what is it actually like

Steps for Nondiscriminatory and Fair Selection Process

Already stated that VJT might bring biasness and lack of natural interaction between parties there are some steps should be followed to avoid discrimination making selection process fair

The job description and specifications should clearly be defined during vacancy announcement, interviewing and candidate selection
Question set and scenario should be designed before meeting and the benchmarking should be done independent of interviewer and candidates
Single selection team should interview all candidate so that they know competitive advantages or selection or bypassing one to another
Company should ask for validity and originality of documents submitted and later on cross check with concerned authorities
Interviewer should make grade for each response and clearly let it discuss between colleagues

Response from Employees on VJT

The virtual assessment for selection on National City Corporate face with variant of employees. Some find this more effective and modern one while on other hand find this as a way to bias and give less priority on body language and work nature.So employees react differently to this selection process. Response from candidate depends on their competencies and background. Some finds this process easier because they won’t be able to discuss visiting the company physically but some candidates might find they are screened to collect information about company and working environment.

Applicability of Virtual Assessment

Companies should implement assessment differently depending on job nature and nature of company. Not all company are able to select candidates with this process too. For example selecting an instructor or teacher might be done my VJT that consist of measuring candidate’s knowledge. But on the other hand VJT might not be applicable of recruiting Engineering employee because it needs testing with skills candidates do have. Furthermore verbal or theoretical explanation of construction process is not best enough to select construction engineer. For manager and supervisor selection we many throw some scenario of difficulties and ask for possible ways to mitigate those situation. Such assessment would give clear picture of one’s ability and competencies.

Jobs Matching Virtual Assessment

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

Conclusion

National City Corporation is easing and making effective on candidate selection process. There are both pro and cons of VJT. But we may decide whether to go for VJT or other technique during selection. Companies like National City that employees 32,000 employees would face hard on interviewing when there is flood of applicant from the globe. So it is advised to make clear view and benchmark before candidate selection. Being distance from interviewer will lack candidate’s belief on employer so employer should describe well about marking and selection process before, during and after interview process.

References

Lepak, D. &Gowan, M. (2010). Human resource management: Managing employees for competitive advantage. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall

Shaker,. (2015). Examples of Existing Virtual Job Tryouts – Shaker. Retrieved 27 September 2015, from http://shakercg.com/solutions/examples-existing-virtual-job-tryouts/

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