Matchmaking under uncertainty: how hiring criteria and requirements in professional work are co-created
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/ER-06-2022-0262 |
| Published date | 14 December 2022 |
| Date | 14 December 2022 |
| Pages | 603-614 |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Industrial/labour relations,Employment law |
| Author | Gerbrand Tholen |
Matchmaking under uncertainty:
how hiring criteria and
requirements in professional work
are co-created
Gerbrand Tholen
City, University of London, London, UK
Abstract
Purpose –The aim of the study is to understand how the hiring process develops in cases where there are no
explicit or formal requirements. How do implicit and informal criteria and requirements impact the process of
selecting the right candidate?
Design/methodology/approach–A qualitative approach was employed through the use of semi-structured
interviews with 47 external recruitment consultants in the south of England.
Findings –In contrast to what is assumed in mainstream Human Resource Management literature, employers
do not rely on a comprehensive implicit understanding of what is needed in cases where there are no explicit
criteria and requirements. Instead, high uncertainty makes the development of criteria and requirements
incremental and negotiable but also problematic. The analysis shows that three mechanisms compensate for
the lack of certainty in the hiring process. First, interviews with applicants shape how the hiring criteria
develop. Second, market signals of what is available in the labour market help construct the criteria and
requirements. Third, criteria and requirements are interpreted and negotiated during interactions with
recruiters and others.
Originality/value –Hiring without explicit requirements and criteria is often understood as rather
unproblematic and/or not fundamentally distinct from hiring with them. The study shows that in these cases
the process becomes more unpredictable and more open to interpretation and negotiation.
Keywords Hiring, Criteria, Requirements, Intermediaries, Interpretation
Paper type Research paper
1. Introduction
The hiring process is often understood as a matching process between (1) candidates and
their skill, knowledge and (productive) characteristics and (2) jobs with technical and
functional-specific criteria of performance and suitability criteria, such as attitude, manner
and organisational fit (Picardi, 2020). To make appropriate recruitment decisions, employers’
requirements must be accurately matched with candidates’profiles. During this process, job
requirements and hiring criteria must, ideally, be stable, transparent and set from the
beginning [1]. However, requirements and criteria can be (largely) hidden from the hiring
process. In these cases, employers will not formalise them or make them explicit. It is assumed
by some that in these cases, employers will select candidates based on their experience of
recruiting similar roles elsewhere (i.e. implicit notions of criteria and requirements) (Heneman
and Judge, 2012), or, by others that the lack of formal or explicit criteria and requirements
does not profoundly change the hiring process (Finlay and Coverdill, 2002). Yet alternative
explanations have not been tested. Not enough is known about why employers enter the
hiring process without criteria or requirements and how this impacts the hiring process.
There is not much empirical evidence for why criteria and requirements are not made explicit
and how that may affect the hiring process. To find out, we investigate the experiences of
external recruiters, who work closely with employers. The study uses data from 47 semi-
structured interviews with recruitment consultants who predominantly recruit for finance
positions, the public sector, marketing and engineering in England.
Matchmaking
under
uncertainty
603
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
https://www.emerald.com/insight/0142-5455.htm
Received 9 June 2022
Revised 3 October 2022
22 November 2022
Accepted 22 November 2022
Employee Relations: The
International Journal
Vol. 45 No. 3, 2023
pp. 603-614
© Emerald Publishing Limited
0142-5455
DOI 10.1108/ER-06-2022-0262
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