Establishing the Traits for Best Performing Employee Selection in Telecom

Sector through Data Mining

Sabahat Mahmood1, Irfan Manarvi2
1
International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) Pakistan
2
HITEC University, Taxila Education City, Taxila (irfanmanarvi@yahoo.com)

ABSTRACT

The research investigates top ten personality traits from top ten best performers for developing new hiring criteria for
future hiring program to improve the employee’s performance which in return increase company’s productivity and
profitability. A number of parameters were identified from past literature and used to develop a questionair for existing
employees to establish their characteristics strengths. Perfomance of 100 call ceneter employees was evaluated over a
period of six months. And the values for each parameter were established for top employees. The same values if
included in employee selection tests could provide short listing of better quality employees from the start

Keywords: Data Mining, Personality Traits, Hiring criteria,

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has the potential to learn whatever is necessary [10]. A

1. INTRODUCTION
Traits are distinguishing qualities or characteristics of a
person. These could also be stated as a readiness to
think or act in a similar fashion in response to a variety
of different stimuli or situations. So personality traits
that may differ in quantities can be analyzed to
distinguish one employee from another [1]. Technically,
data mining is a process of finding correlations or
patterns among dozens of fields in large relational
databases [4]. These and other applications of data
mining in selection of personality traits are helpful in
exploring the hidden and obvious links, patterns and
trends etc. Investigating all these links, patterns and
trends may give a clear picture or image of traits
required for a hiring program.
candidate’s personality should play a major role in the
hiring process [11]. A system that evaluates personality
traits is more likely to find the appropriate person for
the vacant position. Following flow chart [12] shows
that how personality traits or behavior of an employee
could be important for achieving organizational goals.
2. THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK
An Investigation into the past research revealed that a
considerable amount of literature is there regarding how
personality traits are important to consider while hiring
new employees as shown in Figure 1.0. For this
purpose a company was selected in Islamabad whose
100 employees data was mined for analysis. The traits
selected for this investigation were as follows:

Assessment of personality traits could be used to predict Communication skills

the extent to which an employee may contribute to an Learning skills
organization in future. Hiring assessment centers are Eye for details
often used by municipal governments to evaluate Problem Solving
applicants for job vacancies[5] [6]. Each of these Potential for growth
dimensions represents a facet of an individual’s Listening skills
personality. Individual characteristics that predispose Understanding the job
people to be more proactively adaptable are clearly Motivation to do the work
beneficial, as individuals now are required to negotiate a Courtesy and empathy
never-ending series of workplace changes and
transitions [7].

Good listening skills are important for an employee, as

he need to probe to find out the who, what, when,
where, why and how [8]. By far, the one skill mentioned
most often by employers is the ability to listen, write,
and speak effectively. Successful communication is
critical in business [9]. A competent person is the one
good fit for the job. It means that the person possesses
all of the skills and abilities required to do the work or

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Fig 1.0 What Drives Organization Results [12]
3. COMMUNICATION SKILLS
In a call center work environment as of this company,
communications skills of an employee with the clients,
his/her own team and peers is considered to be of
fundamental importance. All employees were rated at a
scale from 0 to 12. The data of 100 employees revealed
that highest scorer in this area was at 10 and the best
performers were between 8-10 as shown in Figure 2.0
(a), and (b) below
Fig 2.0 (a) First Group Score
An average value of 9 could be considered suitable for
incorporation in selection criteria for any future hiring
program. Employees with lower than this value during
selection would require lot of training by the company
which might not be financially feasible. However if the
company had a rigorous training program, it could
undertake new employees who scored between 7-8
during their tests.
4. LEARNING SKILLS
This was the second most important parameter to be
considered for employees selection. The company was
providing services to its international customers.
Therefore, even if a new entrant had good
communication skills, he/she would need training on
cultural requirements of the clients. A new employee
may have not come across these in the past. Therefore
employees with quick learning skills could imbed in the
company much easily after initial training. The data for
learning curves for 100 employees showed the
following trends as in Figure 3 (a), and (b).
Fig 3.0 (a) Learning Skills of First Group
Fig 3.0 (b) Learning Skills of Second Group
The present employees were rated on a scale of 0-20 in
this faculty. The above figures show that the employees
were scoring between 18-20 marks in this category.
There were some employees who had a poor
performance but they were soon removed from the
company. So in order to select best performing future
employees, the company could introduce the minimum
learning ability value to be 18 during its assessment
tests of new employees.
5. EYE FOR DETAILS
The company basic functions required the review of
product and clients details in terms of specifications and
requirements. Missing any of customers requirements or
inability to explain the features of products could entail
serious repercussions on company image. Therefore the
employees were expected to have a sufficiently high
degree of this parameter as their mandatory capability.
The data collected for 100 employees showed results as
in Fig 4.0 (a), and (b) below:

Fig 5.0 (a) Problem Solving Ability Group One

Fig 4.0 (a) Eye for Details Score for Group One

Fig 5.0 (b) Problem Solving Ability Group Two

Reviewing the above results, a value of 8 during

Fig 4.0 (b) Eye for Details Score of Group Two
The value of this parameter ranged between 4-10.
Which showed that most of the employees seriously
lacked this trait. And its absence was being observed as
leading to poor quality of service to the customers. The
company was therefore required to select employees
with higher values at the entry levels. Based on this
investigation it could be recommended that the
company should keep a minimum value of 7 for this
trait during selection of employees.
6. PROBLEM SOLVING
selection criteria could be cosnidered as mandatory for
hiring management level employees. However for lower
levels a value of 7 could be considered suitable.
7. POTENTIAL FOR GROWTH
This parameter was also linked with the selection of
candidates for future management positions. The
expansion of business and establishment of teams could
require a higher number of team leaders and supervisory
staff. The results of 100 employees shown in Fig 6(a)
and (b) (c) confirmed that its value ranged between 8-
10. Therefore the lowest value of 8.0 could be included
in the section criteria through this parameter.

This ability is mostly required for the management and

supervisory positions in this company. It could be
developed over a period of time through training and
counseling. An experienced employee could acquired a
higher degree of problem solving skills. As seen from
Figure 5 (a), and (b) below, the group employees had
this value ranging from 8-10 which was a fair level of
competence.
 Fig 6.0 (a) Potential for Growth
Fig 6.0 (b) Potential for Growth Group Two
8. LISTENING SKILLS
The employees are expected to call the prospective
clients as well as respond to their inquiries through
telephonic conversation. It demanded a very high degree
of listening comprehension ability from the employees.
The results observed are shown in Fig 7 (a) and (b):
Fig 7.0 (a) Listening Skills Group One
Fig 7.0 (b) Listening Skills for Group Two
The results of this parameter showed that the score of
past employees ranged between 15-20. Some of the
employees scored very less and were told to quit the
job due to their inability to comprehend the customer
requirements. The best performing employees were
found to have scored 19-20 in this parameter. It was
therefore considered that the minimum value for this
parameter during selection of employees was to be
maintained at 18.0 because of its critical nature.
9. UNDERSTANDING THE JOB
The data for this parameter was found to range between
8-10 for the selected employees as shown in Figure 8 (a)
and (b) . It was primarily because the selected
employees were experienced and performed better in
this assessment. Fore selection of employees with no
past experience this value could be put at 7.0 instead of
8.0 because the seniors could teach this trait to the new
entrants. However preference during hiring could be
given to those with similar past experience.
Fig 8.0 (a) Understanding the Job Group One
Fig 8.0 (b) Understanding the Job Group Two
10. MOTIVATION TO DO WORK
This parameter was directly related to the work
environment being provided by the company. A highly
motivated employee initially could get de-motivated due
to office politics and unfair treatment of employers.
Whereas an average employee could feel motivated and
deliver his best in a better work environment and
fulfillment of his needs. The score for this parameter
ranged between 5-9 on a scale of 0-10. The average
value was observed to be around 7. Therefore the same
value could be considered suitable during hiring
program selection criteria.
Fig 9.0 (a) Motivation to Work Group One
Fig 9.0 (b) Motivation to Work Group Two
11. COURTESY AND EMPATHY
This parameter is directly associated with the quality of
service being provided by an employee to the customer.
Results for various groups are shown in Fig 10 (a) and
(b) below:
Fig 10.0 (a) Courtesy and Empathy Group One
Fig 10.0 (b) Courtesy and Empathy Group Two
In a highly competitive environment of business the
volume of business could be increased phenomenally
through creation of this trait among the employees this
is also based on the schooling as well as parental
grooming of young men and women. Personnel with
could manners and behavior are naturally expected to
score high in this trait. Its importance is however
towards providing high quality of service to the
customers. The corporate customers need to be handled
by senior managers with even better score values for
this trait. Therefore a high value of this trait could mean
selection of a higher quality of employee right from the
start. From present investigations the value could be
maintained at 8.5 for the hiring criteria.
12. FINDINGS
This investigation confirmed the importance of initially
chosen parameters for inclusion in the new employee
hiring criteria. The critical findings of this study were as
follows:
a) The selected parameters could be incorporated
in development of new hiring criteria by the
company.
b) The values for individual parameters could be
chosen as already given with each of these.
c) Individuals scoring according to these numbers
could become the best performers in the company
and could uplift the brand image as well as provide
quality service to customers.
d) Selection of lower scoring employees could
seriously decrease the profits of this services
oriented company.
13. CONCLUSION
The company needed to establish a highly competitive
environment with in as well as face similar environment
in the market. To be an excellent service provider was
the basic aim of this company that could only be
achieved through a dynamic workforce. Selection of the
workforce was the fundamental step in the entire
process of this company. The results of each parameter
confirmed that the same values were a must for
inclusion in the selection tests and exams of new
entrants. A continuous revision of such performance
data could improve the overall selection and training
systems of this company. Other companies aspiring to
improve their employee selection criteria could use
methodology
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