Summary: An Interview With HR

When one consider the initial function of Human Resource (HR), one will associate with the administrative role, with hiring and firing employees as the main task. As a psychology student who is passionate about research, I find that most psychology research labs do not have an HR department. To understand how research labs manage HR related duties, I interviewed Ms. Lexie Goertzen, the Principal Recruiter of Minnesota Center for Twin and Family Research (MCTFR). Ms. Goertzen’s roles in MCTFR include communicating with participants in five longitudinal studies, ensuring safety of participants during MRI scans, being the point of contact if there is any issues that participants may come across, connecting with participants and families, lastly, recruiting, hiring, and training assessment staffs. This interview is heavily focused on the selection of human resource. Nowadays, on top of résumés, application forms are heavily used by many organizations as the basis of prescreening information. I think that application form is a waste of time from the perspective of an applicant, hence, I asked Ms. Goertzen for her expert opinion. Unexpectedly, …show more content…
Ms. Goertzen contended ability and personality tests can provide employers with a better idea of one’s ability and talents as interview sessions might be too short. Personality test, in particular, helps a lot in the hiring process as it predicts whether or not a person can integrate well with the company or staffs. Despite the benefits of utilizing assessment tests, it can be very time consuming for the applicants to complete the tests. As for Ms. Goertzen, she will ask the applicant’s Myer Briggs or Big-5 personality test results. By doing so, she can understand one better as well as assess knowledge of the applicants as all personality tests are psychology related knowledge, which is relevant to the applicant’s