Strategic Recruitment and Selection Practices and Employee Selection Effectiveness in Private Hospitals: A Comparative Structural Equation Modelling Study of Raichur and Ballari Districts

Recruitment Practices, Selection Practices, Employee Selection Effectiveness, Private Hospitals, Structural Equation Modelling, AMOS, Raichur, Ballari, Karnataka.

Recruitment and selection practices play a critical role in ensuring that private hospitals attract and appoint employees with appropriate qualifications, competencies and job-related capabilities. This study examines the influence of Recruitment Planning (RP), Recruitment Sources (RS), Screening and Shortlisting (SS), Selection Methods (SM), and Fairness and Transparency (FT) on Employee Selection Effectiveness (SE) in private hospitals in Raichur and Ballari districts of Karnataka. A structured questionnaire based on a five-point Likert scale was used to collect responses from 500 employees, comprising 250 respondents from Raichur and 250 from Ballari. Data were analysed using SPSS and AMOS through descriptive statistics, reliability analysis, exploratory factor analysis (EFA), confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), structural equation modelling (SEM), bootstrapping and multi-group SEM. The measurement model demonstrated strong reliability, with Cronbach's alpha values ranging from 0.856 to 0.914, composite reliability from 0.859 to 0.916, and AVE from 0.604 to 0.734. The CFA demonstrated satisfactory model fit (χ²/df = 1.598, CFI = .974, TLI = .970, RMSEA = .036 and SRMR = .039). The structural model also showed satisfactory fit (χ²/df = 1.660, CFI = .969, TLI = .964, RMSEA = .038 and SRMR = .042) and explained 71.2% of the variance in Employee Selection Effectiveness (R² = .712). The standardized path coefficients indicated significant positive effects of Recruitment Planning (β = .181, p = .003), Recruitment Sources (β = .126, p = .027), Screening and Shortlisting (β = .214, p < .001), Selection Methods (β = .251, p < .001) and Fairness and Transparency (β = .337, p < .001) on Employee Selection Effectiveness. Multi-group SEM indicated that the structural relationships did not differ significantly between Raichur and Ballari, with critical-ratio tests ranging from −0.26 to 0.45 (p > .05). The findings provide empirical evidence that systematic recruitment planning, appropriate sourcing, rigorous screening, structured selection methods and transparent selection procedures are important dimensions of effective employee selection in private hospitals.