Personnel evaluation with AHP

One of the more difficult problems facing academic, business and government institutions is that of evaluating job and/or promotion candidates. A typical evaluation consists of several tasks. First, applications must be gathered. Then, they must be evaluated using a number of criteria such as education, experience, personality, etc. Finally, a weighted average of the various criteria must be developed for each applicant or promotion candidate which represents the individual’s overall desirability. Two of the chief difficulties in the above process are: rating individuals for each of the criteria; and developing a logical and consistent set of weights for the various criteria. In this paper we will present Saaty’s Analytical Hierarchy Process as a means of dealing with these difficulties. We will also discuss some of the practical problems encountered in applying the method.