You’re looking for someone to hire for a project – someone with a specific set of skills that’s hard to find in one person. Finally, you come across a resumé that contains just the sort of experience and knowledge you want. You set up an interview, and when the person walks through your office door and sits down…he’s not what you expected.
He’s older, portly, neatly dressed with suspenders holding up his pants and he has a big, unruly salt-and-pepper beard. You are turned off. Who is this guy? He doesn’t have to interface with the customer, but still…
We are all biased to some degree, and it doesn’t serve us. In fact, research shows that job interviews can only predict about 14 percent of employee performance variability (Schmidt and Hunter, 1998). This is because, as social creatures, it’s difficult for us to tease out how much we like someone personally, or how we feel about their appearance, from their actual ability to do the job. One study showed 35 percent of hiring managers’ decisions were influenced by the applicant’s obesity (Postuma and others, 2002).
How can you reduce these biases? After all, especially when hiring a rare skill set, you can’t afford to let your preconceived notions get in the way.
Most hiring managers love unstructured interviews as a means to get to know candidates in a casual way, but multiple studies say this doesn’t bear out as the most accurate process. Mental ability tests, aptitude tests or personality tests are much more reliable.
To reduce bias, use a structured interview consistent from applicant to applicant. Use the same questions, in the same order in each interview. It may seem awkward and not much like a real conversation, but it will pay off in the performance of whomever you hire. Have each interviewer score each answer immediately after it is given. The immediacy is important; if you wait until the end to score the answers, your scores will be influenced by what you remember: most interesting anecdotes or more recent answers.
Some companies, such as Google, take it a step further. Their analytics department compares candidate’s answers to find out which ones are more highly correlated with success on the job. Compose, a cloud storage company, did away with resumés completely. They tested candidates on problem-solving tasks related to the job for which they were applying and never met the applicants face to face.
Data shows that an interviewer is likely to favor applicants they think are attractive and those who look more like the interviewer; it’s human nature. Structured interviews and work task tests may not be sexy, but if you want to get the right employee on your project the first go-round, saving your company time, energy and dollars in the process, it’s the way to go.
Sources: Harvard Business Review; A Better Way to Hire: A Case Study Of 37signals’s Hiring Practices; image credit: Copyright: <a href=’https://www.123rf.com/profile_rawpixel’>rawpixel / 123RF Stock Photo</a>