What are the best ways to select candidates?
The post, The Interview Illusion, talked about the common self-deception that managers can read people well during an interview. Unstructured interviews are an unreliable way of selecting candidates. So which approaches are stronger?
Here are three suggestions.
Situational Assessments
The most accurate way to assess whether someone is suitable for a job is to observe them on the job and measure their output.
This approach suits operational jobs very well.
How effective are you at interviewing job candidates?
Recently I read Intuition, Its Powers and Perils by David G. Myers. Very entertaining read. It is a more rigorous version of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking by Malcolm Gladwell. Whereas Blink was full of stories and human interest, Intuition quotes the research. This happens to be a style of book that I thoroughly enjoy. Myers fills the pages with references to the original research while developing his argument.
Myers has a chapter on recruitment in which he presents the interview illusion (so called by Richard Nisbett). The interview illusion is the self-deception that managers and recruiters are able to read people well during an interview.
Myers present four reasons for the interview illusion and these are relevant warnings for anyone involved in recruitment.
Recently a company we were assisting was looking to recruit a senior manager. We are not recruiters, however we do help our clients with critical processes and decisions.
The candidate would become the senior manager in the company and will be responsible for all aspects of the company. The company placed ads in various places including job web sites, industry web sites and the Straits Times. The job ads included the name of the company and its line of business. Potential applicants could only apply through an email.
We received just over 90 applications. The whole process was successful and the position has now been filled with a strong candidate.
Remember that we were looking for a senior manager. This person would set the direction of the company and we had to have the confidence that they could steer the company in the right direction. The first clue for this competence will come from the application.
Consider some statistics from the process.
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