The JobSync Blog
Seeing Through Deception in Interviews
February 14, 2012
We all know how inefficient the interview and selection processes are for finding the best fitting candidates for positions. Aside from the huge numbers of resumes that pour in for a single position, studies have shown that candidates who are attractive, eloquent, charming, and tall have a distinct advantage over those who are less so, even if they are much poorer matches for a position. Despite how well known these problems are, interviewers fall prey to these factors time and time again, much to the detriment and cost of their companies.
Recently, Berkeley business professor Don Moore touched on these issues in a recent blog for Forbes.com. In his MBA leadership class, Moore proved how poorly people judge the performance potential of others by having every student interview two other students in the same class and predict who would perform better on an upcoming exam. Only 56% guessed correctly, only slightly better than a random coin flip.
And Moore’s solution to make the interviewing process more objective? Administer intelligence tests. Moore contends that intelligence test are the best judge of mental ability, and he maintains that research has shown that mental ability is the best indicator of job performance. To complement such tests, he also feels they should be paired with a well-structured interview where candidates are scored by their responses.
At JobSync, while we think that mental ability is important, it hardly tells the whole picture of candidate fit. Just because someone has the mental ability to perform a job doesn’t mean that their personality and temperament will fit at the company nor provide any indicator of how well they will collaborate with others. As we often point out, research has shown that 89% of mis-hires result a from lack of interpersonal fit, not skills or aptitude. And while structured interviews that are scored also seem like a good idea, they seem predisposed – at least to some extent – to the same kind of bias that afflicts general interviewing. To learn more about how we match candidates to job opportunities, take a look at our research or contact us at info@jobsync.com.
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