Even when interview questions are relevant, the interview is a poor predictor of future performance. It demonstrates someone’s competence to answer questions, know theory, and prioritize information – all of which may or may not correlate to what they need to do on the job.
The traditional interview also makes it more likely we hire someone in our image, the “mini me” cognitive error. We can’t help it, however much we feel we’re objective. (Organizational psychologist Adam Grant calls this the “I’m not biased” bias.) Think about it: When someone walks out of your office, or off a Zoom call, what makes you think it was a good interview? Usually, it’s a spark of connection, which happens when you find something in common, not something different. Simply because we’re human, we all tend to substitute this feeling of connectedness as a proxy for competency. In a world more focused on driving DEI, the interview is actually a tool that likely makes it harder to achieve DEI objectives.
Authors: Geoff Tuff, Jeff Johnson, Steve Goldbach
Source: Harvard Business Review
Subjects: Diversity, Human Resources
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