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What do interviewers do wrong?

27th May 2007

The selection interview: What do interviewers do wrong?

  1. Interviewers do not seek information on all the important dimensions needed for successful job performance.  Often they do not have a complete description of the job for which they are interviewing or a profile of the person they seek.
  2. Interviewers often make their decisions within the first three to four minutes of the interview.  The remainder of the interview has little impact on the final decision.
  3. Many interviewers cannot pass a recall test following an interview.
  4. Interviewers tend to develop their own stereotypes of a good applicant and proceed to accept those who match the stereotype.
  5. Where an unstructured panel interview method is used, interviewers tend to overlap in their questioning while other job-related areas are missed altogether.
  6. Below standard candidates may look better if they follow a group of poorer candidates especially where interviews do not use a systematic record of interview such as a rating scale.
  7. Allowing the applicant talk time makes rapid first impressions less likely and provides a larger behaviour sample.
  8. Interviewers are influenced more by unfavourable than by favourable information.
  9. Intelligence is the trait most validly estimated by the interview, but the interview information adds nothing to test data.
  10. Interviewers can explain why an applicant is likely to be unacceptable but not why the applicant will be acceptable.
  11. Practice is not always beneficial.  Interviewers may be practising poor techniques (and becoming very good at them!)
  12. Post-interview discussion is often haphazard.  Interviewers may not identify job-related information or seek to examine any conflicting information.

What can be done? 

To overcome these typical problems, Searson Buck recommends the need for:

  • Interviewer training
  • Systematic job analysis
  • Complete job descriptions and specifications - remember, a job description is more than a simple statement of duties
  • Structured panel interviews
  • Standard rating scales and comprehensive post-interview reports

Or take the stress and risk out of interviewing and let Searson Buck conduct the recruitment process for your organisation. We can save you time and money by selecting the best-available candidate through our proven recruitment management techniques, leaving you free to focus on other areas, sure in the knowledge that your investment in your most valuable resource, your people, is in safe hands with us.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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