Great article in this month's Fast Company mocking what they refer to as the "Official Hiring Process of America", which invariably culminates in the all-important interview. The final seal of approval. The intuitive capturing of that certain je ne sais quoi. The moment when interviewer peers into interviewee's soul and instantly -- as argues Malcolm Gladwell -- assesses work ethic, cultural fit, and latent potential....Or so we like to think.
Decades of research indicates that interviews are not predictive of on-the-job performance. Rather, they tell us how adept candidates are at - well, interviewing. Yet we continue to rely on them as the most critical step of the hiring process, in large part because we in the hiring world like to believe ourselves particularly skilled at it. Psychologist Richard Nisbett calls this the "interview illusion" -- the certainty that we're learning more from an interview than we actually are.
So how to tell if a candidate will stack up on the job? Fast Company recommends peer ratings, job-knowledge tests, even intelligence tests. But the number one indicator? A work sample. Potential salespeople need to make an on-the-spot pitch. Potential admins need to handle some incoming calls and give instant minutes of the meeting you've just had.
And when you're looking at a potential service worker or laborer, WorkSquare recommends inviting them for a working interview and have them actually do the work. Two days on the job and you'll have far more valuable hiring information (and at negligible cost) than eight hours of interviews could ever provide.
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