Should You Believe Your Instincts When Hiring?
How difficult can it be to conduct an interview and determine a candidate’s suitability for a given requirement or position? Well, let’s get to it. We can all conduct interviews and decide whether or not they look like a good fit for the position, but the real question is: Can we TRUST our judgement? To get an answer to this, let us first get into the details of human psychology, revolving around human tendencies and prejudices.
Human psychology – What the experts have to say
• Dr. Daniel Kahneman, who has received the Nobel Prize for his innovations in behavioural economics and human psychology, has spent decades in researching the science underlying a better understanding of decision-making, the reasons why some judgement errors are so frequent, and what we can do to increase the accuracy of our decisionmaking processes.
• Malcolm Gladwell, the author of five New York Times bestsellers, has provided numerous examples of human propensity for making quick decisions, and taking actions based more on intuition than on logic or evidence.
• Daniel Simons, an experimental psychologist, cognitive scientist, and professor in the department of psychology, has researched to demonstrate that human observation cannot be relied upon to provide an accurate record of the world and its unfolding events.
What does that leave us with now that we’ve mentioned a Nobel Prize winner, a best-selling author, and a psychology professor? All of them have concluded one thing that human psychology is all about making fast decisions based on only impressions, without any validations. How risky and how fruitful can that be?
Believing your instincts while hiring
Now, comingback tothe question whetherwe should believe our instinctswhile hiring, let’s make clear that this is no easy feat. It is a huge responsibility that has the power to make or break a company’s reputation. Here are the four most important lessons to take away from the research done by the aforementioned experts and information provided by their works.
• The human DNA is programmed to make decisions quickly. This element is quite important when it comes to assessing any forthcoming danger. However, we should take our time and avoid making snap judgements when faced with situations that call for more considered judgement, such as candidate interviews.
• In particular, while evaluating individuals under consideration for a position during a search, we should avoid relying on “first impressions” and instead use an evaluation based on well-defined interviewing procedures that can result in repeatable and long-lasting improvements in candidate selection.
• We must look for a way to be able to review the information gathered through resumes, video interviews, and phone calls. In order to better capture applicant qualifications and avoid decision bias and revisionist history, meticulous and well-organized note-taking should be done too.
• We must use evaluation tools that have been accredited and proven to aid impartiality, prevent selection bias, and to identify prospective areas to delve deeper into with candidates that are not apparent through conventional interviewing procedures.
These four best practises should enable us all to increase the likelihood of successful hiring and decrease both false positive and false negatives by building on research and its findings. And, if you’re not really sure, you can always leave the task in the hands of experts like WalkWater Talent Advisors, one of the top retained executive search firms in India, who brings a special combination of
qualities, including global coverage, intensive client partnership, and deep domain knowledge, combined with passion for success and unwavering commitment to values, delivering to every client an experience that is unmatched.