Check out iCIMS' latest blog post from iCIMS guest blogger George Ehinger.

Stop the interviewing! Right now. Cancel any that you have your calendar, tell the candidate to leave, whatever it takes.

I mean it.  Before you spend another minute interviewing you need to be sure that this critical step in your hiring process isn’t falling prey to the bias and subjectivity that haunts nearly all interviews.

It’s not that the interview in and of itself is a bad process – you’re just doing it wrong. In fact, most everyone is. Even Google.

In a recent interview, Google’s senior VP of People Operations, Laszlo Bock, admits that Google used to be just as ineffective at hiring as the rest of the world.

“Years ago, we did a study to determine whether anyone at Google is particularly good at hiring. We looked at tens of thousands of interviews, and everyone who had done the interviews and what they scored the candidate, and how that person ultimately performed in their job. We found zero relationship. It’s a complete random mess, except for one guy who was highly predictive because he only interviewed people for a very specialized area, where he happened to be the world’s leading expert”.

Laszlo continues on to say that the brainteasers and pseudo-psychological questions that they - and many others - often utilized actually offer nothing in the way of objective data.  In other words, the interviews that Google was using, and that most are still conducting, don’t tell us how the candidate will really perform in the position or work environment.

So, what changed? Simple: Google started using job-relevant data to create structured, consistent interviews. They started asking the right questions and getting answers that actually matter.  With behavioral data in hand, they’ve been able to align their interviews to a refined set of requirements based on the job.

What’s more, with improved consistency, stakeholders are able to more effectively collaborate on hiring decisions. When recruiters, hiring managers and executive management are able to make conclusions based on the same data, it eliminates the common “apples to oranges” false comparison that many firms unknowingly face.

All of this results in a more streamlined hiring process that generates better hires. While Laszlo is correct that big data can never replace human judgment or inspiration, it can (and should) augment it. Consider leveraging behavioral science based assessments to advance your interview process, if not all of your hiring activities, and improve your firm’s crystal ball for top talent.

At Chequed we offer a suite a Predictive Talent Selection™ tools that enable companies add data to the hiring process, reduce bias, and ultimately make better hiring decisions—and yes, interview better too!
  
Happy hiring,

George

George Ehinger is Chief Marketing Officer at Chequed.com a leading provider of cloud based pre-hire assessments, reference checking and interview guides. Chequed.com is an iCIMS partner with full integration to the iCIMS Talent Platform. You can follow George on twitter @chequedmktg or Linkedin: /georgeehinger/