Interview Biases

 

 

The term "Interview Biases" refer to interview panels or interviewers as they are biased in the recruitment process and may even miss out on a qualified and deserving candidate.

As you know, the interview process is crucial to recruiting any employee who best fits the company's vision and way of working. The pressure was very high on the panel members, and after repeating similar questions during the process, the interviewers stressed a lot. Throughout this entire process, consistency and efficiency may be affected.

Research shows that sixty percent of interviewers have a conclusion about a candidate within the first 10 minutes of an interview. It is possible that a candidate cannot deliver his most satisfactory performance within the first half of the interview, but he can excel at his job. These kinds of biases can consider interview bias.

Interview bias is a state of mind in which the expectation and opinion of the panel undermine their objectivity in making a decision. On the other hand, if the board feels any affinity for or is highly impressed with the candidate, then Interview Bias plays a significant role.

It is well known that bias occurs frequently due to body language, facial expressions, the way of answering questions, etc. In addition, the interviewer is also a human, and the tendency to have biases may be reduced but not eliminated.

There are many types of interview biases, such as:

·       Interviewer stereotype bias: Here, the interviewer has preconceived notions about the candidates based on his or her social status, age, gender, etc., without considering the candidate's skills or capabilities.

·       Interviewer Confirmation Bias: In this approach, you can observe that the interviewer asks the candidate a question, and the answer confirms the interviewer's preconceived notions. Basically, the panel confirms their assumptions that they made while listing a candidate's CV or after their first impression during the interview.

·       Social desirability bias: Here, the interviewer changed the nature of the questionnaire. Whenever the panel wanted candidates of a specific culture, the interviewers refrained from making it evident that they wanted to hire that particular culture's candidates.

·       Recency Bias: As you can see, the word itself indicates recent events, and when an interviewer makes a decision based on these recent happenings, it is called recency bias. The interviewer does not bother about the achievements of the entire period, leading to contrast effect bias.

·       Gender and Racial Bias: It is easy to understand this type of bias where the panel has a prejudice or general view about a particular post that a specific gender or race is not fit for the role. A person may gain this notion from preconceived ideas or from the society to which he belongs.

·       Interviewer Similarity Bias: Here, the interviewer and the candidate have similar interests, hobbies, or personal traits. And the hiring process is influenced more by these aspects than the candidate's qualifications.

·       Halo and Horn Bias: An interviewer is highly impressed by any one aspect of the candidate's personality, education, etc., and this bias leads to the interviewer favoring the candidate without addressing its weaknesses. While on the other hand, horn bias includes a situation where the interviewer picks out one negative point which overrides all other positive or vital areas of the candidate.

 

After you've read through all the significant biases, you should move on to the next phase, where you find out how to reduce these biases during the interview process.

·       Interview guide: This is the primary document to guide the interviewer throughout the process. In addition, it includes a consistent and compliant approach to treating all candidates equally. Also, it defines the right way to ask a question. The panel can change the question as per the need but not infringe the guide's basic structure.

·       Standard Questionnaire: Questionnaires play an essential role in the interview process. The questionnaire formulation includes multiple humans to prepare a standard questionnaire, reducing the possibility of biases.

·       Panel training before an interview: The interview panel members should receive diversity, inclusion, and equality training to reduce hidden intolerance and pre-assumptions. During the training, panel members will be taught to avoid asking irrelevant questions, making assumptions about the candidate, being open-minded, and not considering their looks or body language.

·       Panel diversity: As you read above, humans have few natural biases. To overcome these biases, there should be diversity on the panel. The more you open the pool of interviewers, the more diverse employees you will have at work.

·       Proper assessment matrix: Different criteria should be specified for each candidate in an appropriate assessment matrix. So, the candidate will be assessed on these criteria only in order to provide reasons and evidence for hiring rather than appraisals based on influence, opinion, or bias.

 

Here are some ways to reduce bias and conduct a formal interview to hire the most qualified candidates.

From the above, you came to know what interview bias is. And how the qualities and qualifications of the candidates influence the interviewer. Identify several factors that lead to the manipulation of the interviewers into making poor decisions about the final selection of the candidate, for example, who should or should not be recruited.

The interview process may take on different shapes, and as a human, you have prejudices that can influence the selection of an outstanding candidate. Removing these pre-assumptions from the interview process is critical for keeping the organization receptive to better recruitment of candidates for long-term success.

Now-a-days, companies are adopting various recruitment solutions and tools to reduce the burden of the organization and make the recruitment process less dreadful.

Candidates should be judged honestly and openly, and the panel should select the candidate based on his or her actual attributes and aptitudes. Thus, candidates feel equal and fair when they leave the interview room.