A Commonsense Idea for Removing Interview Bias
Bias is insidious. Politics is the best example of bias at its worst. Long ago I learned how to overcome interviewing bias by accident by conducting a non-interview. The story went something like this:
Long before my recruiting days I was asked by our CEO to interview a person he was considering to engage as a consultant for a four-month process reengineering project. Since I was part of the project the CEO believed my assessment would be important. The person came highly referred but I was instantly put off by his appearance, age and accent. Regardless, since we didn’t need to be best friends or work together for the long term, none of this mattered.
To get started I asked the person to give me a quick overview of his background and how he got to be an “expert” in our area of need. It took 20 minutes to go through his work history and understand some of his major accomplishments and why he got assigned to them. It was quickly apparent he was a quick learner, hard worker and had the right background for handling projects comparable in scope, scale and complexity to the process improvement project we envisioned.
To better understand his project management skills I asked him to give me an example of the biggest process improvement effort he’d ever worked on. Part of this was asking him to clarify the following:
1. How he got assigned the project.
2. A description of the big challenges, the major deliverables and measures of success.
3. How he figured out the problem and developed the plan.
4. A detailed description of the project plan and the major milestones.
5. How he managed to the plan and if it was met.
6. The people on the team and how he selected and trained the people, since he would be training us.
7. The biggest decision he made and the process he used to make it.
8. The biggest problem he faced and how he resolved it.
9. The formal recognition he received, if any, for completing this project.
This took another 20 minutes but by the time we were done it was abundantly clear he was extremely competent. However, I still wasn’t sure of his ability to handle our specific problems so I just described our project needs in broad detail and asked how he’d figure out the best solution and implement it. For this part I was more interested in the approach he would use to develop a solution, not the solution itself. We covered this over the next 20 minutes in a give-and-take discussion including some complex “what…if” questions. By then it was clear he understood our issues including knowing what he didn’t know and how he’d figured out how to find the right answers.
Now here was a big surprise. By the end of the hour interview I was dumbfounded that I barely noticed his accent, his appearance was far better than I first thought and I realized his age had nothing to do with his ability. In fact, we became pretty good friends long before the project was completed.
It’s now 40 years later and I’m still using this basic approach. The big finding: to eliminate bias wait until the end of the interview to determine if you like the person enough to be a full-time employee and if he/she fits within your culture.
Job seekers can force this ability before likability mindset by asking the interviewer to describe real job needs at the beginning of the interview. Then describe a few projects that are most related.
I find it odd that we interview people we know differently than people we don’t know. With acquaintances the focus is on the person’s past performance and potential, but with strangers we focus more on skills, personality and presentation. Using this performance-based interviewing approach I stumbled upon years ago, you’ll discover you can more accurately interview strangers and acquaintances exactly the same way just by assessing ability before assessing likeability.
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Lou Adler (@LouA) is the CEO of The Adler Group, a consulting and training firm helping companies implement Performance-based Hiring. He's also a regular columnist for Inc. Magazine, SHRM and BusinessInsider. His new Performance-based Hiring self-paced learning course - The Hiring Machine - is now available 24/7. His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench, 2013) is now being published in Korea and Japan. It provides hands-on advice for job-seekers, hiring managers and recruiters on how to find the best job and hire the best people.
Heart-Centred Leadership / L&D / Communications Specialist ERS | Risk Management, Cert NLP Master Pract
6 年Lou Adler - Excellent article, and authentic interviews as per your list of questions will go a long way toward really understanding who a person is and what they have to offer the organisation / team. Thank you for posting this - I have bookmarked for future reference.
Fmr Shift Leader Transmission & Power & Facilities Telstra Global Operations Centre - Clayton Vic
6 年Smart Interviewers build rapport not showcase bias.
Case Manager
6 年The best way to overcome initial bias is to only add your initial to your resume that includes an email matching the initials. HR will have no option but to base their decision simply on experience and education.
Solder Rewoking Specialist / Computer Engineering Student at MSU Denver
6 年It has occurred to me that due to the limits of an hr representatives scope of knowledge regarding just about anything I do limits their assessment to how we personally interact. I would argue that HR is a deficit in general to the interviewing process, as they cannot grasp the skills or abilities of technical people in the slightest, nor can they measure of those skills be determined by interpersonal skills. (Although the ability to communicate is important, this ability is better viewed by people who speak the same language; other people in that trade, if you will). For example, a recent college or tradeschool grad will sound "confident" but is probably severely lacking in viable skills that apply to real world job environments. On the other end, this lack of understanding is clearly evident in "entry level positions" postings requiring masters degrees and years of experience for rudimentary functions. Inflow can be mitigated and managed by many of the weeding tools already in use today by hr departments and may be more effective in the hands of the hiring managers that can use the controls more precisely and accurately. The revenue and time wasted on hr processing.. I mean there are just so many counterpoints. Why?
I know your people are amazing...do you???
6 年Bias is part of being human. It's acknowledging it for what it is and making sure you account for it when making decisions to ensure that you are fair. Another reason why there should be several people involved in the interview process as well!