Help Hiring Managers Avoid These 5 Mistakes

Regardless of whether we are aware or not, we all have built-in biases. How and where we were raised, belief systems, and past experiences have all shaped us into the wonderfully unique people we are today.

However, as the Hiring Manager, it’s important that you stay alert to any biases you may have. By not doing so, you increase your risk of making a poor hiring decision. Any great leader will tell you what’s most important about success in business is to get the right people on the bus. Here are the most common hiring biases and how to avoid them. As always, your Recruiting Partner is an expert in this and can assist if needed.

Affect Heuristic –

The Affect Heuristic is an inclination for people to take “mental shortcuts” based on emotions such as pleasure, fear, or connectedness. It’s when our brain is trying to make decisions quickly and efficiently. The problem is, these shortcuts take their cues from whatever emotional state we happen to be in – anxious, happy, surprised, etc. And often decisions based off of emotion can lead us astray.

As an example: In reviewing the candidate’s resume or during rapport building, you uncover that you and the candidate went to the same high school or are from the same home town. You feel the familiarity and enjoy the reminiscence. If you don’t quickly check it, your judgement may be easily clouded and you may overlook key indicators that the candidate will be unable to perform the job.

To avoid the Affect Heuristic, be aware of it. You may also want to bring in a second interviewer to reduce the effect of subjective judgement. Most importantly, a structured interview will help you focus on objective criteria.

Confirmation bias –

Any time a person formulates an idea or hypothesis in their minds, they will look for a way to validate it. This is confirmation bias and it should be checked.

For instance: If a hiring manager decides before the interview that a candidate is stellar, they will look for (and likely find) proof of that while interviewing. Meanwhile, due to selective perception, they will be blind to anything negative that contradicts that preconceived idea. This poor interview tactic a sure route to a bad decision.

To avoid confirmation bias, be aware and honest with yourself and your assessment of the candidate’s ability. Also, ensure that you ask the same questions to each interviewee and compare them impartially.

Halo Effect –

Similar to confirmation bias, the halo effect can prevent a Hiring Manager from seeing red flags in a potential hire.

For instance: Imagine you are awed by a candidate’s underwriting acumen. They quickly could spot issues on files and their work experience is well-tenured at a key competitor. Your appreciation of their skill is likely to spill over to other areas in which you are trying to evaluate the candidate. You find that their communication or teamwork skills are deficient, but because of their UW skills, the potentially negative effect of their communication and teamwork is, in your mind, lessened greatly. However, you may end up hiring this candidate and find out the hard way that they’re not a good cultural fit for your team. And everyone will end up paying for it.

To avoid the halo effect, be aware and honest with yourself. Evaluate all areas of the interviewee’s skills and cultural fit. Some responsibilities and duties of the job may outweigh others in importance, however, you should always consider all aspects of the interviewee and their impact before making a hiring decision.

Rushing to conclusions –

Half of employers report they need only five minutes to determine if a candidate is a good fit, according to a recent poll. In such a short time, you will probably be able to tell if they are polite, confident or well-dressed. But are these really correlated to future job performance? Most likely no.

To avoid rushing to conclusions, remember that an interview isn’t a race. There are no bonus points for deciding on a candidate quickly. First impressions can easily mislead you and compromise your willingness to ask the right questions or interpret the answers. Try to wait until the end of the interview to formulate your initial judgement. Maybe you’ll be surprised.

Chasing perfection –

Let’s be honest. Often, hiring managers aren’t really trying to find the best among the interviewees. They are trying to find what they have dreamed as the “perfect” candidate – one that has all the qualifications they asked for and then some, who is diligent, polite, confident and dying to work for them.

The reality is, there is no such thing as a perfect candidate. Hiring Managers hung up on finding perfection usually keep interviewing until the decision becomes urgent, and that can lead to mistakes. Talented candidates who could’ve been trained on one or two shortcomings, will have found another job by the time you realize that perfection isn’t out in the marketplace. Instead of holding out for “perfection,” be more realistic.