During the past 15 years, I have worked as a psychologist helping public and private organisations with their hiring needs. I have had the pleasure of working with hundreds of great organisations that needed to fill different key positions.
Many employers continue to rely heavily on an individual’s job résumé as theirmain screening tool and a general, unstructured interview as their main selection tool. I have asked many employers why they choose to rely so heavily on a person’s job experience and a job interview to make an important — and costly — decision — hiring an employee. The most frequent answers were:
- “The interview I use gives me enough information to allow me to make a sound hiring decision.”
- “The position I am filling does not require a lot of skill (anyone can do it).”
- “I’d rather just try a candidate for a couple of months and fire them if they are not good.”
- “I’m just hiring an employee for a 3-6 months contract; even if I chose the wrong candidate, he or she is unlikely to cause substantial damage to my company.”
- “I don’t have time to assess candidates.”
- “Tests can be expensive and time-consuming, I can’t afford using them.”
- “I don’t know which tools to use.”
- “I don’t have the luxury to be that selective as I generally have few candidates who apply.”
and the most frequent reason:
- “I know my field of work and can generally tell within the first five minutes of talking to a candidate if he/she will be a good employee.”
