In today's difficult job-market a lot of people must scramble for what limited positions there are. However, it is rarely reflected on how those people are chosen and whether the selection process could be made more efficient. There is a multitude of studies that reveal the profound limitations of the traditional interview. It has been said that interviews favour candidates who are "attractive, sociable, articulate and tall". They are also believed they favour manipulative candidates, but these people aren't always necessarily the best job performers Forbes, 2012.
Currently interviewing largely remains the main means of assessing applicant suitability for the job, they can be conducted either one-to-one or by a panel of interviewers. It is argued that interviews are useful not just for assessing personal characteristics, especially interpersonal and communication skills but too for assessing practical intelligence and demeanour. Interviews are an important means by which employers can further explore the information contained in the CV or application form and access the link between the candidate and the organisation. The interview also acts as an opportunity for negotiation in terms of the conditions of employment, leading to the creation of the psychological contract as well as an opportunity for questions with the employer being able to sell the organisation to the perhaps desired candidate Wilton, 2016.
Whatever the specific type, several problems are deep-rooted in interviews. Selection specialists must be aware of these problems and it is crucial they are trained to overcome them. These problems include the fact that Interviewers often have an impulse to be swayed by any slightly negative information about the applicants. Additionally, Interviewers do not explore applicant's information dimensions needed for successful job performance. Often, they don't have a complete job description when hiring which can lead to inaccurate hiring practices. Furthermore, Interviewers often permit one trait or job-related attribute to influence their evaluation of the qualities of an applicant. This process, called the halo effect, "occurs when an interviewer judges an applicant's entire potential for job performance on the basis of a single characteristic", such as how well the applicant dresses or the way the person speaks. Interviewers judgments are often affected by the pressure to favour a particular candidate or fill the position; thus, they lower the standards accordingly Vskills, 2015. Develop Dimensions International as well as other respected selection organisations offer companies great tools for improving reliability and validity of interviews. They say every individual who conducts interviews should be trained in these methods and consistently integrate them into the selection process. These expertly constructed interviewing techniques successfully implemented and given by a trained interviewer can increase the reliability of interview by a significant amount. However, this interview training can be time-consuming, reducing productivity in the workplace for these individuals. Although, perhaps the ends justify the means in this particular case as without these changes interviews will remain to be as reliable as picker a "winner" from a pool of applicants at first glance ERE, 2011.
It is important to note there are vast options when it comes to selection methods. Selection methods include Self-assessment, Curriculum Vitae, Interviews, Psychometric Testing (aptitude tests, general intelligence tests, attainment tests, personality tests and simple literacy and numeracy testing). Additional selection methods include Assessment Centres, Work Sampling/Portfolios, References, and Graphology – handwriting analysis. These various selection methods that can be used to match the right person for the right job. Selection techniques can be largely split into those that are subjective (those that are dependent on individual or group judgment interviewing is the main example of this) and those that are objective (psychometric tests). Universally, it is considered best practice to use a range of selection devices. Such as, interviewing, testing and references might be used to give a rounded perspective on a candidate's fitness for a post Wilton, 2016.
There have been great amounts of innovation in the selection process and talent identification over the past five years, this is mainly a result of the newfound digital revolution and the popularity of smartphones. Although there are many hiring techniques being developed daily, three alternative emerging approaches, in particular, are believed to merit mention due to their "potential to quantify individuals talent and predict their future job performance. Firstly, "Behavioural Analytics"- this is relevant as a hiring technique in the case of a candidate being taken on as part of a trial period- some companies quantify talent by monitoring daily activities. For example, large call centres such as Teleperformance are total pioneers in this area. For many years call centres have been keeping a watchful eye on employee's daily number of calls, breaks and customer ratings for each call. Currently, such methods are practiced in a multitude of environments. For instance, certain organisations use email traffic to predict revenue that sales representatives will produce. This approach has the greatest chance of identifying talent internally since companies are legally entitled to amalgamate employee data for performance assessment. A second emerging alternative hiring method is "Wed Scraping", algorithms are used to translate candidates web and social media presence into a quantitative estimate of job potential or fit. Recent research suggests that "web scraping" can actually aid employees in estimating a candidates IQ and personality type. This has shown to have around 50% accuracy of scientifically valid tests. Applicants digital footprints include content that they have deliberately displayed as well as videos, photos and comments posted by the candidate as well as their friends and family. Admittedly, web scrapping obviously has extreme ethical, not to mention legal implications for the organisation. Thus, it may be feasible for organisations to gather electronic intelligence on people without breaching privacy rights, by possibly developing an app that allows users to be in charge of their data and voluntarily share it with employers and recruiters Harvard Business Review, 2015. Lastly, Gamification, "Gamification is the concept which uses game theory, mechanics and game designs to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals". Gamification transforms the excruciating task of recruitment into a fun element. Gamification helps employers and recruiters to create interest of qualified candidates in their job openings and companies Recruiter Box, 2018. Gamification boosts and builds the employers brand by differentiating their company from the competition. Information technology research firm Gartner predicted that "over 70% of Forbes Global 2000 organisations will have at least one gamified application by 2014, with a belief that 25% of day-to-day business processes will be using aspects of Gamification" Gartner, 2018. Gamification creates a great experience for the candidate and the company itself that revives a lifeless recruitment process.
Overall, despite the obvious troubles, I believe that interviews should continue to be used as part of the selection process as I believe they are inevitably fundamental for employers to gauge if a candidate is the specific type of person for the specific type of job. However, it must be noted that I do not believe interviews alone are in anyway reliable as a selection technique. Interviews must be carried out hand in hand with at least one other selection process, specifically, I would recommend Psychometric Testing.