I recently read the article “Hold the Interview” from Dan and Chip Heath in this month’s issue of Fast Company.  The authors’ premise is that interviews are given too much importance when considering a candidate for hire.  According to the Heaths: “Interviews are less predictive of job performance than work samples, job-knowledge tests and peer ratings of past job performance.  Even a simple intelligence test is dramatically more useful.”  They go on to argue: “With so little proof that interviews work, why do we rely on them so much?  Because we all think we’re good at it.  We are Barbara Walters or Mike Wallace, taking the measure of the person.”  The article cites psychologist Richard Nisbett who titles this the “interview illusion” – the certainty that we’re learning more in an interview than we really are.  Another psychologist, Robyn Dawes points out that in grad-school admissions, interviews are often taken as seriously as GPA.  The absurdity, he says, is that “you and I, looking at a folder or interviewing someone for a half-hour, are supposed to be able to form a better impression than one based on three-and-a-half years of the cumulative evaluation of 20 to 40 different professors.”

 

These are convincing arguments and I would tend to agree with the authors and their sources for the majority of interviewing that takes place within organizations these days.  However, there is a different way that transcends the normal “get to know you” interview.  The growing Topgrading movement takes interviewing to new heights and leaves no room for the typical conversational exchange where the hiring manager usually does most of the talking and even tries to sell the candidate on joining the organization.  Topgrading interviews come in two stages.  The initial interview is only about 30 minutes long and consists of just a few questions such as: “What are your strengths or what do you enjoy doing?” and “What are your weaknesses or what do you not enjoy doing?”  The most important of the initial interview questions is “Who are the supervisors you’ve worked for in the past several years and how do I contact them directly?”  This last question lets the candidate know that you are serious about determining the details of their past work history and that you won’t settle for the typical “job title, pay rate and dates of employment” reference that most human resource departments give when checking past employers.

 

Assembling the data from these initial interviews, you can then decide which candidates should proceed to the next interview stage.  You will want to limit this next stage to only a few candidates because the next interviews can last up to four hours.  This may appear to be a long time given the busy schedules that all managers face.  When you consider the cost of a bad hire, it lends some perspective to the process.  Some experts estimate that the cost of a bad hire can reach 10 to 15 times the first year’s salary of the candidate depending on the position within an organization that you’re trying to fill.  The second interview includes a standard set of questions that are asked of each candidate about every supervisor he or she has worked for (not just every employer) since the candidate exited college.  There are approximately 15 questions and include the following: “What were your expectations when you accepted that position?” and “What would your supervisor say are your strengths and weaknesses in that position?” and “What were the strengths and weaknesses of your supervisor in that position?” and “Why did you leave the position?”  This is a tedious process meant to elicit the absolute truth from your candidate not the typical veneer that many professional interviewers are able to provide during a typical interview.

 

Just like the Fast Company article cited above, I am a proponent of testing candidates and in depth peer interviews (Topgrading reference checks).  However, unlike the authors, I do not advise interviewing less.  In fact, I would advocate more of the correct type of interviewing.  Hiring managers can and do discover the information they seek during the interview.  The key is structure and process in the interview, doing your homework with the reference check and taking advantage of the latest testing opportunities that exist.