Do Interviews Work? If Not, What is the Alternative?
August 19, 2004It seems like the debate will never go away — are interviews good selection tools or not? Well, here is an article author that doesn’t particularly like interviews, but at least he offers some alternatives. Another possibility is that
some interviews and some interviewers are better than others. Because of legal concerns, many large organizations have switched to structured interviews. There are several types of structured interview question formats, including situational interview questions, behavioral description interview questions, job knowledge questions, and what I have identified as the “actual situational interview question.”
One of the problems with the “traditional” interview, is that candidates often prepare canned answers to the old, standard questions.
Training managers to develop appropriate questions, and how to score them, can be very helpful. In fact, scientific research suggests that structured interviews have fairly good validity for predicting who will be successful. What may be overlooked, however, is that managers need to buy into this approach to make it work.
There is also research suggested that structured interviews have less disparate impact than certain other selection tools.
Obviously, before choosing alternatives to the interview, consider the legality of those options!
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Comment by George
Thanks for pointing us to this fantastic article, Michael.
This author offers some very interesting suggestions.
I have no doubt whatsoever that loosely guided old-fashioned interviews run a high risk of focusing on the wrong factors, too often favoring form over substance (e.g., tending to select candidates who are better-looking and more personable, assertive, confident, and articulate, even when these characteristics have little to do with job success).