In a Boston Globe article, Sarah Laskow states, "Though employers have been slow to catch on, studies since the early 1980s have shown that, when compared with other types of tests, unstructured interviews are one of the worst choices for accurately judging how well a particular person will do at a particular job."
It seems we have a misguided view of our ability to judge someone's ability through a short meeting. As Jason Dana, a Yale management professor has said, “The assumption is, if I meet them, I’ll know." But we know through our experiences, that we have made our share of mistakes in hiring by basing too much emphasis on the job interview.
While Laskow does not suggest we completely jettison the job interview, she does offer some suggestions for hiring the best people. Based on her suggestions and my experiences, I offer these recommendations when hiring:
* Dispense of unstructured questions, and carefully construct thought provoking questions that require deep thought.
* Dig into the candidate's past job performance for actual data. With more and more school and teacher level data available to the public, this data acquisition should become increasingly less challenging.
* Require the candidate to perform job-relevant tasks. If the job requires teaching, have the candidate teach a group of students.
* And, of course, follow up with references. I like to go at least two deep in references. By that, I mean ask each reference to provide the name of another person who has worked with the candidate. Then ask that person to give the name of another person to contact.
While we will never be able to totally eliminate hiring mistakes, thoughtful consideration of our hiring procedures could lower our risk.
