Interviews are worse predictors of job success than you think. And I do not care if you don’t think very highly of them as you read this, it’s still lower. Yet, there is an insistence that they are better than they are and no company I know of is willing to give them up. Why is this?
Of course, it’s because doing them is ingrained in our corporate cultures. Thomas Edison (supposedly) conducted the first one. However, note in the example that it was a test and not an interview, which ensured that it could not be less valid, even with the ridiculous questions cited. Obviously, if a guy as smart as Thomas Edison was doing it, it must be right. Then again, he was not trained in understanding human behavior.
The problem with interviews (besides just these) is that they are fraught with noise. As I’ve written about before, interviewers (which are all of us) are loaded with biases which skew a good deal of information that we get from the person being interviewed. Of course, the person being interviewed is likely to have prepared for the questions. In fact some millennial job seekers I know informed me about how they are rarely asked a question they haven’t seen online and when they do get one they post it immediately. From all of this pre-work, the interviewer is getting canned answers that may not reflect the person. Of course, this may be a fine attribute if hiring someone who is not supposed to give his/her opinion on anything. However, it does hurt the validity of even the best structured interviews. As an aside, if you MUST interview, please make it highly structured and use it as a lever to find out about the person’s job related skills.
So, what is a company to do? Go on a blind date with candidates?
I would suggest making your hiring decision BEFORE you interview. Let the interview be the last bit of data that might break ties. For instance, be sure that someone you are hiring for a customer facing position can actually make eye contact and put a few sentences together. Or, use it to double-check the person’s availability for your work hours, give them a tour/realistic job preview, etc. This allows HR or the hiring manager the last look without adding unpredictive noise to the process. And think about how much time you will save!
It is not your fault that interviews do not predict performance. The question is what are you going to do to prevent them from messing up your hiring process?