Have you ever hired someone that you thought was going to be great, just to find that the person did not live up to your expectations?  It might be because your personal biases impacted your decision-making process during the interview.  Because of the current tight labor market, we can’t afford to make bad hires.  If you want to minimize the chances of making a bad hire then consider the seven common interview biases that you should be aware of:

Stereotyping Bias – Forming an opinion of someone based on gender, religion, race, appearance, or any other type of characteristic.

First Impression Bias – Making judgements about an interviewee based on their first impression being positive or negative.

“Similar to Me” Effect – Thinking highly of someone who has a similar mind set or personality to the interviewer.

Negative Emphasis Bias – When the interviewer receives a small amount of negative information and uses it to base their entire hiring decision off of it. We tend to weigh negative information heavier than positive information.

Halo and Horn Effect – The Halo Effect is when the interviewer lets one positive fact about the candidate overshadow everything else they say or do. The Horn Effect is the opposite and allows a weak fact to influence everything else.

Cultural Noise – The interviewer’s ability to distinguish between a candidate’s socially acceptable answer rather than revealing their true opinion.

Contrast Effect – When a stronger candidate interviews after a weaker candidate, they may appear more qualified than they are because of the contrast between the two.

If you are interested in learning more about how we can help you find qualified and talented scientific and engineering professionals within the current talent market, please contact us at 612-843-1821 or by email at wendy@verumtechnical.com.