Research-Based Job Interviewing Techniques

Empirical research on job interviewing techniques & why we should use evidence-based approaches.

Photo by Tim Gouw on Unsplash

Judgments that are made during the hiring process aren’t the most accurate. Nearly 3 out of 4 hiring managers have said that they hired the wrong person at some point. Bad hires can have negative financial effects on companies as well as hinder productivity due to time spent onboarding and training.

There is a solution. Researchers have explored the efficacy of different ways to interview and evaluate job candidates, and have concluded that there are evidence-based techniques that can be used to make better hiring decisions.

In the first half of this article, I’ll introduce the topic with three facts about interviews. Then in the second part, I’ll outline an evidence-based interviewing strategy and how it can be used to make better hiring decisions.

Facts About Interviews

Fact #1: People lie

This is no surprise, but people lie during interviews. What is surprising is the frequency of lies. In this first study, the researchers found people are more likely to lie when they want to appear likable or competent, which is how people want to appear during interviews. In a second study, researchers recruited candidates for what the candidates thought was a job interview. It was actually an experiment; the candidates completed an interview and once they were finished, the researchers told the candidates that they were in a research experiment. The participants were then asked to indicate how many lies they told during the interviews: 81% of the participants told at least 1 lie during the interview, and on average they told 2 lies per interview. The candidates did so because of impression management and to conform to job requirements.

With this knowledge in mind, I’m not saying that you should assume all job candidates lie. Use your intuition. If something seems off or improbable, ask follow-up questions, ask for specifics or examples, and corroborate information using Google searches or by speaking to references.

Fact #2: Cognitive biases can influence our decision making

We have cognitive biases (mental filters) that we use to interact with the world and these filters can influence our decision making. Interviews are no exception — cognitive biases can impact hiring decisions. Let me give you some examples.

1. Researchers sent identical resumes to job postings, except they varied the name of the candidate. They found that job applicants with “non-White” names received 50% fewer interview requests than applicants with “White sounding” names. And remember: both groups had identical resumes.
2. The physical features of candidates can influence interview performance. In a study, researchers found that applicants with “stigmatized” facial features, such as birthmarks or scars, received poorer interview ratings. The researchers provide a compelling explanation: they used eye tracking software to determine where hiring managers were looking throughout the interview. For candidates with stigmatized facial features, hiring managers spent more time looking at these facial features and subsequently remembered less about the interview. As a result, the candidates received poorer evaluations.
3. A third example is that researchers found that a candidate who displays a strong handshake is more likely to receive a positive interview evaluation.

Interviewers should consider taking steps to minimize the effects of cognitive biases. For example, we know that facial features or appearances can influence our decision-making, so perhaps initial interviews should be conducted over the phone. In addition, because we know names can influence decision making, interviewers could consider reviewing resumes/CVs with names crossed out.

Fact #3: You may be interviewing an interview pro

The third fact about interviewing is that you may be interviewing an interview pro. If a job candidate has done their due diligence, they will deliberately act and speak in ways that increase the chances that they get selected for the job. For example, job candidates may mirror posture, mannerisms, and speech patterns, make an effort to turn the interview into a casual conversation, or find a personal connection to discuss.

Like with facts 1 and 2, this third fact suggests that objective interview techniques are needed to make better hiring decisions. We’ll explore these techniques in the next section.

Evidence-Based Interviewing Techniques: The Structured Interview

If the goal is to find the best candidate for a job, then using evidence-based interviewing techniques is an important strategy. The gold standard of evidence-based interviewing techniques is the structured interview. Simply defined, a structured interview is a standardized approach to interviewing that has two components: 1) standardization of content (the interview questions) and 2) standardization of the evaluation techniques (how responses to each interview question is scored/evaluated).

Standardization of Content

The first step in conducting a structured interview is to perform a “job analysis”, in which you think about the new position and come up with important characteristics for someone in that position. Then, you create questions to test each of these characteristics and ask the same questions to each candidate.

For example, if you are hiring a lab manager in your neuroscience lab at a large research university, you may feel that the ideal candidate has the following characteristics:

1. Strong work ethic and ability to persevere through tough situations
2. Data analysis / coding skills
3. Experience with the lab techniques employed in your research group
4. Experience with scientific writing and professional communication
5. Interest in pursuing a PhD in neuroscience

Then, you may come up with a few questions to evaluate the degree to which a given candidate possesses the above characteristics.

Strong work ethic and ability to persevere through tough situations

1. Tell me about a time an experiment didn’t go as planned.
2. Have you had any experience dealing with challenging human research participants?

Data analysis / coding skills

1. What experience do you have analyzing data?
2. Are you interested in developing coding skills?

Experience with the lab techniques employed in your research group

1. Do you have experience with two photon calcium imaging?
2. Have you collected any neuroimaging data, such as MRI scans?

Experience with scientific writing and professional communication

1. Tell me about a research presentation you’ve done.
2. What challenges did you face when writing a research paper?

Interest in pursuing a PhD in neuroscience

1. What are your career goals?
2. Are you interested in pursuing graduate training?

After creating a list of questions to ask, a key component of structured interviews is to ask every candidate the same questions. The goal is to reduce the amount of conversation outside the direct asking and answering of the questions because such conversations can introduce bias into the decision making process.

Standardization of the Evaluation Techniques

The next step is to generate an evaluation methodology to both 1) assess responses to each question and 2) make a decision about who to hire. In terms of assessing responses to each question, it’s a good idea to rate each answer. It could be a simple scale from 1 to 5 with 5 being the best. Similarly, when making a decision about who to hire, the decision can be as simple as taking the sum of each candidate’s scores and hiring the person with the highest score.

During the interview, taking notes can be helpful if you decide to wait until after the interview to score the candidate. If resources allow, using multiple interviewers can help make interviewing more efficient, it can help reduce interviewer burnout, and it can help make the interviewing process more objective. This is important in regards to the cognitive biases discussed above. At the same time, it’s a good idea to use the same interviewers across all applicants because the goal of the structured interview is to standardize as much of the process as possible. If using multiple interviews, do not discuss applicants/answers between interviews. Finally, you’ll want to train each person who will be conducting interviews. Teach them how to design and ask questions and show them the best way to score answers.

Why Should We Use Structured Interviews?

After reviewing the research, I found there are 3 reasons to use structured interviews.

1. First, there is strong empirical evidence supporting structured interviews. A bad hire can lead to financial costs and have a negative impact on morale, productivity, and workplace culture. It’s essential to hire the right people, and the structured interview is a step in the right direction.
2. The second reason to use structured interviews is that evidence-based hiring and HR practices improve company profits, work efficiency, and employee performance.
3. The final reason is that many small organizations are resistant to using structured interviews and instead use intuition-based unstructured interviews. By using structured interviews, small organizations (e.g., research labs), can hire better people more efficiently.