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Executive Summary

Anthony J raises an interesting trend in interviewing, called Speed Interviewing that was noted in Canadian Business.

Author In Response To:
Mitch Byers Top of Thread.
Date Posted: Replies:
7/26/2006; 10:49 PM
Enclosures: Read Count:
None. 322
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Selection & Hiring
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Speed Interviewing

Anthony J raises an interesting trend in interviewing, called Speed Interviewing that was noted in Canadian Business.

Speed interviewing involves running through numerous applicants in 10- to 15-minute interview blocks; it's based on the fact that we all make up our minds about someone in seconds anyway. Large companies such as RONA and Vidéotron have used it recently to add dozens to the payroll at once. "It's being used more and at many different levels," says Tim Cork, president of NEXCareer, a career transition consultancy in Toronto. "You can move people through efficiently and do comparison shopping.

A couple of thoughts:

Research (a 1992 article by N.R. Anderson) indicates interviewers reach a final decision about applicants after only four minutes of a thirty-minute interview. The balance of the interview is spent in "hypothesis confirmation strategies" designed to confirm their initial impression. This corroborates with information from Neil Anderson in a 2000 article which states "interviewers are far more influenced by information emerging early in the interview than emerging later."

What we have here is people hiring with their hearts and not their heads. Admittedly, there is a general bias of this style of hiring in the workplace. Speed Interviewing takes it one step further. But why bother with the interview? Just hire off of the resume and save everyone time.

Will the companies incorporating Speed Interviewing track statistics on these new hires? I suspect metrics will be non-existent. However, in a year, the results would tell them if they have made the right decision or if their turnover was well above the industry norm.

My preference is to follow Lou Adler's advice and the principles in "Hire With Your Head," the title of his 1998 book. Adler notes, "First impressions based on emotions, biases, chemistry, personality, and stereotyping cause more hiring mistakes than any other single factor."

A thorough talent acquisition strategy would include performance-based job descriptions, development of a competency model for the position and associated behavioral interview questions, and a behavioral-based reference checks. For good measure, you could add a skills assessment or an emotional intelligence assessment which is benchmarked for the position.

Which method (hiring with the heart or hiring with the head) has greater return on time invested? I'll bet the farm on the later.