- more experienced the interviewer the less time they spent evaluating the candidate and the quicker they tended to make decisions.
- Interviewers who spent more time building rapport with their interviewees also tended to make quicker decisions.
- The more consistent the questions (as used in structured interviews where all candidates are asked the same questions) the longer the time interviewers took to evaluate and reach their decisions.
- Decision time was directly related to candidate order - evaluation and decision time increased as interviewers progressed through their candidate schedule but after about four candidates it leveled and then began to decrease as interviewers evaluated additional (5+) candidates.
Recommendations
- Organisations may want to provide refresher training for interviewers that emphasises the value of gathering information throughout the entire interview.
- Attention should be paid to interview design, as the nature of the design can promote or inhibit quick decisions. For example structured interviews tend to discourage quick decisions.
- Organisations may benefit from limiting the number of interviews an interviewer conducts in quick succession to around four.