Promoting fair and effective interviews

1. more experienced the interviewer the less time they spent evaluating the candidate and the quicker they tended to make decisions.
2. Interviewers who spent more time building rapport with their interviewees also tended to make quicker decisions.
3. 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.
4. 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.

Clearly it is in the best interests of both organisations and candidates that evaluation and decision making at interview is considered and consistent, and that candidates have a fair and full opportunity to perform.  The study indicates that quick decision making compromises the effectiveness of the interview process.

Recommendations

The study's authors make the following 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. 

If you're an employer, what other steps can you take to encourage consistent evaluation and decision making? If you're a candidate, should you ask where you are in the schedule? Would you?

** How quickly do interviewers reach decisions? An examination of interviewers' decision-making time across applicants, Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, Volume 89, Issue 2, pages 223–248, June 2016