best candidate for the job
How do you put aside personal bias and focus on what type of candidate you are looking for without personal judgment during the interview process? I think working with a round table group helps to bring awareness and provide feedback from your peers.
Jeanine,
I believe that it begins with awareness. Knowing that you have a personal bias allows you to attempt to set it aside and focus on he candidate and his/her skills. The round table is certainly one technique for ensuring fairness in the interview process. Any time that you include others in the process, it helps to validate your choice.
Dr. Patricia Kapper
Finding the best candidate for the job is an art. The experience, education, interpersonal skills and style of decision making as well as the previous experience fit factor should be evaluated. The interviewers and decision makers should all be trained and follow procedures from Human Resources.
Julie,
Unfortunately, the best screening practices don't always identify the best candidates. Most screening practices practiced by HR professionals are targeted toward the average candidate, not necessarily the best candidate. It's acceptable practice to have HR do preliminary screening, but the resumes of all candidates should be reviewed by the hiring manager. Human resources personnel can screen them into three categories: highly desirable, possible and rejects; however, it is imperative that the hiring manager look at all of the resumes and make the decision on who will be interviewed. Granted all interviewers should be trained on the do's and don'ts of interviewing to comply with appropriate hiring practices. Keep in mind that many top candidates who bring specific skills may not be the best interviewers when an organization uses standard practices for conducting the interview screening.
Dr. Robert Roehrich
