Job interviews are a popular tool by recruiters and hiring managers in their search for the perfect candidate to fill a role in their company. However, there is a possibility that this method of recruiting may become a thing of the past.
This is because job interviews are often subjective and, although a lot of people want to deny it, can be tainted by human bias. It was previously reported that beauty bias, also known as "lookism," is still prevalent in the workplace and affects the opportunities that people get in relationships as well as in jobs.
Beauty bias is present in the area of employment decision making. Attractiveness has been revealed to influence an interviewer's judgment of job applicants.
Majority of overweight people faced discrimination in the workplace as well as short men. The reverse also affected attractive women who applied for traditionally male jobs.
Another study also found that 41 percent of recruiters say that seeing a picture of a candidate before meeting them personally actually already influences their first impression. This is why there is still a lot of emphasis in dressing well during job interviews to make a good first impression.
According to the New York Times, employers get to know a job candidate by using free-form, unstructured interviews. It was noted that these interviews are not limited to the workplace but with admissions officers at universities who are trying to move away from test scores and other standardized measures of student quality.
Further research showed that the problem with interviews go beyond just irrelevance. It can be considered harmful since it can be a deterrent to the impact of other, more valuable information about interviewees.
One solution, in terms of job hiring, is to conduct job auditions instead, similar to auditions for musicians, singers and actors. It would make sense for hiring managers to let prospective employees demonstrate how they would do the job that they are applying for.
It's actually more like conducting practical exams on how well they meet the company's needs. With this, hiring managers can assess them as they do their job rather than through answering scripted questions.
