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Structured Interviews: How to Data-Proof and De-bias Interviewing

9th July 2024
By Jade Tomassi

Hiring the right candidate is crucial for any organisation, and the interview process is key to making well-informed decisions. Traditional interview methods often fall short due to inherent biases and inconsistency. Structured interviews, enhanced by psychometric assessments, provide a solution to these challenges. In this blog, we’ll discuss how to optimise structured interviews to ensure they are data-driven and free of bias, with a particular emphasis on aligning candidates with your organisation’s core values‍ and culture.

What is a structured interview? 

Structured interviews are a systematic approach to interviewing, where each candidate is asked the same set of predetermined questions, specifically related to the job requirements. This method contrasts with unstructured interviews, where questions can vary significantly between candidates and are often influenced by the interviewer’s subjective judgments.

Key Features of Structured Interviews

Consistency: Every candidate is assessed using the same set of questions, which ensures that all relevant aspects of the job are evaluated uniformly.

Relevance: Questions are designed based on job analysis, focusing on the skills and competencies necessary for the role.

Objectivity: A standardised approach reduces the impact of interviewer biases and personal impressions.

Structured interviews are more predictive of ability. The first reason to make the switch to structured interviews is a pretty straightforward one: they’ve been proven to be more effective than unstructured interviews.

How Psychometric Assessments Enhance Structured Interviews

Boost Predictive Accuracy: Psychometric assessments offer data that improves the accuracy of predicting job performance. General Mental Ability tests (GMA) have a predictive validity of 0.51 and Integrity tests provide a predictive validity of 0.41 for job performance (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

Facilitate Objective Decision-Making: Combining psychometric data with structured interviews provides a multiple predictive validity of 0.67 allowing hiring decisions to be based on objective criteria, whilst reducing the impact of unconscious biases.

Customised Interview Questions: Assessment results can help tailor interview questions to explore specific strengths or areas of concern. This ensures a more targeted and relevant interview process.

Maintain Consistency Across Interviews: A structured interview format combined with psychometric data ensures a uniform evaluation process, enhancing fairness and comparability among candidates.

Enhance Candidate Experience: A transparent, data-driven interview process improves candidates’ perception of the hiring process and the overall experience.

Incorporating Values Alignment in Psychometric Assessments

Values alignment is crucial for ensuring that new hires are compatible with the team’s dynamics and the organisation’s culture. Psychometric assessments can be designed to evaluate how well a candidate’s values align with the company’s to determine if they will flourish within a specific team/organisation environment.

Design Values-Based Psychometric Assessments: Develop psychometric assessments that evaluate a candidate’s alignment with your organisation’s culture and values. These assessments can include questions that explore decision-making preferences, the specific needs that contribute to job satisfaction, interests and values that highlight preferred work environments and outcomes, organsational characteristics that shape work behaviour, and the physical and social factors that impact the nature of work.

Integrate Values Alignment into Structured Interviews: Use results from values-based assessments to guide interview questions and discussions. For instance, if an assessment reveals that a candidate values teamwork highly, include questions that explore their experience and approach to collaborative work.

Evaluate Values Fit: After conducting the structured interview, analyse how well the candidate’s values align with the organisation’s values and culture. This can be done by comparing psychometric assessment results with interview responses.

Implementing Structured Interviews with Psychometric Data

1. Pre-Interview Assessment

    Administer relevant psychometric assessments that measure personality traits and values before the structured interview. Ensure that these tools are validated and relevant to the job role.

    Example: For a leadership role, use assessments to evaluate behavioural skills, leadership traits, and values alignment.

    2. Design Structured Interview Questions

    Create a set of structured interview questions based on job requirements and psychometric assessment results. Ensure that these questions are aligned with the competencies, skills, and values essential for the role.  The best assessments will give you pre-validated dynamic questions.

    Example: If assessments indicate strong analytical skills and a value for integrity, design interview questions that explore these attributes in practical scenarios.

    3. Conduct the Interview

    Administer the structured interview using the prepared questions. Utilise insights from psychometric assessments to delve deeper into relevant areas.

    Example: If a candidate’s values assessment shows a strong alignment with innovation, ask questions about their experience with innovative projects and how they foster creativity in their work.

    4. Evaluate and Compare

    After the interviews, use psychometric assessment data alongside structured interview responses to make final hiring decisions. This comprehensive approach ensures a balanced evaluation of each candidate.

    Example: Compare personality test results, values alignment, and interview performance to assess overall suitability for the role.

    Backed by Research

    Integrating psychometric assessments with structured interviews, especially those that include values alignment, provides several key benefits:

    Enhanced Predictive Validity: Research shows that structured interviews and psychometric assessments together improve predictive validity for job performance. Structured interviews have a predictive validity of 0.51 vs unstructured interviews predictive validity of 0.38 (Schmidt & Hunter, 1998).

    Reduced Bias: Structured interviews and psychometric assessments help mitigate interviewer biases. Studies indicate that structured interviews significantly lower the impact of interviewer biases (Campion, Palmer, & Campion, 1997).

    Improved Hiring Outcomes: Organizations that use structured interviews and psychometric assessments report better job performance and lower turnover. Incorporating values alignment and cultural compatibility also enhances employee retention, with companies seeing a 24% improvement in hiring efficiency (CIPD, 2015).

    Conclusion

    Structured interviews, when combined with psychometric assessments and values alignment, offer a powerful approach to improving hiring decisions. This data-driven method enhances predictive accuracy, reduces biases, and ensures that candidates not only meet job requirements but also fit well with the organization’s values and culture. By focusing on consistency, relevance, and objectivity, you can de-bias your hiring process and make more informed decisions.

    For expert guidance on implementing structured interviews and integrating psychometric assessments, including values alignment, consider exploring the services offered by MyPeople. Our expertise in creating data-driven hiring processes can help you build stronger, more effective teams and drive organisational success.


    References:

    • Schmidt, F.L., & Hunter, J.E. (1998). The validity and utility of selection methods in personnel psychology: Practical and theoretical implications of 85 years of research findings. Psychological Bulletin, 124(2), 262-274.
    • Campion, M.A., Palmer, D.K., & Campion, J.E. (1997). A review of structure in the selection interview. Personnel Psychology, 50(3), 655-702.
    • CIPD. (2015). A head for hiring: The behavioural science of recruitment and selection.
    • Deloitte. (2016). Global Human Capital Trends: Rewriting the rules for the digital age.
    • Gallup. (2017). State of the American Workplace Report.
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