Taking your interview process into the 21st century

In the past decade or so, little has changed in the interview room. Most organisations still use predominantly ‘human' elements to analyse a candidate. By this, I mean that they still read resumes to identify strong potential candidates and still use intuition and opinion to judge which candidate is the most suitable for the role on offer. Of course, they use computers in a minimal role, such as fact checking or data storage, but the more I thought about this issue the more I began to think that we could all do more. I could not help but feel that with so much technology available we are somehow limiting ourselves.   What if there was a way for you to know, just a few minutes after an interview, if the person you interviewed is right for the position you need to fill? How would you feel if you could know - with a fair amount of certainty - whether they would be able to integrate themselves into your current team and be suited to the tasks they would face? Would this make your job easier? Of course, it would. HR professionals spend too much time studying people- they spend too long analyzing which candidate has the right personality to fit the position and to fit into an organisation. Applying technology, and specifically biometrics, can save time and make picking the right candidate afar more clinical process.

Explaining biometricas

I suppose the first thing I should do is explain what this revolutionary new technology actually does. Biometrics measure a person's body to identify vital information about them. They are a fascinating new tool, but they are massively under-exploited. Currently, most users of biometrics employ them for identification, using fingerprints or eye scanning to determine if a person is who they claim to be. This type of implementation is becoming more and more prevalent. For instance, one company at which I do Business English training recently took my fingerprints to allow me to gain access to their site- a simple security pass no longer cuts the mustard.

Simple security procedures though, are only scratching the surface. HR can make far greater use of biometrics. People display different physical reactions when placed in different situations, which can help in grouping them into personality types. Factors such as blinking, body temperature, pupil dilation, word choice, voice tone, and heart rate can all provide vital insight into a candidate's state of mind and thought patterns. This allows HR to understand how each candidate is likely to react in your organisation's work environment.

Most multi-nationals already do some form of personality profiling. We often see this in the form of examinations or specially tailored and directed interview questions. These often refer to theoretical situations that relate to the position. The problem with methods like this is that an interviewee can circumvent them if they are familiar with the questions or if they can predict what the interviewer wants to hear. This can make the information they provide inaccurate and ultimately worthless. However, if these techniques were applied to a candidate being monitored by a biometric system, the answers would be far more accurate and you would have a far more detailed and reliable picture of that individual.

The interview process

This all sounds great, doesn't it? But how does it work? The biggest difference to your usual recruiting process appears in the interview room. Instead of just a table and a few chairs, you add a microphone, camera, temperature sensors and a computer terminal. Then, the first phase ofyour new, hi-tech recruitment process is for the candidate to take a written exam. Whilst they are sitting the exam, the equipment in the room measures how their body reacts to each question. You follow this with a traditional interview scenario, asking the type of questions best suited to finding the right person for the job. However, all the while, the computer is monitoring the way the candidate responds. It records the words the candidate uses to answer each question, whilst also recording the way their body reacts.

Things get interesting for HR professionals after the interview, when they get the chance to review the information. The physical responses to each question - both written and spoken - provide a far richer insight into the answers the candidate gives and provides a deeper understanding of their thought patterns and reasoning ability. Information on factors such as cognitive reasoning and emotional temperament can help you to categorise candidates by the way they think and, in so doing, identify which ones are most suitable for you, your available role, and your team.

Blasting into the future