It happens more than many interviewers would like to admit: a candidate who seems like a perfect fit during the interview stage ends up failing to meet the expectations of the role for which he or she was hired.
While interviewers may be quick to assume applicants were dishonest about their abilities, interviewers more often fail to pick up on clear indications that candidates aren't a good fit for the job. However, to chalk this up to poor interviewing seems unfair— even the most prepared hiring managers sometimes find their best interviewees in fact have unrealized deficiencies that cause them to struggle in their new roles.
As it turns out, psychologists have identified a phenomena that accounts for our tendency to miss even the most clear signs that a candidate isn't the right fit: inattentional blindness.
Inattentional blindness describes the propensity of people to fail to notice an unexpected stimulus, even when it is right in front of their eyes. The most famous example comes from cognitive scientists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, who conducted an experiment in the late 1990s that later went viral on the internet.
In their experiment, participants watch a video and are asked to count the number times players wearing white t-shirts pass a basketball to one another. Several seconds in, a person dressed in a black gorilla costume walks between the players, facing the camera and thumping its chest before walking off screen. Although the gorilla is on screen for nine full seconds, Chabris and Simons reported that as many as half of the participants failed to notice the gorilla at all.
In this case, it is not that the participants weren't paying attention to the video, they were able to successfully identify the number of passes the players made with the basketball.
When meeting with potential new hires, interviewers naturally tend to evaluate them based on specific attributes, it's part of who they are as people. Some are primed to look at applicants' communication or organizational skills, while others focus more closely on their comfort in a data-driven environment or their ability to work under a tight deadline. When focusing on these attributes, whether consciously or unconsciously, interviewers are far more likely to miss indications that their candidates have deficiencies in other areas.
To avoid this, companies must be sure to build a team of interviewers who complement one another by looking at candidates from different angles. Together, they can combine to get a complete picture of prospective new hires before onboarding them.
Working with a recruitment consultant can help your organization identify and connect with the right candidates from the get go, even before they begin actively looking for a new job. By having a diverse interview team meet with hand-selected candidates, your company will be far better equipped to avoid costly unsuccessful hires.
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