Groupthink and the Hiring Process

2019-08-15T17:00:00-04:00

The dominant approach to hiring today – in which the hiring manager convenes a huddle and goes around the room hearing opinions on each candidate is particularly prone to groupthink. That is because in free-form discussions, the person with the metaphorical “loudest voice” typically over-influences the committee’s decision.

CEO and author, Atta Tarki, believes the hiring process can be prone to inefficiencies, particularly in group collaboration. He offers some recommendations on "how to make a true group decision:"

First, the hiring team "should not share their interview experiences with each other before the final group huddle." Next, each member of the team should perform these steps before the final group huddle:

distill their interview rating to a single numerical score.
write down their main arguments for and against hiring this person and their final conclusion. This will help them stay true to their beliefs once the discussion starts, which leads to less biased predictions.

And, finally, "the hiring manager should take note of the average score for a candidate." Tarki emphasizes that these scores should not be followed blindly but should instead be used as a process for "richer, unbiased and uncensored discussions." This, coupled with some other components, should lead to a process of more fruitf...

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Groupthink and the Hiring Process