Why inuition fails - Never trust your gut feeling when hiring!

Many experienced executives and also HR experts trust their inuition when selecting personnel. This causes organizations loss of money, time, and nerves and it delays innovation, transformation, and motivation. Lazlo Bock, head of human resources at Google, advises in his world bestseller "Work Rules" to only hire people who are smarter than yourself. Companies following that recommendation will shape the work culture and society in the next decade. Think for a moment about how you would assess smartness and social skills beyond your own. So what should you consider when your gut feeling in job interviews and assessments is deceptive and not enough for a good decision?

These are core quality criteria for state-of-the-art assessment and selection that you definitely should be good in:

Correct content measurement
cover the requirements for the position sharply - "validity"
Avoid measurement errors
assess traits precisely and minimize white noise - "reliability"
Fairness
ensure independence from the interviewer or test user - "objectivity"
Relevance
compare the person with the needs and not with other people - "competence principle"
Ethics
respect legal requirements and social standards - "compliance"
Plausibility
use methods and content that make sense for candidates - "social validity"
Eye level
understand the application as a reciprocal process and avoid overselling - "employer branding"

Many current tools and methods do not meet these standards. The science journalist Bärbel Schwertfeger is committed to fight the spread of unorthodox and unqualified assessments. We support this extremely important work as part of our Christmas donation and would like to invite you to also do this. Besides direct contributions you might also profit from a subscription at science platform "Business Psychology Today" (German). And of course, for talking about increasing the quality of your personnel selection, do not hesitate to consult with us.

Bärbel Schwertfeger: Donation
Business Psychology Today (German): subscribe
Lazlo Bock (2016): Work Rules

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