Judgement Belongs Before the Shortlist

The issue Boards place their judgement at the final interview, where it adds least, and treat the brief as clerical work, where it decides most. Why it persists The final read of a candidate feels like the decision, and a confident reading flatters everyone in the room; the brief feels like paperwork, and the board writing it rarely examines itself. What to do Spend judgement on defining what the organisation is and needs, combine the evidence about candidates consistently, and keep ownership of the decision rather than handing it to an instrument or a consultant.Give a seasoned interviewer and a simple scoring rule the same file on the same candidate—the test results, the interview notes, the references—and the rule will usually make the better call. Not narrowly. When Nathan Kuncel and his colleagues pooled the studies of hiring decisions in 2013, a rule that weighed the evidence the same way every time predicted performance in the job more than half as well again as the people…