Poor Mental Health at Work!
Guest blog post from Dave Wilkinson
The biggest hurdle most business owners face when trying to recruit new staff is … themselves
They just can’t get out of their own way.
How we don’t see reality when recruiting
The first problem is what is known as bias bias. What this means is that most people think they are less biased than most people! We all tend to believe that we see reality and that our judgements, especially about other people are largely correct and certainly better than average.
A study in 1977 found that over 87% of people believe their ability to make accurate judgements about things like honesty, trustworthiness, how focused a person is, work ethic and a whole host of other attributes was above average. Clearly 87% of people can’t be above average in their ability to judge others!
Overconfidence
This overconfidence about our ability to judge people is not just based on snap initial judgements. How many times have you seen news items where the neighbours of a serial killer, terrorist or other person of infamy have expressed shock that the quiet person who smiled at them every time they met in the street, shared a coffee with, had a relationship with, turned out to be someone they just didn’t expect?
Many business owners and managers, we find, are almost always confident about their ability to spot the right person for a job, even though less than 40% of their choices turn out to be good fits.
We are much more easily fooled than we like to think we are
Part of the problem is that we are much more easily fooled than we like to think we are. Only about 49% of the population can be above average when it comes to making judgements about people and even if they are above average it does not mean that they are even accurate, just that they are better than average!
Our propensity for fooling ourselves about our ability to accurately judge people across a range of attributes is compounded by another bias called conformation bias.
Conformation bias and recruiting
Basically this means that if we form a belief about something, our brain then goes into overdrive to prove that our belief is true. It does this by actively looking for evidence to support our belief and actively ignoring or filtering out any data that suggests we may have got it wrong. This is how bigots, sexists, racists etc operate and are able to maintain their beliefs; by only noticing the data than conforms to their beliefs. We all do this.
So if you form a belief that a candidate is or is not a good fit for you, you are very likely to start collecting the data to prove you are right rather than seeing the reality of the potential of the candidate. You can see conformation bias playing out when you go to buy a new car.
Say you decide you want a black Ford Focus. You will notice that the roads suddenly appear to be full of black Ford Focuses! The universe hasn’t really plonked more black Ford Focuses (Foci?) around you, it’s just that your brain is now filtering for them.
What can you do about it?
This is all very well but what can you do about it? Well there are a couple of ways of helping to offset some of our natural biases. The first is to accept that you are probably biased. Denial doesn’t help!
Part of the problem for owners and managers is that they will have an emotional attachment and investment to and in the outcome, which often can create a larger bias than with people who have less emotional investment in the outcome. This level of objectivity (actually less subjectivity) by an outside individual can help to reduce any built-in bias.
Another method is to become aware of your beliefs and actively try to disprove that belief
This is harder for some people than others. The first problem is being aware and accurate about your awareness of your beliefs as they form. Many professional recruiters use this critical analysis method to help them reduce recruiting mistakes.
Over this series of blogs I will be looking at the human and strategic side of recruiting and being recruited.
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