Interview best practices
Reducing bias in the interview process
One of the strengths of structured interviews is how they help to remove subjective bias. But structured interviews alone can’t remove it completely. Training interviewers on some of the more common biases may help them to catch themselves before their own bias influences interview ratings.
Interviewers should be aware of common biases, such as the halo effect (the inclination to review someone more positively based on liking them) to maintain fairness. Interview feedback might become skewed if biases are present.
While awareness of biases is a crucial first step, the most effective way to ensure fairness is to include bias-mitigation techniques directly into your process. The structure of the interview itself is your strongest defense against bias moving the goalpost.
For example, asking every candidate the same questions in the same order (within reason) is great practice to prevent inconsistent evaluation. Beyond that fundamental structure, you can turn awareness into action with two key practices that create procedural guardrails against subjectivity.
First, require all interviewers to rate independently before collaborating. Each team member should complete and submit their scorecard before the debrief meeting. This simple but powerful rule prevents groupthink and ensures one person’s strong opinion doesn’t unduly influence the entire group.
Second, train interviewers to rate against the standard, not against other candidates. It’s natural to compare people, but this can lead to a contrast effect, where a good candidate seems exceptional simply because they interviewed after a poor one.
Finally, remind your team that each candidate must be measured independently against the pre-defined rating scale for the role.
Types of bias in the interview process
Let’s take a look at the different types of bias, how it could impact the interview process, and how to mitigate it as much as possible.