It’s only been a week since your new hire started, but you’re already wondering if it’s the same person you interviewed. This is referred to as the ‘evil twin syndrome’. You interviewed the good twin. The one with all the right answers to your interview questions. The one with the engaging smile and the firm handshake.
But who showed up for work on the first day? The evil twin. The one who was 20 minutes late. The one who has already asked off for next Friday. The one who doesn’t seem to have the skills they already claimed.
There are a couple of reasons this happens.
1. Your interview process is designed to determine which candidate makes the best first impression and interviews the best – not which candidate will perform the job the best. A researcher would say the interview lacks validity. The way questions are asked and answered doesn’t accurately predict whether the candidate will actually do well in the role. The solution to interviewing better is to ask better questions. Often the person conducting the interview hasn’t had time to thoroughly review the resumes.
One common mistake is providing the candidate with the answer before they ask they question.
“Jane, I’m looking for someone who can do X, Y and Z. Can you do X, Y and Z?”
Jane responds in the affirmative. When Jane’s evil twin shows up for work, everyone is surprised when she is struggling with Y. After all, she said she could do it.
Really good interviewers ask probing, open-ended questions that don’t reveal what the interviewer is specifically looking for. “Jane, tell me about a time you did X? What were the challenges you faced doing X? Which X-related projects are you most proud of and why? Have you ever been responsible for Y? Tell me about your experience with Y-related challenges?”
2. The interview is not supplemented with anything to highlight potential discrepancies
between what the candidate said in the interview and how they might actually behave.
A lot of managers skip the reference check because so many companies today are hesitant to give out any information beyond confirming the candidate actually worked there when they say they did. Even though some calls are non-informative, they are still helpful. LinkedIn is an excellent resource for accessing people in the candidate’s network who might offer some insight into how a candidate might fit into your organization.
3. But an even more important method is layering one or more pre-employment assessments. The right mix of assessments will show how the candidate is likely to behave under pressure, what motivates a candidate to give discretionary effort and what competencies they really bring to the team. To get the most out of an assessment, it should be benchmarked to the job in advance. The evil twin can still get hired when managers review the results WITHOUT a benchmark.
Contact the Davidson Group to improve your hiring process. We can also recommend the best pre-employment assessments to use.
