Tag: interview

Negativity Bias: Why Candidates Share a Poor Experience.

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On 24 May 2023

In HUMAN BEHAVIOUR, INTERVIEWING

[2-minute insight]

Exactly what constitutes as a poor experience will vary from person to person but one thing is for certain, unhappy candidates talk online. This is because they’re human and have a built-in safeguard called a ‘negativity bias’.

The human negativity bias registers negative experiences more quickly than positive ones, as well as having the tendency to dwell on them. This bias partly functions to keep us from potential harm in the future.

The human negativity bias means that people feel, remember and respond to the discomfort of a negative experience more powerfully than the pleasure of a good one. This is why a bad first impression has a lingering effect and is difficult to overcome. First impressions at an interview are no exception.

72% of candidates will share a negative interview experience with their social networks.

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Interviews are huge part of a candidate’s journey and they’re a two-way street. As much as you are evaluating your candidates, they’re also evaluating you. This begins with everything they experience from when they first arrive at your organisation.

At the most basic level, candidates are evaluating:

  1. Whether the interviewer’s on time.
  2. If they’re greeted with courtesy and warmth.
  3. The appropriateness of the questions, how specific & focused these are.
  4. How engaged the interviewer is and their body language.
  5. How prepared the interviewer is what they already know about them.
  6. The interviewer’s understanding of the role and their ability to answer questions.

Technology and social media have made it much easier for candidates to kick their negativity bias into overdrive and share their experiences online. Poor reviews can harm your organisation’s reputation because, unfortunately, bad news not only sells but it spreads…sometimes like wildfire!

Don’t risk feeding a candidate’s negativity bias and land yourself in the 72% because you could also end up limiting your future talent pool.

Samantha Lynne
I help business owners & hiring managers streamline candidate interviews to make right-first-time hires for the long-term.

illusion of a butterfly camouflaging against leaves

Perfection Is An Illusion

By

On 21 May 2023

In HUMAN BEHAVIOUR

[1-minute insight]

“I always strive for perfection”. If you see this on a candidate’s CV or hear it during their interview, take note that there could be something amiss because perfection is an illusion.

First of all, ‘Strive’ has two meanings.

1) To make great efforts to achieve something.
2) To struggle and battle against the odds in the pursuit of achievement.

When it comes to perfection, it’s the latter and here’s why…

It doesn’t exist.

Perfection is an illusion, a social and human construct which holds people back, keeping them trapped in a cycle of frustration and, at worst, despair.

Perfection is subjective, one person’s idea of perfect isn’t the same as the next person’s. This makes perfection a matter of perception rather than truth. Subsequently, striving for it will be a struggle, it’s like trying to find the pot of gold at the end of a rainbow.

Striving for perfection can leave people feeling, despondent, anxious and withdrawn. In extreme cases, depressed and hopeless. Perfectionists can put a lot of unnecessary pressure on themselves trying to attain the unrealistic standards they set. Unrealistic standards which stem from the universal lie that “practice makes perfect‘.

Practice doesn’t make perfect but it does make progess.

Some personalities, like the Compliant (High C-Style). lean towards perfectionism more than others. For this reason, it’s important to understand if your candidates and team have perfectionist traits which could impact their mental health at work and affect their productivity.

This is not say that everyone who likes to achieve high standards is a perfectionist. However, if the words ‘strive’ and ‘perfection’ enter their language, there is usually a reason.

It’s something to be mindful of in terms of how to best support them whilst keeping aware of potential mental health concerns further down the line.

Want to know if your candidates or current team have perfectionist traits? Using DISC as part of your hiring process will reveal all. You can access your DISC Profile sample using the form below…it’s FREE.

Samantha Lynne
I help business owners & hiring managers streamline candidate interviews to make right-first-time hires for the long-term.

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