The complete guide to the disadvantages of interviews

The interview is a highly important step within the hiring process.

Not only do they help HR professionals get to know the candidates, but they also give them the opportunity to find out who is best suited for their company.

One of the benefits of hiring employees off interviews is that it helps you identify people who are likely to be a good fit with your company.

You can also use an interview to evaluate a candidate's work experience, introduce a candidate to the company, assess a candidate's hard and soft skills, discover the most qualified candidates and define the position and company expectations.

With that being said, interviewing is an important part of the hiring process because it provides you with insights into your potential employees' skills and personalities. It also gives them a chance to get to know your company better and see if it's the right fit for them.

However, within this crucial step, there are many disadvantages that recruiters have to face when interviewing their candidates.

Disadvantages of interviews

1.   Interviewing is a time-consuming process

Traditional face-to-face interviews can be extremely time-consuming. Here we look at the different ways interviews take up so much time out of the interview process. - Which ultimately leads to a long and drawn-out time-to-hire.

Interview time vs. productivity lost:

In the workplace, time is a valuable resource. Especially when we think about the fact that time is the only thing that cannot be bought or sold.

This means that every second spent on something not productive can result in a significant loss of productivity.

This is why it's important to find ways to increase our efficiency in order to maximize our time. When getting candidates to the interview stage, they should be considered potential candidates not to waste time.

Arranging the interview:

Not only do recruiters need to find a time and date that suits both the candidate and themselves, but the back and fore on this and trying to find a suitable time and date can be time-consuming in itself. This is especially true for interviews where there is more than one interviewer.

If the manager from the particular department needs to be in the interview too, it may take extra time to find cover to replace their absence from their usual role.

Time overspill on interviews:

When interviewers are scheduling interviews they really need to book extra time before and after the interview. This is because some interviews can finish on time, and some can go on way past the allotted time. This can be for a variety of reasons. Some are great candidates. recruiter rapport extends conversation and even interview questions and answers. Also, some candidates may have questions for the recruiter at the end of the interview. This may add additional time to the interview too.

2.   Interviewing is a costly process

The cost of interviewing is the sum of the time and resources that you spend on interviewing. Some companies have a fixed budget for interviews, which means that they can only afford to conduct a certain number of interviews. Others, who have a set budget for hiring, might be able to afford more interviews if they are able to find candidates who are worth it.

More than one recruiter on the interview panel:

When there are multiple recruiters from various departments on the interview panel, there are huge costs attached to this.

This is because their usual roles will need to be covered. Each staff member from the various departments. And if not, this will leave a business cost for the absence of the staff member from their usual role

More scheduled interviews = higher cost:

The cost of an interview can depend on a variety of factors. If it is an in-person interview, then it can be more expensive than if it was done over the phone or via video call.

The second factor is the duration of the interview. Interviews that are conducted in person generally last longer than interviews that were done over the phone or via Skype.

The third factor is how many people are being interviewed at once. If there are three people being interviewed, then there will be a higher cost for hiring a professional to conduct the interviews for you.

In general, interviews can cost anywhere from $50 to $300 per person depending on these factors and other additional costs like travel expenses and time off work for your employees who need to take time off to come and interview

3.   Unethical behaviour in interviews

In this section, we will talk about the ethical implications of interviewing candidates for a job.

Interviewers should always be aware that they are in a position of power and that they should not abuse their position to intimidate or harass the candidate.

What is negative interviewer bias?

Interviewers are often biased in their evaluation of applicants. The negative interviewer bias is when interviewers have a negative opinion of an applicant before they even start interviewing them. This is referred to as the horn effect.

Whilst the halo effect has been studied for years, the horn effect is a new phenomenon in psychology. Under this process, we creatively see negative or bad things about someone based on one aspect of their character or appearance. For example, an overweight person may be seen by hiring managers as being lazy, slovenly or irresponsible. Often, this judgement is based on how they look, how they speak or even their body language.

This bias can be caused by a variety of factors, including the interviewer’s personal characteristics, the applicant’s appearance, and their social interactions with the interviewer. It can also be caused by the interviewer’s mood or what they think about on their way to work.

The negative interviewer bias has been shown to have a large impact on hiring decisions because it causes interviewers to focus more on an applicant's flaws than their strengths and it causes them to make incorrect assumptions about an applicant's skills and abilities based on what they see rather than what they

How to improve the interview process?

After reading some of the disadvantages of interviews, it is clear that the interview process can be improved.

Many companies have found successful improvements in switching to video interviewing.

What’s a video interview?

A video interview is a powerful way to attract top talent. Video interviews are becoming increasingly popular and allow you to evaluate a candidate's skills and personality in a more personal setting. So let's next look at the benefits of video interviewing.

Benefits of video interviewing:

• Reduce interview costs
• Reduce recruiters time
• Reduce employee turnover
• Widen the candidate pool
• Assess technical skills
• Reduce time to hire
• Appeal to millennials and Gen Z
• Improve company branding

Recruiters have found major improvements in the success of their interviews since switching to video. With 90% of employers not wanting to conduct face-to-face interviews at all.

If you’re a company that still feels the importance of face-to-face interviews then you can still use video interviews to reduce the many disadvantages.

Start by conducting a pre-interview where you clarify the job requirements and test out the candidate's abilities. If all goes well and you want to get to know the few last candidates better, set up an in-person interview to meet face-to-face before offering them the position.

Conclusion

We hope you found this post on the disadvantages of interviewing helpful, and our solution to the problems. For more information on video interviewing take a look at How to do a digital interview.