Special Report: How the bias in job interviews could change with new technology
MICHIGAN (WPBN/WGTU) -- Most of us can remember many of the job interviews we've had.
Chances are some went well and others didn't.
And did you ever think 'I nailed that interview!' but you didn't get the job?
Employers here and around the world are trying to improve the way they interview and hire people and it's about trying to remove bias from the process.
What we wear, how we talk, the color of our hair -- identifiable characteristics that sometimes can factor into the decision to hire someone.
"There's a lot of areas, in fact, they're unlimited."
Mark Liebling is the executive director of human resources at Northwestern Michigan College in Traverse City.
He said one way the college tries to fight bias is by including more people in the process.
"Someone they are from the home area that that is directly involved with the position and some of them will come from other areas of the college outside that direct area," said Liebling. "So, we are looking for a view of the candidate from different people from within the college."
Those groups or committees at the college also go through extensive training to understand how our bias can impact our decisions.
So, what's the next step?
"There is software out there that would allow us to eliminate names from resumes so hopefully another level of objectivity and bias elimination."
Tengai, a company in Sweden, is developing a robot that could someday be used in the interview process.
The product is just in development and isn't on the market just yet.
"Humans are terrible at conducting interviews, basically because it is impossible for us to be unbiased," said Elin Oberg Martenzon, the CEO of Tengai Unbiased.
Martenson said tools and structure help but that it's just impossible to totally remove bias from interviews.
That is why she said her company is working on an interview robot that would create a human-like experience free from unconscious bias.
"We need to ask questions around personality traits and competes and ask them consistently to all candidates in the same way throughout the process," said Martenzon.
According to a 2016 article in the Harvard Business Review, many managers are overconfident about their own expertise and experience and dislike deferring to a more structured approach that might outsource human judgment.
But sitting across from Tengai on your next job interview may not be that far off.
