3 Jan 2012 ● Andre Boeke
Tune in to your intuition
Everyone knows it - there's no secret. When it comes to hiring decisions, intuition plays a huge role.
You can use assessment centres, and rate CV's based on as complex formula as you want, but intuition can still play a huge part in the decision on whether to hire someone or not.
There's a great article in Recruiter which talks about how intuition can be honed with experience. It's not necessarily just a gut feeling, but a sum of everything you as a recruiter see from the candidate, and have seen during your career. This includes the outcomes of previous recruitment decisions of course.
The article also talks about what can impact and form your intuition. Everything ranging from eye movements to an analysis of their attitude from a response to set questions. There are quite a few things here - and the author goes a long way to addressing as many of them as possible.
I can't help feeling that intuition is more though. It's not something that is necessarily prescribed, and not always something you can put your finger on. In my experience recruiters sometimes find it difficult to explain why a candidate just isn't right. Sometimes you can't just tick a box and say "this is the reason". Sometimes years of experience can just give you that gut feeling - and pinpointing where it has come from is just not possible.
If you can't articulate it - what then? If you can't pinpoint the reason how do you know you're not confusing your intuition with bias? Equally important - will others be able to accuse you of discriminatory behaviour?
This is in danger of turning into a bit of a ramble - but what I do gather is that when you tune in to your intuition you need to be able to identify the cause, be able to articulate it, and be able to clearly explain any recruitment decision you make. But - is this still intuition then?
The article also talks about what can impact and form your intuition. Everything ranging from eye movements to an analysis of their attitude from a response to set questions. There are quite a few things here - and the author goes a long way to addressing as many of them as possible.
I can't help feeling that intuition is more though. It's not something that is necessarily prescribed, and not always something you can put your finger on. In my experience recruiters sometimes find it difficult to explain why a candidate just isn't right. Sometimes you can't just tick a box and say "this is the reason". Sometimes years of experience can just give you that gut feeling - and pinpointing where it has come from is just not possible.
If you can't articulate it - what then? If you can't pinpoint the reason how do you know you're not confusing your intuition with bias? Equally important - will others be able to accuse you of discriminatory behaviour?
This is in danger of turning into a bit of a ramble - but what I do gather is that when you tune in to your intuition you need to be able to identify the cause, be able to articulate it, and be able to clearly explain any recruitment decision you make. But - is this still intuition then?
