Hiring Talent: Removing Personal Bias

A common thread through the discussion has clearly been on hiring and people management. I think the key to any business is hiring the best people you can. Do you have certain techniques or principles that you use in hiring? Or maybe, the process, in terms of meeting someone, versus actually hiring?

I think you do develop pattern recognition, over the years. Certainly, my success rate now, is significantly higher than it was when I first started hiring people, 15 or so years ago. If I think back to some of the people I hired early on, if I was sitting in front of them now, I would probably make better decisions.

There is some pattern recognition, where it’s hard to put your finger on it. I would say, the key thing is, try to remove your personal biases, as much as you can, when you are interviewing people. Try to interview people in a consistent, so that if you are meeting five candidates, you’re basically asking the same thing to each candidate. This will enable you to compare and contrast accurately. But I would say, really, really listen to what people are saying. Listen to the words that they use and the examples that they give. Seek to try and genuinely understand what makes them tick, as people.

I’ve really struggled interviewing people, remotely, over Skype. I actually looked, a few years ago, at Just Eat, at my success rate interviewing over Skype and in person. I found that, in person, I was getting it right about 80% of the time and, over Skype, I was getting it right, probably 50% of the time. I think it is, for whatever reason, even with great video conferencing technology, it is easier to really understand who a person is, if you are sitting in the same room as them.

Do you have a process? Do you have an interview, then you have a lunch or a dinner or referencing?

I take referencing very seriously. I’m not a big one to do lunches and dinners. I do a lot of referencing and, if I know people in companies who they work for, I will, typically, go and talk to them and try and get all the data points I can about a person.

Just around those personal biases, I think the hardest thing for anyone to do is actually listen. How do you try to put your personal biases aside and listen?

What I try to do is, just remember how diverse people have been, who have been successful. If I think of people I work with, even people in the same sorts of jobs, or any other examples you want, such as famous people who have done great things, they look really, really different. They are very different people, very different backgrounds. There isn’t a type who will always do well.