A survey has claimed that 74 per cent of HR chiefs believe interviewing techniques are below standard.

The problem is resulting in inadequate employee performance (35 per cent) that in turn affects the bottom line (24 per cent).

Despite 70 per cent of HR managers taking at least 20 minutes to prepare for an interview, with a quarter spending over 40 minutes compiling questions, 17 per cent believe that a lack of time is a barrier to making the right decisions every time.

A third of the respondents believe that a key obstacle to making reliable and consistent selection decisions is simply down to poorly trained interviewers.

Only 16 per cent of respondents thought that most (81 per cent or more) of the people in their organisation interviewed consistently and fairly.

It’s not just the bottom line that is affected, however; HR heads also believe it wastes time and costs, creates disaffection amongst staff, and leaves candidates with a bad impression of their organisation.

Rory Fidgeon, senior consultant occupational psychologist for A&DC, an organisation that delivers competency-based interview solutions and the survey authors, said: “The survey shows that few heads of HR see their people interviewing well, which backs up the stories we hear of so many interviewing with ‘gut feeling’ as their main guide. Using this type of judgement in interviews doesn’t work consistently. The results show huge scope to improve and simplify the interviewing process.”