Job Interviews Impact Job Satisfaction

Research Shows Tougher Job Interviews Can Reduce Turnover

When you are an employee engagement specialist, you tend to be drawn to and fascinated by employees.

Wherever you go, you encounter employees and you can’t help but wonder, What are they thinking? How do they feel about their job? And when you see a bunch of employees working alongside each other, why do some looked excited and others look so obviously de-motivated? Which begs the question, how come some people can be engaged and others be disengaged doing the same job?

New research says it might have a lot to do with hiring. A new driver has been identified in research conducted by Glassdoor that tells us the hiring process influences how engaged an employee will be long term. The research shows that the more time is spent on the interview process itself, the greater the chance you will hire the best person for the job and the one most likely to be the best match.

When people are hired to do the job that suits them best, there is statistically a much greater chance they will become highly engaged employees. They won’t quit after a month because they are in the right job, therefore they have the best chance of becoming one of your most loyal and committed employees.

How do you hire the best person? New research shows that harder job interviews are statistically linked to higher employee satisfaction.

In fact harder job interviews have been linked to higher levels of job satisfaction! Findings showed that when interviews are measured on a 5 point scale, the easiest interviews (rated at 1-2 points) and the hardest interviews (rated at 5-points) were both associated with lower employee satisfaction later on but increasing the difficulty of average interviews by 10% was associated with a 2.6% rise in employee satisfaction.

But it’s more than asking hard questions, it’s about asking ‘better’ questions. Dr Andrew Chamberlain, a Chief Economist at Glassdoor and Co-Author of the report recognizes that all employers want to hire the right candidate; one who will be satisfied years into the future. He says: “This information sends a signal to organisations that they should re-evaluate their interview processes to ensure they’re asking the right questions to better understand a candidate’s skill set, whether they will be a cultural fit and if they can do the job.” A better interview will affect the quality of job matches between job seekers and job openings.

This means that the job interview has vast implications for a company’s future and its culture by ensuring that the match between new hires and their jobs is done with care and thoroughness.

Invest the time to get the best person at the interview stage and enjoy the long term benefits that investment will bring for you and the person you hire.

The original research was titled Do Difficult Job Interviews Lead to More Satisfied Workers? Evidence from Glassdoor Reviews.