Don't judge a book by its cover

We were interested to read the recent article, Travelodge WLTM new managers.

The purpose of assessment for selection is to objectively, fairly and accurately identify suitable candidates, comparing their performance against clearly defined criteria. It is simply not possible to achieve this in a three minute interview. Research has consistently shown that first impressions are rarely any better than chance in predicting someone’s capability to do a job. Didn’t our parents always tell us never to judge a book by its cover?

Another important consideration is diversity, as making judgements from first impressions and limited data often tends to rely on stereotypes. Research has found that humans have a strong tendency to prefer people like themselves, so if we recruit people like ourselves we will effectively be recruiting clones.