Daniel Kahneman's five pragmatic mantras to improve workplace judgement

A key determinant of success in business is making the right decision at the right time. At People Matters TechHR Singapore this year, we proudly presented a conversation with Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman on how to avoid errors of judgement. Here, we bring you key takeaways from the event

- Samriddhi Srivastava

Decision bias is pervasive within our society and is similarly highly prevalent within the workplace. Nobel laureate Professor Daniel Kahneman, the pioneer of behavioral economics, has dedicated his life to understanding the psychology of judgment and decision-making, and in his groundbreaking research, he demonstrated one simple truth - people are not immune to prejudice and favoritism because it would be difficult to function without them. However, implementing strategies to reduce bias in the workplace can do wonders.

While the Great Resignation continues to test HR leaders, we must find effective ways to eliminate bias to improve the employee experience and business outcomes. To learn ways our thinking can be flawed and to make more informed and rational decisions, we sat down with Professor Kahneman at People Matters TechHR Singapore, and came away with five valuable mantras that you can use in dayto-day HR work to make sound decisions.

Standardize structured interviews

The interview is a crucial stage of the hiring process which tells you about the candidates beyond their resumes. Among the two types of interviews; unstructured and structured, Professor Kahneman strongly recommends adopting a structured interview format to avoid inaccurate hiring decisions.

The difference between structured and unstructured interviews lies in questions. While the structured format comprises predetermined questions, unstructured ones are spontaneous and the next questions emerge from the answers to the prior questions. Hence, it is unorganized, leading to asking unnecessary questions, being biased, and making imprecise recruitments.