Use of Preference Matrix in Evaluation of Prospective Candidates

Session
Leadership and Management

Authors
Rusty Hilcken
Cardiovascular Services Coordinator
Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center

Lori Montagna
Nurse Manager ICU/CCU
Good Samaritan Hospital Medical Center

Description
The use of a Preference Matrix in evaluation of prospective hire candidates with the use of shared governance in the interviewing process to assist in the standardization of evaluation for our new hires would help grade candidates, ensuring the most recent candidate not be hired simply because of cognitive biases.

Abstract
To assist in the standardization of evaluation for our new hires the implementation of a preference matrix was decided upon to use as a tool to evaluate potential candidates. The preference matrix would assist to objectify the very subjective interviewing process, and would help to grade candidates to ensure that the most recent candidate would not be hired simply because of the cognitive biases. A preference matrix is a table that allows a manager to rate alternatives according to performance criteria. A cognitive bias is any of a wide range of observer effects identified in cognitive science and social psychology including very basic statistical, social attribution, and memory errors that are common to all human beings. Biases drastically skew the reliability of anecdotal and legal evidence. Five criteria were decided upon by all staff, and graded by level of importance to be the qualities that would be most important. Each attribute was assigned a factor based on level of importance. The factors, when added, equal 100. The candidates score for each attribute is then multiplied by the factor. This gives each candidate the possibility of a perfect score of 1000.