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Attrition is considered to be one of the biggest challenges Indian corporate sector is facing today. All companies are working day and night to find out a long-term solution of this critical issue. However, very few of them are in a position to face this challenge successfully till date.
According to these companies, it is a complex issue and has several dimensions. At the face of it, it is a role mismatch, i.e., fitting wrong person in the right position. But why role mismatch? Many would argue that 'it is very difficult to understand a complete human being within few minutes of conversation,' or 'in the interview s/he was found to be very good but now it appears that it was a wrong selection'.

Perhaps the most hidden dimension of this massive role mismatch is the 'Halo Effect' created by both employees as well as employer during the process of interview in different circumstances. In this process, recruiter's perception is often influenced by striking competencies or similarities to themselves. It is primarily a situation that can arise when an applicant has one of the superior competency (in many circumstances, it could be a surface level competency) that may be required for the position, and because of this, the interviewer or interviewing panel wrongly infer that he or she has the other competencies or attributes required for the job as well. It could work both in positive or negative direction. This phenomena works as a filter to any information that contradicts first impressions. For example, someone who attended the same college or university as the recruiter would be at an advantage, while a person not wearing a suit or not having a charming or magnetic personality would not be a management material. It is often the case that people judge more favourably those individuals with whom they have something in common.

Moreover, in this entire process, attractiveness is considered to be the central trait. Attractive people are often judged as having a more desirable personality and more skills than someone of average appearance. So we presume that all the other traits of an attractive person are just as attractive and sought after. Individuals often exhibit their best behavior in the presence of authority figures, presumably to avoid being accosted by said figures. With this assumption, today it has been widely found that large number of job seekers are exclusively focusing on sharpening their so-called surface level attractiveness skill and moving from one lucrative assignment to another, frequently only on the basis of glorified superficial presentation without even having any breakthrough performance in their current or previous role.

During the process of interview, the interviewer may be attracted to someone who seems to be in his/her own likeness. On many occasions, the interviewer identifies favourability with some aspects of the candidate's presentation of themselves and, thereafter, makes assumption (not based on actual information) about the rest of the candidate.

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* Contributed by: -
Joydip Dey is a Post Graduate in Human Resources from XLRI Jamshedpur, and has spent more than 15 years in the Fortune 500 Technology Companies, and is currently VP-Human Resources at Bharti Tele-Ventures Ltd., New Delhi.