I Didn’t Realize I Was “Thin Slicing” When Hiring Employees

It’s that first impression.

Image by Sue Styles from Pixabay

Regular readers will remember that at one time in my life I was a personnel manager for a 10-store chain in San Diego.

Hiring and firing people always seemed like a coin flip.

If I hire this person, will they do great or will they fail to make it past their 90-day probation period?

I hired one young lady that started at 9 AM and quit at noon the same day. You just never know.

I Discovered I Was Thin-Slicing When I Was Hiring

At the time I was working there I didn’t realize that I was using a process called thin-slicing methodology.

It’s a methodology first defined by Professor Frank Bernieri of Oregon State University.

In layman’s terms, it simply means that we decide how we feel about someone in the first few seconds that we make contact with them.

Some people we like immediately others we get that “something’s just not right about this person” feeling.

And it happens almost instantaneously.

It’s that old saying you never get a second chance to make a good first impression.