Why Manual Interviews Are Killing Your Hiring Success (And What Smart Companies Do Instead)

Discover why AI-driven assessments outperform traditional manual interviews in hiring efficiency, accuracy, and cost-effectiveness, and how MTestHub revolutionizes recruitment.

Companies who need to find that perfect hire are discovering the same pain points and obstacles. In the current market every job listing attracts hundreds, possibly thousands of applicants. The shear volume makes it seem like it is impossible to properly screen candidates who deserve an interview.

Complicating the entire process is that many applicants now rely upon artificial intelligence to create a resume that perfectly matches the job requirements. This often gets them that precious interview, which makes the HR professional who screened the candidates look bad. The good news is that there is now a platform specifically designed to deal with both large volume of applicants and those who are trying to spoof the system using AI. MTestHub is the first (and only) AI-powered screening, shortlisting, testing and assessment platform that ensures that you are not only interviewing the right candidates, but when you finally hire one, they can actually do the job from day one.

NUMBERS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES

The average executive spends 23 hours interviewing candidates for a single hire. That's nearly three full workdays for one role! This does not take into account the days and weeks trying to find the right candidates who should be offered an interview.

Seventy four percent of companies admit they've hired the wrong person, costing an average of $240,000 per bad hire.

In a highly competitive industry (what isn’t?), you can quickly lose ground when you are drowning in interview schedules, second-guessing gut feelings, and hiring the wrong people.

The question isn't whether AI will transform hiring. It already has. The question is: will you adapt, or will you keep bleeding time, money, and exceptional candidates to companies that have?

The Brutal Reality of Traditional Interview Methods

Time Cost of Manual Screening

Every manual interview represents a cascade of hidden costs that compound daily. Consider this: the volume of applicants for any given role may exceed into the hundreds.

To save time and make the process manageable, many companies only will consider the first 50 applicants who apply for a position. Even when they limit the review to the first 50 applicants, the time involved can be overwhelming

• 12-15 hours of resume review
• 8-10 hours of initial phone screens
• 15-20 hours of first-round interviews
• 6-8 hours of technical assessments
• 12 - 23 hours of final interviews

That's 53-76 hours per position—before considering scheduling conflicts, no-shows, and the inevitable re-interviews when your top choice rejects your offer.

However the real cost may be the loss because you didn’t even consider those applications that were filed after the 50th candidate. Lurking in those undiscovered applications may be that perfect person who could help transform your company.

Bias Blindness: When "Gut Feelings" Lead to Bad Hires

The most dangerous phrase in recruitment? "I have a good feeling about this one." Human intuition, while valuable, operates through unconscious filters that consistently sabotage hiring success.

Research from Harvard Business School reveals that structured assessments outperform traditional interviews by 400% in predicting job performance. Yet most companies still base hiring decisions on subjective impressions formed within the first seven seconds of meeting a candidate.

This isn't just about fairness—it's about survival. Companies trapped in bias-driven hiring cycles experience:

• 67% higher turnover rates
• 43% longer time-to-productivity
• 156% increased training costs
• Measurably lower team performance across all metrics

Your "people skills" aren't the problem. The manual interview process itself is fundamentally flawed, designed for a world where technical skills were simpler and talent pools were smaller. Imagine a world where every person who is being interviewed has already proven that they not only understand how to perform the job but can hit the ground running when they are hired. The MTestHub skills-based testing ensures that you are not interviewing anyone who isn’t truly qualified.

Scalability Nightmare: Growing Pains Every CEO Knows

Success creates its punishment. As your company grows, manual interview processes become increasingly complex and less effective.

At 10 employees, you can personally interview every candidates - it's a burden but still possible. By the time you reach 20 employees, you need a system to help with the screening, shortlisting, and evaluating the skills of the applicants. When you begin to reach 50 employees manual processes aren't just inefficient—they're impossible.

There are so many inefficiencies with the manual process that finding the right person is very difficult.

Creating the Job Description: The human resource professional who is tasked with finding the right candidate may not fully understand the duties and responsibilities of the position. The HR professional has to engage the hiring manager to either explain the qualifications or to write up the job description themselves.

• MTestHub uses artificial intelligence to create the perfect job description that now only ensures that right qualifications are included, but saves time for both the HR professional and the hiring manager.

Screening the Candidates: The HR professional has the unenviable task of trying to sort through hundreds of resumes. Often they are hampered because they don’t truly understand the role or the applicants have spoofed the process by using AI to create that perfect resume.

• MTesthub uses an advanced proprietary AI process to effectively screen hundreds of resumes in just seconds. We can quickly identify which candidates are qualified and which are using AI to try and fool the HR professional.

Screening of Candidates: Almost every job listing has “must have” qualifications, education, or location, etc. that are absolutely necessary to meet the needs of the position. Manually sorting can be time consuming or impossible if the resume is vague or does not contain that information.

• MTestHub solves this problem by requiring candidates to specifically address those areas that are critical to the position. We can include those “knock-out” questions that allow you to automatically understand which applicants are not suitable for the position.

Skills-based Testing: In many hiring processes, applicants who successfully base the interview stage are given a test to assess whether they are qualified for the position. This means the HR Professional who may conduct an initial interview and the hiring manager waste valuable time talking to someone who is simply unable to perform the duties of the position.

• MTestHub flips the script. We believe that no interview should take place until the candidate has proven they are qualified for the role. Our one-click AI driven testing and assessment platform allows you to create a skills-based test based on the job description, industry standards, or any nuance that may be important to the role. Our anti-cheating feature ensures that the person who takes the test or assessment is the same one who will perform the job and that they do not use any tool, technique, or person to help them answer the questions.

Never again take weeks to find the right candidate for the job. Never again hire a person who cannot perform the job duties from day one.