Ace-Exam is a tuition company. It started in China and expanded rapidly across Asia. Within a year, it has opened three centres in Singapore; Mary is the manager who oversees the hiring of teachers here. The HR department resides in China and its policy is to pay market-rate compensation and benefits in the respective countries. Mary advertises in the typical recruitment platforms with job descriptions that are similar to other tuition centres - excellent knowledge in the subject matter, good educational qualifications, and at least one year of teaching experience. Thereafter, all interested applicants are asked to fill up an application form that was translated from one used in China. The form asks for their name, gender, age, nationality, race, religion, marital status, photograph, educational qualification, work experience, criminal record (if any), two referees, and contact details. The centres have a total of 30 teachers and Mary needs to hire 10 more. She is frustrated with the low number of applicants applying for the job after initial enquiries and also the quality of the teachers hired. Many had turned out to be poor performers based on Mary's observation of their teaching skills. Hence Mary sought the advice of the company's HR manager on how she can improve her recruitment, assessment and selection.

In conversations with the HR manager, Mary revealed that:

She screened out those who did not fully complete the application form as she believed they had something to hide and therefore would likely be less truthful in their interviews.

She would conduct the interviews on her own. They ranged from 15 to 40 minutes depending on Mary's availability and how much the applicants talked. Mary would ask the same two questions ("why are you interested in this job?" and "tell me your strengths and weaknesses in teaching") and sometimes follow-on questions.

At the end of the interview, she would decide whether to hire the applicant or not.

She had a preference to hire young female graduates who spoke fluently during the interview. The reasons she gave were: from her own experience, young teachers tend to be more relatable with the students, females tend to be more patient, graduates tend to be more intelligent, and fluency indicates the ability to teach the subject matter.

Question

Analyse and give three explanations why Mary's interview and assessment did not lead to the good performers that she had expected. Propose and justify (e.g., what research has found) how the interview can be improved in the areas you had highlighted to select hires who will more likely perform