In a bid to get the hiring process out of the way quickly, businesses make mistakes that they end up rueing a few weeks down the line. Here are some of these mistakes you must avoid in your hiring decisions.
Hiring without proper identification of company needs
To properly fill a role, your company needs to have a clearly defined requirement in terms of skills and knowledge needed to do the job. You need to work out realistic standards a candidate must meet. This should cover education backgrounds, technical skills, as well as work experience. Don't forget to keep an eye on the short and long term goals of your business and how a particular hiring decision will affect them.
Not properly testing the skills of the prospective employee
Many businesses do this. You need to have measurable, realistic performance standards for every role you are hiring for. Failing to do this means you are blindly banking on the employee living up to expectations. Most of the time, you will be left disappointed and productivity will suffer. Competency based interviews, built on the job requirements, are the key to successful recruitment.
Hiring lazily
Hiring comes with high stakes but this still doesn't stop managers from getting lazy. Lazy managers will hire the first person that walks through the door as long as they are perceived as being suitable. This is understandable, especially when the manager has other tasks to do, but this mistake is costly most of the time. If you want to do away with the rigours of hiring, you can bring in external experts, or delegate those other tasks seeking your attention.
Desperate hiring
Many businesses make this mistake. Some hire any programmer that comes along because of scarcity of programmers, others hire because they need to replace a departing manager instantly. While some of these desperate employment moves work out, the majority of the time you will be left with an incompetent employee, not right for the job.
Instead of giving in to these desperation induced hires, look at alternatives. Steve, at expressgroupuk.com, suggests that "if you will not be able to conduct a thorough hiring process, outsource the process, and bring in experts to help. You could also take a look at the temporary recruitment workforce in your area, as you will be more flexible to try people out until you get the right person. Temp to perm recruitment is becoming more and more fashionable for growing businesses.
As one of our previous articles highlights, recruitment agencies can really help.
Blind promotion from within
Of course, most business owners love the idea of promoting from within the organisation. However, your best employees are not always the most qualified candidates for the specific job you are hiring for; their skills and knowledge may not map on to the new job very well. This is especially true when you are looking to fill in a management position. An individual can be very good at handling specific tasks but they may fail when tasked with the challenges of managing others. Putting them in that position will not only ruin your business department, but potentially also their career!
Lack of proper evaluation for recommended candidates
Managers need to understand that recommendations aren't iron clad guarantees that an individual can do a task competently. That a colleague or highly respected individual in your industry thinks a candidate is a good fit doesn't mean they are.
The way we recruit is changing. For example, social media is becoming a core tool of recruiters. It is easier than ever to find people, even for really specialist roles. To remain competitive we therefore need to recruit smart.
You have to put the recommended candidate through his paces or else you are letting someone else make hiring decisions for you. The individual that made the recommendations won't be on hand to mop up the problems that are bound to arise due to a bad hiring decision.
These are mistakes you must avoid if your business wants to make progress, with the right people in the right positions.
