If you’re having trouble placing candidates or your hiring process isn’t running as smoothly as you would have hoped, it may be time to take a step back and assess what exactly is going wrong. Sometimes even the smallest of changes can make a world of difference, so it’s worth taking the time to identify areas for improvement.
There are a few common blunders that recruiters commonly make, which can result in costly hiring mistakes, failure to capture the attention of the best employees and creating a negative reputation for themselves as a recruiter and the organisation.
Here are a handful of some of the top recruiter mistakes:
1) A lack of organisation:
Planning and organisation is critical to the smooth running of your hiring process and it is often overlooked by recruiters. Failing to plan can create problems such as overspending, lengthy hiring processes, making hasty hiring decisions and providing a poor candidate experience. Having a clear plan and hiring strategy in place will help you to stay on track and within a set time frame.
2) Poor communication:
This is one of the top pet peeves that candidates have about recruiters. The candidate experience can have a huge impact on your employer brand and keeping them in the dark about the progress of their application doesn’t reflect well on the organisation. It’s important to keep the candidate in the loop at all stages of the process and all candidates who have been interviewed deserve to receive feedback, even if you do not wish to offer them the role.
3) Not providing feedback:
Job hunting can be an incredibly stressful experience and no one wants to receive a dreaded rejection letter, however the one thing worse than receiving a rejection is hearing nothing back at all after an interview or not knowing where they went wrong. If a candidate has taken the time to go in for an interview, than the least you can do is get in touch to let them know if they have been unsuccessful and why, so they can then move on and learn from their mistakes.
4) Not acknowledging applicants:
It’s understandable that some companies can receive dozens, if not hundreds of applications for one position, making it difficult to make contact with every single candidate. However failing to acknowledge applicants entirely won’t reflect well on the organisation and the candidate will be less likely to recommend or offer future custom to a business who they didn’t hear anything back from.
5) Not focusing on your employer brand:
Talent attraction is a lot like marketing. In order to entice the best candidates, you must create an effective employer brand, that promotes your organisation as a great place to work. Most candidates will research a company before applying for a job there, so it is important that you have a good social media presence and website that demonstrates all of your best qualities. They key to a great employer brand is engagement and transparency, so keep this in mind when you sharing brand messages.
6) Looking for the perfect candidate:
The chances of you finding a candidate that fits the bill in every single way are slim, so continuing a hunt for the ‘perfect’ candidate is pretty pointless. You have to be prepared to reconsider certain factors when you find somebody who could potentially do a great job, even if the fall short in one or two areas. They can probably bring things the job that you hadn’t even thought about until you interviewed them, so it’s good to keep an open mind.
7) Ruling out overqualified or under-qualified candidates:
A lot of recruiters take one glance at a candidate’s CV and make the immediate decision that they are either over or under qualified for the role without giving them a proper chance. It’s generally thought that overqualified candidates won’t stick around for long, will become bored or will be too expensive and are therefore ruled out, however they could benefit the business greatly with the experience and knowledge they have. On the other hand candidates are also frequently rejected on the basis that they are under-qualified, however those as the beginning of their career are often the hardest workers looking to impress.
8) Not hiring for culture fit:
Though skills and abilities are important factors when hiring a new employee, it is also important that they fit in with your company culture and the rest of your team. When making hiring decisions think about the type of personality the individual has and whether or not you think they would suit the working environment, as a bad hire could lead to poor team dynamics and a quick turnover of staff.
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