A bad hire can result in a number of negative implications for a business and therefore it’s important to get it right.
Though there may often be a sense of urgency to fill a position, employers should avoid rushing the hiring process or skipping important steps in order to get somebody’s feet under the desk as soon as possible.
Here are some of the most commonly made hiring mistakes that should be avoided, to prevent problems further down the line.
1) Rushing your hire
If you’re man down, you may feel the pressure to act quickly to fill the position; but this doesn’t mean you should settle for the first person who comes along. Some times it takes time to find the best candidate for the role, so be patient. It will be worth it to spend a bit longer looking for a star employee who’s likely to stay with the company, rather than a mediocre one who may look elsewhere after just a short stint.
2) Not hiring for cultural fit
Although you do need to look for the right skills and experience from a candidate, their resume is not the be all and end all. You also want to think about how they may fit in at your organisation and whether or not they would suit the company culture.
The way that an employee is likely to interact with other colleagues, clients and customers could be crucial to the running of your business, so it’s important to consider their personality, as well as qualifications.
3) Skipping reference checks
To build a thorough understanding about how a candidate is going to perform, it’s important to check their references to see what their previous employers have to say about them. If you are serious about specific candidate you may even want to perform a background check to make sure that their work history is accurate.
4) Vague job descriptions
By keeping your job description very vague or general, you are inviting a huge number of candidates to apply who may only loosely fit the brief.
Be specific about what you want, in order to find someone who possesses those attributes. Mention the qualities you’re looking for in an employee, the details and responsibilities of the role and the level of performance expected of the individual.
5) Relying on job ads
If you post a job ad and just sit back and wait for people to come to you, then you are missing out on a huge number of potential employees who could be perfect for the role. Your ideal candidate may not be looking for a role at the time, so passive candidates should never be ruled out and may actually be more valuable to you than active job seekers.
6) Hiring someone for all the wrong reasons
Whether you’re doing someone a favour or you’ve been wowed into hiring an individual when there isn’t actually a role for them, hiring for the wrong reason can be damaging to a business. Creating a role when it’s not required can be costly; whereas hiring as a favour can cause a number of problems from poor cultural fit, to a lack of the required skills.
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