Finding the right candidate: how can you avoid common mistakes in recruiting?
On average, the typical job offer attracts 250 resumes. Recruiting the right employee requires knowing how to find great candidates among all of the applicants, as well as avoiding common recruiting mistakes.
When you find the right candidate, it can lead to positive impacts for years to come. But the wrong candidate can result in higher turnover and degraded company culture.
Make your employee recruitment process as seamless as possible by avoiding mistakes in recruiting. We’ll explain the top 11 below!
1. Ending Interviews Early
You may think that you can read a candidate right away. And often, you can tell if a candidate is a good fit for your organization within a few minutes of candidate interview questions.
However, you never know when a candidate will surprise you. Get in the practice of interviewing candidates for the full length of the interview and giving them the benefit of the doubt.
2. Going for Experience Over Talent
It’s common to use work experience as the metric for the best candidate. After all, having more experience typically does make a team member more prepared for their role.
However, this doesn’t mean that you should vales experience over talent. When you open yourself up to candidates with talent and little experience, you will gain someone who is excited to advance in their career and work hard in their new position.
3. Offering Low Compensation
Take a hard look at the compensation that you’re offering for a position. If your compensation is below the market rate for that position, you’re not going to attract the best candidates.
This is especially true in the wake of the Great Resignation. Millions of employees have quit their jobs in search of better opportunities, and employers need to keep up if they want to stay competitive.
4. Having Too High Expectations
Keep in mind that it takes new hires time to adjust to a new position. Often, adjustment can take months.
Give new recruits time to learn their new jobs. Take time to help familiarize themselves with their new position, and offer frequent feedback to help them grow.
Along those same lines, make sure to listen to their feedback. Often, they’ll have fresh insights that can help you with recruiting new employees in the future.
5. Use a Voting System
When it comes down to making a tough decision, you may want to use a voting system to decide between a few candidates. But consensus voting systems aren’t always the most helpful.
They may lead to the most popular candidate being hired instead of the one who would be the best fit for the position.
6. Managing Everything Alone
Hiring the right people means you’ll need a team with experience and knowledge. They’ll have to be able to sift through applications and find qualified candidates.
You’ll also need an HR team to help with onboarding and other responsibilities.
Is your organization prepared to do this?
Small and mid-sized businesses can often benefit from a professional employer organization (PEO). A PEO can help to take the burden off of companies during the recruiting process.
In addition, PEOs will have numerous resources to help attract the best candidates with competitive benefits.
7. Failing to Consider Inside Recruiting
You don’t have to go out-of-house for a new position. The best candidate may already be working with your company.
There are numerous reasons why hiring in-house can be a great move. First, they’ll already be familiar with company culture and expectations. You also won’t have to spend time sourcing talent.
And showing that you’ll hire internally shows other team members that there are opportunities for growth within the company.
8. Waiting for the Perfect Candidate
It’s a good idea to think about your ideal candidate, but you don’t want to rely too much on this picture. The perfect candidate truly does not exist, and waiting for them to materialize could cause problems for your existing company operations.
Instead of hiring the “perfect fit,” look for someone who meets enough job requirements to succeed.
Also, look out for how you think they’ll fit into company culture and the soft skills. It’s much harder to teach soft skills than hard skills like software or programs.
9. Rushing the Process
That being said, you don’t want to rush the hiring process. You don’t want just anyone to fill an important position.
Take your time finding a candidate who you think will fit well within the position and the company. Think about all of the efforts it will take to train that person. Are they worth it?
Don’t be afraid to interview twice and arrange for a freelancer to cover the role while you make your final decision.
10. Using References as Your Only Judgment Metric
References are a helpful tool to learn about how an employee fits in at their last company. They can also offer some insight into an employee’s work ethic.
But don’t take everything a reference says at face value. Just because an employee had a positive experience at their past organization doesn’t mean that it will be positive at yours, and vice versa.
It’s important to take time to learn more about a candidate by following up with the references they listed. But use your own judgment to decide if they would be a good fit for you.
11. Failing to Update the Job Description
Lastly, make sure to create job descriptions that you will update regularly throughout the hiring process.
If you’re having a hard time finding someone, you may need to up the compensation or post the description on additional platforms.
Finding the right candidate is all about adaptability. Prepare yourself to make changes along the way to find the candidate you want!
Avoiding Mistakes in Recruiting
Avoiding mistakes in recruiting comes from having an understanding of the process. By educating yourself about best recruitment practices, you can find the best candidates.
Also Read: Certified Recruitment Professional: An Alternate Career Option for HR Aspirants
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