7 Mistakes Not To Make When Recruiting

You don't have to have a person who has done the exact job in the exact industry at a similar company. Indentifying best fit doesn't always mean industry experience. Skilled candidates from different industries may have something new to offer - transferable skills.

 2. The short term fix.

Pressure of time to fill the role often leads to bad hiring decisions. Ask yourself, "Can we make do until we find the right person for the role?"

 3. Thinking the candidate is over qualified and won't stay long.

Another way of looking at it is ‘if the candidate stays with you for a couple of years and in that time is productive and raises the bar - the next hire will need to start at that level.' You will have had good value in that time - sounds like a win all round.

 4. A quality candidate applies early in the process but you don't rush to interview them.

How often do you wait on more applicants to compare them against? If they tick all the boxes why wait? Good candidates get snapped up quickly in today's employment market.

 5. Thinking "Job-hoppers" should be avoided.

Don't write the "job-hoppers" off just because they have stayed only a year or two in each role. Differentiate between candidates who have stuck with the same company (albeit in different roles) and those who have shown career progression using different companies as stepping stones. Sometimes those who stay with one company are conservative whereas those who move around can be more dynamic and have more to give a new employer.

 6. The applicant tells us that s/he has all the skills, knowledge and abilities we are looking for.

What's wrong with that? Well, at the beginning of the interview did you do all the talking? Telling the candidate what the role is, the qualities you are looking for in a person and what you need. Then you asked the candidate some questions and guess what, they pitched their response to mirror your requirements. So let them do most of the talking.

 7. Insufficient, unspecific reference checking.

Or, worse, not reference checking at all. Ask some fairly searching questions of the referee, based on what you have gathered from the candidate's CV and during the interview. You may be surprised what a referee will tell you if you know what questions to ask.

A recruitment process should be a timely, well planned project. Not some ad hoc approach that makes your company look unprofessional.

If you don't really have the time to do it all yourself, properly, then get some professional expertise. Call Paddy Battersby on 838 6338 next time you need someone new in your team - his help could be just what you need.

Battersby HR Consulting provides practical, on-call HR advice to employers without their own Human resources team.

Battersby HR Consulting  www.battersbyhr.com