Choosing someone to join your company is one of the most important decisions you can make. The right person will strengthen your team and increase productivity and turnover. The wrong person, however, can be disastrous – you could even end up recruiting all over again a few months down the line. The hiring process can be daunting so here are a few common issues that you should avoid:
Not Reaching The Right Candidates
There are many outlets available for you to promote your vacancy and the number is growing all the time. To target the right people, you’ve got to narrow down the field and find out where they’re most likely to look. A great ad in the wrong place isn’t going to be very effective so consider the kind of websites or publications your potential candidates are reading – or go to a specialist recruitment organisation who will know the best approach to take for your particular business.
Vague Job Descriptions
Make sure your job description is clear. Focus on what you want and what you’re going to offer while getting across the opportunities for the successful candidate. This is also a chance to promote your company and make it stand out against competitors that could be offering similar roles. A good job advertisement should interest the right person and discourage those that are unsuitable. Don’t forget to include precise details about what applicants should do next to apply for the role.
Rushing The Process
It’s all too common to get someone to fill a position quickly so that a vacancy has less of an impact on the day-to-day operation of the business. Unfortunately, rushing the recruitment process can mean that you end up with the wrong person for the job – this then results in even more lost time for the company. It’s worth the extra effort at the hiring stage to make sure you get it right first time. When it comes to interviews, prepare a list of set questions to ask each applicant so you can compare their responses objectively. It’s a good idea to present them with some ‘what if’ type scenarios to move them beyond the standard responses and rehearsed replies.
Not Listening
The candidate may have other job offers they’re considering so, while an interview is an opportunity for them to assess you, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you should spend the time selling your business. If you do most of the talking it can come across as a sign of poor preparation or lack of confidence so you should aim to do only about 20% of the speaking. Listen carefully to what they say and ask follow-up questions or for extra detail where appropriate. Also keep in mind that most communication is non-verbal so look out for things like posture, facial expression, eye contact, patterns of speech and overall energy levels.
Going With Your Gut Feeling
Personal intuition can be useful but often, the impulse is to recruit someone that shares many of your own attributes. It can be easy to establish a bond with one candidate over another because of shared experiences or similar backgrounds – maybe they even went to the same university as you or grew up in the same town. While these factors can be helpful in terms of communication, valuing them over other vital skills can cause problems. At worst, they may even be discriminatory. You need staff that have a wide-variety of perspectives and approaches so that they can cope with a broader set of situations. If everyone thinks the same way as you do, the focus of your business will be very narrow.
We’re always on hand for your recruitment needs so please get in touch if we can help.