5 Common Hiring Mistakes Employers Make

5 Common Hiring Mistakes Employers Make

There’s no way around it: hiring a new employee is a time-consuming and expensive process for employers. It takes hours of interviews, meetings, testing, paperwork, contacting references, and background checks. After going through these hurdles, it can be a big setback for a company if the new hire doesn’t turn out to be the right fit for the job.

That’s why finding and hiring the right candidate the first time is crucial. Knowing how to avoid the most common hiring mistakes can help save your company time and money while increasing employee retention. Here are the 5 biggest hiring mistakes employers should look out for:

1. Choosing Experience Over Potential

If a potential candidate has 10 years of experience, they must be qualified for the job, right? Think again. Employers and recruiters place a lot of importance on experience and tend to use it as a tiebreaker between candidates when making the final decision. Going with the more seasoned applicant might not actually be the best hiring move for your company.

Experience alone isn’t necessarily a good thing. Sometimes newer candidates with fresh ideas and a desire to develop their skills are more valuable than those who are already trained and possibly more attached to past achievements and old methods. Hiring for experience opens up the possibility of acquiring employees who are less willing to learn new techniques and embrace your company culture.

When hiring, what you should look for is the potential to do well in the position. As the philosopher Voltaire once said, “Judge a man by his questions rather than his answers.” Experience can be a plus, but don’t overlook candidates who ask questions, have a thirst for knowledge, and strive to improve their skills.

2. Not Being Diverse in Your Search

It’s human nature that we tend to like people who are most like ourselves. While it’s tempting to hire in our own image, don’t let bias determine who you hire. Being more diverse in your hiring process can be extremely beneficial to your company now and in the future.

Being more diverse makes your company more appealing because it show your business is an inclusive, accepting environment. Potential employees will feel more welcomed by your diverse hiring practices, allowing you to attract and choose from a wider range of candidates. Being more diverse in your hiring practices also helps your company earn a better reputation among employers for having a fair employment practice.

Diverse companies perform better than those that are not, too. According to research by McKinsey & Company, gender-diverse companies are 15% more likely to outperform their competitors, while ethnically diverse company are 35% more likely to do the same. You should never be afraid to bring in someone who has a different perspective and might challenge your point of view, as that can help your company grow in ways you have yet to consider.

3. Ineffective Interviewing Techniques

Interviews are already a lengthy and time-consuming process. Don’t waste time by being unprepared and asking questions that do not help determine if a candidate is truly the best fit for the position. To conduct an effective interview, you must have a clear goal defined for the qualities you are seeking in an ideal candidate.

First, you should compile a list of questions that help you assess the applicant's level of self-awareness, compatibility, and desire. You should look for candidates who can articulate how they can make a positive contribution to your company, have a work style that is compatible with your company culture, and desire the opportunity you are offering them. Use the list you’ve made when interviewing all applicants so you can compare and contrast answers.

You should also avoid open-ended questions that don’t yield useful answers like, “Tell me about yourself.” Instead, ask specific, targeted questions to get the information you need to make a decision. By having a clear goal during the interview process, you can more effectively find candidates who will perform well once hired.

4. Not Considering Company Culture

You’ve found an ideal candidate, and their resume, education, and experience all seem to indicate that they’d be perfect for the position. While these are important factors, you also have to consider how the candidate will fit into your company culture. You have to ask yourself if the candidate’s personality and behavior are suited for your company and how they will interact with colleagues and clients. A hire who fits your company culture will perform better in your environment and is also more likely to stay with you for years.

Remember, you are hiring someone who will be part of a team, so you have to hire a team player. A great way to showcase your company culture is to have a set of core values or a mission statement that explains what your company is about. For example, Google's mission statement is: to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful. What your company does should able to be summarized in a sentence or two so potential candidates understand your business goals, and you can identify the applicants who are best suited help the company achieve them.

5. Taking Too Long to Decide

After a long process of interviews, meetings, and calling references, you’ve finally found the perfect candidate. When you call to propose your offer, you find they’re off the market and working—another company scooped them up!

Although Glassdoor Economic Research has found that it takes an average of  52 days to fill a position in the U.S., that doesn’t mean you should take a long time to make your decision. The average time to fill a position varies from between industries, and underestimating that time can disrupt company growth plans and slow down progress. Making informed, timely decisions can help you get the candidates you need.

For example, the shortest hiring times were for entry level marketing jobs (3.9 days), followed by entry level sales (5.4 days), servers and bartenders (5.7 days), entry level account managers (5.9 days), and dishwashers (6.9 days). Depending on your industry, if you are taking longer than 3 months or more to get back to potential candidates, you are giving your competition the chance to acquire personnel before you.

Job searching has never been an easy process. Keeping these mistakes in mind, you can plan out your hiring process and goals to help you find the right candidates for your business. The job market is always changing, and it’s important to keep up-to-date on the best hiring practices to ensure your company is hiring the right people to help your business grow for years to come.

If you are searching for talented candidates, we can help. Contact us today to see how we can help you find the applicants you need to get ahead of the competition.