You’re probably well aware of the cost of a bad hire: hundreds of thousands – even millions – of dollars. And the Harvard Business Review recently reported that up to 80 percent of employee turnover is due to bad hiring decisions.
Avoid this scenario by refusing to settle for less than the best candidate for the job. Right now … here are some bad hiring habits you can break:
Conducting “Courtesy” Interviews
These are the interviews you hold with candidates you have no intention of hiring. For instance, the applicant may be friend of a board member or your neighbor’s son-in-law.
- Courtesy interviews are not courteous. They’re a waste of everyone’s time and money, and they may mislead a person into believing they have a shot at a job when they don’t.
- Be direct, right from the start. If you get a courtesy interview request, explain what you’re looking for and perhaps offer to help the person in a different way. But don’t schedule it unless you mean it.
Failing to Prescreen
Prescreening is a must for acquiring the best talent. A short telephone screen can avoid a much longer, more costly face-to-face interview if it uncovers a cultural or skills mismatch.
- Don’t bring candidates in for a personal meeting until you’ve established basic suitability for a position. Prescreening is one of the many steps your recruiting firm can handle for you if time and/or staff limitations are an obstacle.
Requiring an Unnecessary Degree
More and more employers are wisely moving away from requiring college degrees for jobs when candidates demonstrate other, more valuable qualities.
- Evaluate the total candidate picture. Of course, if an individual is new to the workforce and has little to no experience, a degree may be useful to signal their potential. And degrees are always noteworthy and never to be taken lightly. But with more experienced candidates, base your decision on their overall track record. Never rule someone out just because they didn’t graduate.
Asking the Wrong – or Too Many – Questions
Use the majority of your interview time to probe deeply into a candidate’s past experience and getting to know them better as individuals. But avoid softball questions that you can answer ahead of time by checking out their social media platforms or calling on your personal contacts.
- Get to the bottom line. What have they accomplished – and how? Find ways to see them in action by having them simulate the type of work they’d be doing for your company.
- Be friendly and courteous, but don’t let it prevent you from getting the answers you want. Push as much as needed till you get a clear sense of a person’s strengths and weaknesses. Remember, the best candidates appreciate challenging questions.
Failing to Check References in a Timely Manner
Some employers delay checking references until after a candidate has accepted an offer – if they check them at all. This puts your new hire in a potentially terrible position: You can’t expect them to resign their current job if you haven’t completed your vetting process.
- Reference checks shouldn’t be about simply rubber stamping a decision. Rather, they should be a key part of your decision making process.
The specialized recruiters at Employment Professionals Canada offer invaluable resources, market intelligence and a candidate database to help you achieve hiring success and avoid costly mistakes. To learn more, contact us today.