More than 90% of the time when we talk with clients about why they hate recruitment, they say:
“I’ve been burnt in the past, and it cost me time and, most importantly, money.”
And while they might not say it: It hurt their confidence.
How much has your worst hire cost you? How much time did you waste training them? and… What has the cost been to your reputation?
Consider this: Charles looked great on paper.
✔ He said all the right things in the interview.
✔ References checked out (OK, let’s be honest, you only called one).
✔ He starts work, and there are the ‘honeymoon’ days.
But after about a month, when he gets into the nitty-gritty tasks of his job, you start to find out that in his previous role:
✘ He was not doing any client interfacing tasks which is the majority of the position and on top of that…
✘ He is being super rude to your favourite customers.
✘ He throws team members under the bus.
✘ And, oh, that software he said he knew? Turns out he only used it for one project and certainly isn’t a pro.
By 60 days in, it’s clear he has to go. And now you’re mad, upset you have to start over and feel like you’ve been ‘had.’
Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. A bad hire leaves not only a bad taste in your mouth, but can make you feel like you went through a divorce.
It can suck a lot of time, energy, money and confidence and leave you feeling sad, angry and resentful.
Stop hating the recruitment process by avoiding these five common mistakes we see employers making regularly.
You can’t put a round peg in a square hole.
A great example of this is sales. We hear it all the time. “I need a new salesperson”.
However, a great salesperson can be different for every organisation.
If you put a ‘hunter’ into a repeat and rinse structured scripted role, they will get bored and not feel challenged.
If you get a ‘service based salesperson’ into more of a call centre cold call or lead generation role, they could feel like a failure. Either way, you are unlikely to hit your targets.
Ask yourself, do you actually need someone who can identify potential new clients and/or build strong relationships with existing clients and/or follow scripts and make calls and/or network effectively and/or be an account manager as examples.
The priority of these requirements can vary vastly subject to the size of business, pricing of products or services, the structure of existing documents or sales kits/scripts, establishment of processes within the business, marketing spend and database leads to name a few.
And, exactly the same goes for HR, Marketing, Finance, IT and other specialist roles which all have similar differences.
If you try to fit someone in the wrong role, it’s likely to fail.
So as you’re starting your search, don’t forget to ask yourself what do you actually need in a role?
If you don’t know what will make you happy or be considered successful, then how will the person you hire figure it out?
For example, what would you love for them to achieve or deliver in the first 6 months that will mean you are high fiving yourself!
Of course, it’s important you don’t set the bar too low or give people a ceiling that will ‘de-motivate,’ but if you don’t provide any guidance, your new staff person could spend too much time trying to understand everything and ‘learning the ropes’ or focusing on things that are not important to you instead of focusing on things with priority.
Whether you love or hate your new hire isn’t going to be decided on their skills, but rather how well the person fits into your company’s culture.
So when you start the recruitment process, spend time defining for yourself what a good (and bad) fit for your company looks like—it will help your success in hiring more than you could know.
Be sure to include scenario-based questions in your interview that will help you figure out if the candidate fits that picture.
And never ever skip checking references (and asking about behavioural fit questions in the same way you might ask about skills and results achieved!
On the talk too much side…have you ever had (or been) an interviewer who does all the talking and actually don’t get around to asking any real questions to find out more about candidates background and experiences?
Even worse, have you come across an interviewer who commits to things that are not actually in place or likely to occur in the foreseeable future (ie about salary, training and development, hours, type of culture etc).
On the talks too little side… you also don’t want to be an interviewer that does not cover any detail at all during the interview including important things like the type of role (casual, PT or salary), indicative hours and salary.
This can be incredibly frustrating for both parties if this falls over at the end because of this.
Similarly, some employers literally can walk into an interview and just throw questions one after the other at the candidate and don’t take the time to get them excited about their business (or even stop to give them a smile).
Remember that every interview is a potential PR exercise.
Understand that candidates are recruiting you as much as you are them and you need to make sure you can demonstrate why your business might be exciting for the right person.
The key is balance during the interview process of both parties contributing.
Uh-oh, you need to hire someone, you throw up an ad but no one actually has the time to even spend reviewing candidates let alone conduct interviews.
Sadly …You snooze, you lose. Good candidates are on the move so if you don’t get back to them, they will find someone else who will.
Not to mention, you will tick candidates off if you don’t get back to them.
It’s important to not draw the interview process out necessarily — bringing in everyone to talk with the person, getting feedback from everyone, etc.
On the flip side, a drink at a networking function is not enough time for both parties to properly understand if they are a great fit for each other.
Try and fast track the process as much as you can. If you have multiple people involved in the decision-making process, either combine people in interviews together or think about potentially recording interview via Zoom/Skype or other tools.
On the other side of the coin, don’t jump the gun. Sure, there are isolated success stories where a lunch turned into an immediate offer—without properly scoping the role, checking skills and actually investigating whether they will love the job, can do it and will work well with the team.
But more often it fails badly with relationships ending, interviews feeling burnt and frustrated that they spent time, money and still need to fill the position.
Like anything in life, putting the time and planning into the recruitment process will benefit not only you but your entire team. It will be worth it when you go months, even years without having to make a new hire.
Next: Is it time to examine your recruitment methods? Could they be improved, updated and revised to avoid any of these mistakes?
If you’re looking to build extra confidence before your next recruitment process and learn about end-to-end processes that will set your business up for success, book a spot at our NEW live 1-day Business Owner Session on 12 April 2019 at the Lion in North Adelaide.
P.S. How do you feel about your company’s recruitment process? Could it use some updates and tweaks? Get in touch with me in one of the following ways:
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