It's easy to make a mistake when hiring. It can be difficult and time-consuming to find the right person for the job, especially when you are running your own business. In this blog post, we will look at some of the most common mistakes made in hiring and how to avoid them!
Mistake #1 - Hiring out of desperation. When we are desperate to hire someone, we tend to settle for less than what is best. Hiring the wrong person for the job, quite often leads to starting the process over at some point in the future.
Avoid: Always take your time to find the right person for the job. Have a proven process that is followed each time your organization makes a hire. Do not settle just because you need someone now!
Mistake #2 - Not clearly identifying the role and ideal candidate. It is important to know what you want and then be able to define those expectations. Once the role has been defined, it must also include a target candidate profile so that your team knows who they should be looking for.
Avoid: Thoroughly defining both the job requirements and desired traits of a successful hire means not wasting time or money.
Mistake #3 - Ignoring how behavior and personality impact success. A person's strength zone or core behavior allows them to perform required tasks at a high level with very little friction. This is critically important in leadership roles, where people are impacting other people’s performance.
Avoid: Make sure you understand the core behavior ideally suited to perform the job functions at a high level and assess each candidate's behavior fit for the desired role.
Mistake #4 - Not creating enough candidates through the recruiting process. This is a critical mistake many leaders make. Ideally, your goal should be to have a minimum of 2 candidates, both of which are qualified, would perform at a high level, and you would be excited to hire.
Avoid: Get creative with your approach. Have a recruitment plan and process that casts a very wide net, to provide as many candidates as possible. Always remember the QUALITY is in the QUANTITY!
Mistake #5 - The bias blind spot. We are human and naturally like others. Because of that human characteristic and our desire to fill a role, our personal biases can cloud many parts of the hiring process. When this happens, we may say to ourselves things in the process, because we "like" the candidate, we "know we could work with them" and "feel comfortable" with them. We might even make statements like, "I am pretty excited about this candidate." A blind spot is something we cannot see, and yet it’s there. When a new hire does not work out, nearly every time after a review or reflection, it is obvious the potential cause of the failure was there, and our blind spot hid it from us.
Avoid: Keep your emotions between the guardrails. Follow a proven process and let the process produce the best candidates.
If your goal is to maximize your organization's potential, reduce job turnover, and create a culture of attraction, having and following a proven hiring process is key to avoiding these and many more hiring mistakes. For more information on our proprietary RSTMM systems, please go to www.patmancuso.com