Tips for Hiring the Wrong Person Every Time, Guaranteed!
There will always be poor candidates applying for any given job. Of that, you can be sure. Why are you hiring them every single time?
Bad candidates are in any given applicant pool, and their shortcomings are not immediately obvious. However, hiring them does not have to be a forgone conclusion!
Even in today’s interconnected and social world, hiring manages and human resources personnel cannot catch the few rotten apples instantaneously. Good hiring practices take time, dedication and determination to weed out good from the bad. Companies must begin with an organized and a smart talent acquisition system.
Without a strong strategy, a company will hire the wrong person every time. Guaranteed! This means the endless energy and expense of starting the process again.
The smart choice is taking the time to do it right the first time. Poor hiring can be embarrassing to a company, leading to significant (and expensive) setbacks.
The biggest problems are hiring managers that focus on intangibles like “great potential,” believing the candidate will improve or resting solely on things like “gut feelings.” These make it extremely difficult to understand if the person will actually fit well in the company.
There are few guarantees in life, but use these four rules of negligent hiring, and you will always bring on the wrong candidate:
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Hiring in a rush.
You start hiring only when there is an urgent need, without taking the time to develop a pre-qualified list of candidates. With cloud-based hiring tools and the internet, it is getting easier to get a better class of job seekers, especially if you have a little patience.
During an interview, be specific! Ask questions about real experiences or pose practical hypotheticals about situations they will actually encounter on the job. Yes, asking specific questions or searching online for background information can be quite uncomfortable, but with time, you will get truly useful information.
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Not doing enough to sell the job.
Few hiring professionals focus on the corporate culture of the company, afraid that they will overwhelm the potential candidate with “too much information.” Instead, they fail to instruct interviewees on the company to find out if the person will be a good fit for the company values, philosophy and mission.
Quality candidates may already have done the homework on the company and position, but could always benefit from making it clear as to why your business is the best.
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Great skills, bad attitude.
For many hiring managers and recruiters, exceptional skills and experience can often overshadow a candidate’s negative attitude or indifferent behavior; neither personality trait is desirable at work. Don’t get excited about what talents candidates might have, without trying to determine if they will fit into the dynamic of the office so they can effectively do the job.
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Hiring a future superstar, a diamond in the rough.
Take a long, hard look at your criteria; see whether the current pool of candidates have any of these attributes. Settling for anything less than the basic requirements guarantees you will hire the wrong person every time. What can be worse is taking “chances” on the wrong person, since they have “great potential.” What is wrong with hiring a person based on proven skills and reliable history?
What do you feel are guaranteed ways to hire the wrong person? Joint the conversation below in the comments!
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