Recruiting new employees is a daily practice for many companies while others may only search for new workers every few years. Regardless of your situation, there are best practices and faux pas to avoid when it comes to recruitment. Check out our list of common recruitment mistakes to be aware of when it comes time to fill your next job opening.

PROVIDING AN INCOMPLETE OR INACCURATE JOB DESCRIPTION
We certainly understand the pressure that comes when someone in your organization quits or is terminated. Business keeps moving, but you’re down one person. Because of this, many hiring managers rush to post the open position in the hopes of hiring someone quickly to keep up with business demands. You may use an old job description or quickly throw together some bullet points on what tasks the previous employee completed. While the goal may be to hire someone quickly, you also need to ensure it’s done effectively.

By posting an incomplete or inaccurate job description, you may be attracting the wrong applicants.

What’s worse, you may go through the entire hiring process and bring someone onboard only to have them also quit because the role was not what they thought they had applied to. We suggest taking your time gathering information about the open position and sharing as much information as possible when posting. Be sure to include important aspects like tasks, responsibilities, and requirements.

RELYING ON YOUR GUT 
We know the feeling when a charismatic applicant walks into an interview and you’re immediately sold. You establish a personal connection and start to feel positive about them as a person and prospective employee. While building rapport in an interview is important, don’t let charisma or personal biases cloud your decision-making process. We recommend creating a structured interview guide with predetermined behavioural and situational questions to keep you on track. Not only does this allow you to bring out more concrete information about the applicant, it also standardizes the process so that you’re more easily able to draw comparisons between candidates.

REJECTING AN OVERQUALIFIED APPLICANT
You may be hiring for an entry–level position and see that a candidate applied with a Master’s degree and 10 years of experience. Too often, hiring managers toss these resumes aside thinking the candidates will be bored in the position or are better suited elsewhere. We suggest investigating a little further before screening them out. A quick telephone screening call will give you more insight into why the candidate is interested in the position. Perhaps they’re looking for an opportunity that favours work-life balance over higher salary or a change in industry altogether. These types of applicants can be the golden nuggets you’re looking for!

Highly qualified applicants tend to bring additional skills and experiences to the organization which allow them to better perform or develop into other roles.

TRYING TO FIND THE PERFECT APPLICANT 
While we recommend taking your time to ensure a quality hire, very rarely does the perfect applicant exist. Perhaps the incumbent was an all-star and you’re looking for someone with those same skills, experience and personality, you’re hoping to find someone in the same industry that has done a similar job before.  When you have a narrow image of the person you want for the job, you can overlook someone who may bring in fresh ideas, skills and perspectives. It’s best to hire someone that has most of the skills and experience you’re looking for coupled with strong soft skills that allow them to grow into the job.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS TOO SOON 
So you’ve made your hiring decision and picked a quality employee. While that pressure to keep up with business demands is still present, it’s important not to expect too much too soon. It would be ideal for a new employee to jump into the job and start performing right away, but unfortunately, this doesn’t happen often.  In fact, placing unrealistic expectations on a new employee too soon can fast-track you to repeat turnover, and puts you back to square one. We recommend onboarding the employee by slowly adding more to their job over time until they are fully integrated into the company culture and fully trained for the position.

Recruiting the right employee is not an exact science, but there are certain faux pas to avoid to ensure a quality hire. Patience is key when searching for your next great employee given bad hires come with significant costs and lost time.  Analyzing your recruitment processes regularly is a great way to identify areas of concern so you can stay focused on your business’ continued success.

For companies that may need additional recruitment support, Integrated Staffing provides a range of recruitment services from resume screening to direct hire headhunting. To learn more about the resources we provide, please contact the Integrated Staffing branch closest to you.