The Top Ten Hiring Mistakes to Avoid in 2005!

It’s a new year and time to rethink your interviewing and employment practices for the coming year.  According to a recent survey by the SHL Group, mistakes in hiring cost U.S. employers about $105 billion a year.  The cost figure was calculated by taking the number of managers in the country times their average salary times the percentage of time managers reported they spent on managing poor performers.  The survey also revealed that 23% of US employees believe some of their colleagues are incompetent and that almost 70% of mistakes are never reported by employees.

The survey points out the critical need to put more time in up front to conduct an effective interview to avoid making a costly hiring mistake.

Here are the top ten hiring mistakes to avoid in 2005:

1.     Not defining the job requirements. – If you are too broad in your requirements, anyone can do the job, and if you are too narrow, no one can fill the job.  What are the skills, experience, certifications, etc. the qualified applicant must have in order to be successful? 

2.     Hiring in a panic.  If you are desperate to fill a position, you may believe that “half a loaf is better than none.”  Might be OK for food, but not when it comes to people. The “half a loaf” hire will cost plenty later on. 

3.     Not prescreening candidates prior to the interview.  Too often interviews are like blind dates.  A waste of time!  A short pre-screening call can provide the applicant with information on the position and the screener with information on the applicant’s experience and salary requirements.  If there’s interest and a fit for the job, then schedule an interview. 

4.     Not using a structured interview process.  If the interviewer is doing more than 30%-40% of the talking, it’s not much of an interview.  Interviewers should use a variety of questioning techniques within a structured conversation that covers past experience, skills, and strengths and weaknesses and overall qualifications.  

5.     Not keeping interview notes.  After interviewing 7 applicants, can you rely on your memory to figure out who was the best one?  Take notes during the interview in order to evaluate each candidate against the job requirements established prior to the interview. 

6.     Asking illegal questions.  Only work related questions should be asked.  And if you don’t know what questions are illegal, take our interview questions quiz and learn more!

7.     Creating a negative first impression.  The applicant is forming a first impression of your organization from the moment you contact them.  Have you reviewed the job requirements and the applicant’s resume?  Do you know what questions to ask?  Does the interview begin promptly as scheduled?  Is there sufficient time without interruptions to conduct the interview?  If more than one person is interviewing the applicant, have the interviewers coordinated what questions they will ask so the same questions aren’t repeated over and over?  If you answered “No” to any of these questions, you may be creating a negative impression.  The result:  the person you want may not want you. 

8.     Allowing Biases to Interfere With the Hiring Decision.  Bias interferes with our ability to select the best candidate for the job.  Our biases affect applicant interviews in a variety of ways.  For example, we treat someone more favorably because they grew up in our old neighborhood, or are a member of the same ethnic group as we are.

Or we treat someone less favorably because we don’t like a personal characteristic about them, for example, a smoker, someone over 50, someone with an accent, etc. etc.  The bottom line is, we need to focus on qualifications, not characteristics. 

9.     Failing to Check References.  It’s becoming harder and harder to get references these days because individuals can sue a former employer for a negative reference that was subjective in nature and not based on fact.  But that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t check references.  It’s to your advantage to get every bit of information you can about an individual before you hire them so you don’t end up making a costly hiring mistake.  If you do reference checks, make sure your application states this (“I authorize this Company to obtain information from schools, prior employers, state licensing board, the state motor vehicle administration…”) and make sure the applicant authorizes this by their signature.  Conduct an effective reference check by asking only job related questions from former supervisors, co-workers, clients, or others who have done business with the applicant.  

10.Taking too long to make a decision.  Good people are in short supply and in today’s hot job market, taking too long to decide could mean losing your best applicant.  It doesn’t mean you should rush through the decision process, but the hiring decision should occur days not weeks after the interviews. 

For more information on how you can improve your interviewing and hiring practices, contact Mary Ann Kmetyk at 410-715-0800 or email us at info@aps-online.net