It can be tempting to hire the best from a bad bunch when you’re struggling to fill a key position; however, 99/100 it’s a better outcome for your business to make do until the right person comes along. Rushing a hiring decision rarely gets a great result. Often the new Employee that’s been hired as the best of the bad bunch struggles to perform the role, cope with the environment or even turn up. The impact of making a bad hiring decision is generally stressful on the employer, the team and can be damaging to your business reputation.

To avoid bad hires, ensure you work with the 5Ps – Prior Preparation Prevents Poor Performance. Having a simple, rigorous recruitment process will help you avoid easy mistakes such as:

John’s friend is looking for a job, John’s good let’s hire his mate
Pay will be the same as we paid the last person
We’ve always done it this way so we’ll do it again
Getting a badly worded advert up and running quickly because we need someone, like yesterday which attracts the wrong applicants

Following these easy steps helps you to avoid common recruitment mistakes…

Create job specifications covering all aspects of the role, skills and experience required
Screen applicants and have a short telephone conversation to avoid time spent interviewing people you shouldn’t waste your time with
Documentation is important, such as a application form for easy access to candidate information and for maintaining their privacy
Knowledge – trust your gut, rationalising the decision to hire them is bad practise
Value your time – sometimes it’s cheaper to outsource
Conduct reference and or background checks, if the candidate wants to avoid their previous or current employers being contacted, make the offer conditional on a reference check

Melissa | People Guru

Importance of the Recruitment Process

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