Hiring people for your own team can be tricky!
Your business is your baby – you’ve worked your butt off to get it to where it is and you want to ensure that everyone you bring in is a great fit and can do the job you need them to do.
Here’s some of the common mistakes I see business owners make when they are recruiting staff:
- Not being clear on what you are looking for (role, responsibilities, etc)
- Lack of preparation for the interview
- Not making hiring a priority in your franticly busy schedule
- Lack of / no recruitment process
- Talking too much and not listening
- Relying on your gut feel about candidates
- Rushing the process
- Overselling the role
- Ignoring red flags and hiring anyway
- Waiting for the perfect candidate
- Taking too much time to make a decision and losing good candidates
Unfortunately, these mistakes can be very costly to you and in your business. How? Well, think about:
- Employment and training costs
- Turnover costs
- Stress and pressure to existing staff members
- Less productivity
- Reduction in customer service levels
- Brand and reputation damage
These really aren’t the type of issues you want to have when you are trying to run your business right?
So, to avoid falling into these traps, you need a little bit of planning and preparation.
Here’s some things you can put in place:
- Develop a process – at a minimum you should: screen resumes, conduct interviews with shortlisted candidate and complete references
- Be clear on the role you are recruiting and what you require someone to do in that role
- Have someone interview with you – objectivity aids good decision making
- Prepare for the interview – read the candidates resume, looking for any gaps in their resume, develop questions you will ask that are relevant to the role so you can assess their capability
- Listen, listen and listen!
- Let the candidate ask questions to you about the business, role or responsibilities, but don’t oversell it
- Let people know the outcome of their interview/application within a few days of meeting them – it’s just good manners and also good for your brand and reputation
