Costly Recruiting Mistakes

Recruiting top quality people to your business is a challenging task and one made even harder by the current ultra-competitive nature of the market, whereby candidates are king. If you are going to find and recruit the best you will have to overcome several potential banana skins. Luckily we have decades of experience dealing with all things recruitment and have dealt with every pitfall and hurdle our clients have faced with great proficiency, it’s why so many of our clients deal with us exclusively. Read our tips and advice on the dos and don’ts when recruiting:

Indecisiveness

The world of recruitment is as fast-paced and cut-throat as ever before. Strong candidates are in high demand and therefore companies only have a relatively short space of time to evaluate candidates and progress them through the recruitment process. If your recruiting process is slow your candidate of choice could potentially have already received one or more offers, by which time you’re already playing catch up may miss out.

Being overzealous

At risk of immediately contradicting ourselves, while time is evidently a crucial factor in recruitment, you should not rush your next hire. Maintaining a balance between moving too fast and too slow is key as you do not want to rush into making a poor hire as the costs your business will incur from a hire that does not work out can be so great. Recruiting is a two-way process and you also need your next recruit to be confident that this is the move for them. Whilst you may know that you have found “the one”, a one stage interview process can leave the candidate feeling like they don’t know enough about the business you’re hoping they spend 5+ years in.

Filtering out the unpolished gems

When it comes to identifying promising candidates, it’s all about the filters you employ. It is easy to understand why you would use filtering mechanisms in your recruitment process to separate the wheat from the chaff (no disrespect to candidates intended). If doing so then you need to seriously consider which and how stringent of these filters you choose to apply. The direct line manager of the new recruit should be comprehensively involved in the hiring process to ensure unnecessarily restrictive filters are not implemented in the recruiting process potentially ruling out a candidate who could be a great prospect for the position.

Not broadening your search to begin with

Sure, you are looking for that candidate with the impeccable skillset, an awesome CV and the ability to instantly improve your company but unfortunately so is your competition. A solid strategy therefore is to look for the best overall prospect as it could prove a more cost effective and all-round better decision for your company than choosing to opt for the ready-made candidate with the ‘right’ years of experience you believe you require. By giving the opportunity to a potential employee who is not yet the total package but who shows great desire to grow, strong potential and a winning personality the benefits are twofold. 1) You are gaining an employee who is on the up and up with an eagerness to learn and excel in their new role, and 2) they are much more likely to show loyalty to your business later on down the line for giving them the opportunity in the first place.

Hiding your Ace in the pack

The truth is you don’t have to be a global brand with huge finances to hire top quality candidates. You are however unlikely to be able to match these businesses with the perks, money and benefits they offer. But there’s good news, you don’t have to. If you are a small company then tell your story to your potential candidates, sell to them the culture and plans of your company and win them over on a personal level. You may also be able to offer them more exposure, responsibility, accountability, breadth and development than they would receive from a larger business.

Ignoring gut instincts

It’s always a bit of a gamble isn’t it? Recruiting. There really is no tried and tested way of knowing for certain your new hire will fit in around the place and deliver positive results. So you go through the hiring process and by way of elimination as much as anything you withdraw candidates from the process until the candidate who effectively ticks the most boxes for the position is made an offer. Well, we have found from years of experience that many of our clients ignored their hiring manager’s gut feeling at the time and instead opted for the ‘top’ candidate only to regret the decision later down the line. Nothing is certain in the world of recruiting. Take New England Patriots’ American football quarterback Tom Brady. Widely deemed the greatest QB to ever play in the NFL with 3 Super Bowl (Winning the entire season) rings and recruited to the team at an unimaginable low #199^th position for his year group out of college. All this to say if you have a gut feeling, sometimes it can defy the numbers and prove the best decision in the long run.

Preparation

Preparation is key. On the candidates’ part certainly, but also your own. What kind of message do you think it sends to a candidate when you spend the first 5 minutes of the interview scrolling through their CV and credentials or if they have had to wait 30-45 minutes in the reception before being called in? I challenge you to think of a reason why the answer to either circumstance would be positive. Professionalism and respect should be conveyed at all times during the recruiting process. Remember, the best candidates are also cross-examining you and your company during the recruiting process and therefore any less than stellar practices will be duly noted. So make sure you leave the right impression as we’re sure you currently do.

For more information on any of these topics or to discuss making your next hire the best it can be please call us on 0113 898 0240 or email hello@metmarketing.co.uk.