Often hiring managers are dreaded when their recently hired candidates leave the company just a couple of months after joining. The question is, why did this happen?
The candidate had a great resume, interviewed well, and seemed to have the relevant skills. However, what led to such a situation. Errors in any of the phases of hiring, i.e., job application, candidate reviews, or onboarding, can result in a bad hire.
A bad hire greatly diminishes workplace efficiency and success. Employees are a link to a business chain, and if one doesn’t perform well, they are likely to affect the company’s growth and success.
Bad hires can cost 20 percent of an employee’s salary to replace and hire a new candidate. A high turnover rate can be very costly. If you look for common hiring mistakes and work on them, you will likely attract the right candidate for the open position.
There are several factors associated with hiring that causes the hiring managers to wade through thousands of resumes over weeks to find the small pool of talent who are finally made an offer. If hiring managers do not match the correct candidates for a job opening, it can result in hiring bad candidates.
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Integrating an applicant tracking system like PyjamaHR with the hiring process can automate and streamline recruitment. ATSs scan through the resumes and find candidates who possess the desired skills and qualifications.
The resumes are scanned through the ATS, and those resumes that are relevant and coincide with the open position are shortlisted for further rounds of assessment.
Creating a Flawed Job Description
Often you might think about the reasons for a bad hire. So, reflect on certain aspects of your job. Check your job description. Make sure it is vivid and has every requirement mentioned in bullets.
Give the job description accurately in the job posting or advertisement. Giving a clear job description attracts candidates with the qualities and skills you want.
A job description is a first and foremost step in attracting top talents to apply to the opening. Mention the role and key areas of responsibilities and expected outcomes in the job description.
Be careful not to oversell the position as well. Don’t make fake promises that you do not intend to fulfill. For example, don’t imply promotions if there aren’t any. If you do that and your candidate does not find so on joining the company, they will feel betrayed and might leave the company.
The applicant tracking system provides you with a template to create structured data for your job description. You can choose from a bunch of ready-to-made and custom templates that help in creating the right job description. Strike the right balance with the job description to attract the best prospects.
Failed Internal Recruitment
Sometimes the best candidates might be working in your own company, and you may not even have noticed. Internal recruitment will save you a lot! Filling roles internally has an economic benefit, but also cuts the time spent on advertising the open position and the process of hiring and recruiting a candidate.
Another plus point is that the employee is already a part of the company’s work culture. You do not have to worry about employee engagement and satisfaction as the old employer already has their trust built with their company. They are also aware of the company’s values and mission and hence, are most likely to adapt to the new role more quickly than the new candidate.
A major benefit is that training and promoting your old employees will boost their morale and give them growth opportunities. This will ultimately increase the productivity of the company. Promoting candidates to the open position also protects against the loss of knowledge when people leave the company.
If you have talented employees within your organization, do not refrain from promoting them to the new opportunity.
Focusing too much on the Interview
Focusing only on interviews to assess the candidate’s suitability for a role is not the correct way of evaluating. Interviewers often assess the candidate on the first impression, and during the entire interview process, they try to confirm that impression. You should know that the candidate may do and say anything to get the job offer.
Why not consider evaluating them based on an exercise? Such exercises and assessments help the interviewers to judge the candidate on their performance that can help check the candidate’s suitability for the job role.
Recruitment tests or assessments tools can help know how good a candidate is at planning, organizing, prioritizing, communicating, etc. You can easily check the relevant skills with the tasks and evade the wrong candidates.
Biased Mindset
Make sure that you do not develop any bias while going through the candidate’s resume. The bias can be based on age, caste, gender, religion, region, location, etc.
Sometimes you may unconsciously be driven toward these factors. It would be best if you avoid unconscious bias as it heavily affects the decision-making abilities during the recruitment process. Check the candidate’s skills and qualifications rather than other factors surrounding their persona.
Assessing candidates from an unbiased mindset will help you hire the right talent with the right skill set. Accepting candidates based on their potential and skills and not on any of those discriminating characteristics ensures a diverse pool of talent in your company. Diverse talents are a great boon to your company’s growth and success.
Applicant tracking systems scan the resumes based on keywords and job descriptions, eliminating any chance of biased recruitment.
Hiring Under Qualified People
Always hire the candidates who fulfill the required qualification for the open position. Remember, a good player hires a better player. If you hire underqualified candidates to show that you are superior to them, your company will never grow.
Sometimes hiring managers are skeptical of hiring candidates who are more confident and talented than they are. The reason is that they feel the threat to their position.
But the hiring managers should know the right addition to the team can add valuable inputs and insights that can help the company’s growth.
Better candidates help in creating a platform for learning. Other employees can learn the skills of the qualified candidates. This will ultimately drive the business forward.
An applicant tracking system skims and scans through the resumes as skill matching is mandatory for candidate screening. This way an ATS helps in shortlisting candidates with the skills and qualifications as mentioned in the Job Description.
Rejecting Qualified Candidates
You might be tempted to reject the overqualified candidates for various reasons. You may either reject a candidate for the above reasons or fear that overqualified candidates will leave your company once they find a more challenging role elsewhere.
But do remember that highly qualified candidates have the skills and abilities to help develop the team. They give great inputs on business insights and problem-solving ways – even if they don’t stay long.
Rather than fearing that they would leave your company, gain their trust and loyalty. Think, create, and implement opportunities for development, progress, rewards, growth, etc., that this exceptional candidate can offer.
Rushing the Recruitment Process
Finding the most appropriate candidate may not be easy. It is a time-consuming process and may require a lot of hard work. However, this does not mean you will hire anyone for the role.
Take time to analyze and assess. Think about every aspect associated with handling the candidate you are hiring. The time, capital, training, etc., that you would have to spend hiring a candidate who is not befitting your requirement will be a waste!
When these candidates do not stand up to the expectation, you will have to start the entire hiring process again to find a new candidate for the same position.
Sit back and think before acting. Take interviews twice, if needed. Give tasks and assessments, hire the candidates for internships or a contract to check their abilities. If you become sure of their worth during this tenure, make a full-time offer.
Expecting too much from a New Recruit
Do not expect a fresher who has just joined your company to give you results from the first day. Typically, a fresher takes approximately three months to completely adjust and integrate into the company’s work culture and work.
You may expect the candidate to outperform since the first day of the job, especially if the position has been vacant for quite a long time. However, pressurizing them during their very initial days at the workplace would only mean you are not giving them enough time to ‘settle down.’
During the initial days, working on getting the new employee acquainted with the company’s work culture, visions, goals, the different teams, etc. Make them feel welcomed at the office.
Give them an open platform to discuss their confusion and seek advice. Arrange for meetings to check on how they are doing.
Not Assessing the Candidates Based on their Skills
A candidate is likely to put the best form on their resume. But how much of that information can you trust? A large number of candidates cannot justify what is on their resumes.
While candidates list excellent experience and qualifications on their resumes, you might want to check and verify some details. Relying on the references will not help in judging the suitability of the candidate’s skills and abilities. They may have a negative reference from the previous employer, but you never know they may thrive in your company.
Therefore, it is imperative to assess the candidates based on their skillset. You can easily check whether the candidate has the right skills by setting up assessment tests and exercises using hiring tools like an ATS like PyjamaHR. The result will help determine whether the candidate is suitable for the role.
Frequently Asked Questions(FAQ)
The four key reasons for ineffective recruitment are:
Creating a flawed job description
Biased mindset
Focusing too much on the interview
Hiring under qualified people
Wrong candidates are most likely to leave the company, and you have to go through the entire process of hiring again—also, the cost of hiring doubles. Poor hiring can significantly affect the growth of the company.
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