by Sharon Jones

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Thinking of hiring new employees? If you want to end up hiring the right person, make sure to avoid these common recruitment mistakes.

Rushing the recruitment process

Many employers are guilty of hurrying the recruitment process along. You may have an urgent position to fill and little time to spend on interviews or advertising; however, this is no reason to rush things – by not giving yourself enough time to gather a spread of applicants, you’ll have limited options and are bound to hire the wrong person. Before you start the recruitment process, make sure to free up enough time to do it thoroughly.

If you’re using a professional agency to fulfill your staffing needs, don’t rush your RPO provider as they are pros dedicated to finding you the best candidates.

Waiting too long for the perfect candidate

Of course, the opposite can also be true – you could spend months trying to find the perfect candidate when that one may not exist. Holding out too long could let well-suited candidates pass you by, so be careful of how long you drag on the process.

Making your job ad sound too demanding

When it comes to writing your job ad, don’t just make it a list of demands. Without listing any of the good reasons to work for your company, you may put a lot of people off applying, potentially including some of the best-suited candidates. People need to be aware of the challenges that a job presents, but they also need to be aware of the perks, so make sure to mention benefits such as good pay, long lunch breaks, company cars, the chance of promotion, or flexible hours.

Relying solely on online job boards

Paying to place your ad on online job boards will attract applicants, but this isn’t the only way to attract them. In fact, there are many ways of promoting a job for free using social media and networking. On top of this, there are paid forms of physical advertising, such as printing an ad in your local newspaper or printing off flyers. By advertising in all different places, you can increase the number of applications, giving you a better selection of choices when it comes to hiring that ideal candidate.

For the time-pressed that prefer to leave it to the experts, a Recruitment Agency in Telford (or one in your location) could be the answer.

Automatically rejecting overqualified staff

Some applicants may appear to have too many qualifications – you may decide that they’re better off elsewhere. However, some of these applicants may simply be looking for a break from more qualified, higher-stress jobs. They could be ideal for the role as they may possess all the skills already and may be able to carry out tasks with a level head. All in all, don’t dismiss these applicants – you could be lucky to receive these applications at all.

Trying to fill quotas

As an employer, you may feel that you have certain quotas to fill to avoid being accused of discrimination, such as hiring an equal amount of men and women or hiring employees of multiple ethnicities. Whilst you should aim to hire anyone regardless of their race and gender, you shouldn’t get too caught up trying to have a diverse workforce. Focus on hiring employees based only on whether they’re good for the job.

Not checking references

If an applicant provides references from a previous employer, make sure to read them. If contact details are provided, you may even want to contact the previous employers yourself to check that they really did write the reference.

Not considering remote employees

It’s now possible to allow employees to work from home. By making this an option, it could allow you to look for applicants in a wider range rather than being limited to applicants that live locally. You can arrange interviews via videoconferencing rather than inviting them to your office. Not all jobs can be done remotely, but for those that can, consider whether you really need to hire in-house staff.

Asking the wrong questions

When it comes to interviewing applicants, you need to be certain that you’re asking the right questions. Focus on questions that test their knowledge or questions that determine if they’re a good cultural fit. Try to avoid generic questions as many applicants will have rehearsed answers that may not give you a true idea of whether these applicants are right for the job.

Failing to think beyond recruitment
Once you’ve finally recruited that ideal employee, you then need to be aware of the steps that come afterward. You may need to provide training for your recruit, which you may need to free up extra time for. Alternatively, you may decide to set up a probation period in which you can closely analyze these new staff members and assess them – such a probation period could be useful for spotting applicants that bluffed their way through. You’ll need to have enough equipment for you your new recruit, and you’ll need to have legally-binding contracts in place. Get this all arranged before you start the hiring process. You don’t want to abandon your new recruit in the hope that they’ll teach themselves the ropes or buy themselves equipment.