“Nothing we do is more important than hiring and developing people. At the end of the day, you bet on people, not on strategies.” said Lawrence Bossidy, Former COO of General Electric, and rightly so.

An organizations’ biggest asset is its workforce. Everyone from a frontend sales executive to the Human Resources Manager and the CEO is an advocate of the company culture, ethos and the values it stands for. It is for this reason that HR and TA as a function should drive culture building with strong employee advocacy and retention program in place.

But before culture building, it is people evaluation that needs to take place during the hiring process to ensure that only the right people enter the organization.

Some of the common mistakes that HR professionals make during hiring are mostly because they are made under pressure, and without culture and people-company fit as a metric in mind. In order to avoid them, HR folks need to simply have a more holistic process in mind. Just closing the position is not enough, closing it with the right person is what makes for a successful hiring decision. 

Here are some common hiring mistakes, and tips on how HR professionals can avoid them:

Lack of an Accurate Job Description

Recruiters often consult business heads to provide them with a job description. However, a lot of them also formulate a JD based on their understanding of the role, after having spoken to executives in the department. In doing so, often a lot is lost in translation. Perhaps a key requisite is missed by HR, or worse so, the job roles and responsibilities have been misunderstood and therefore inaccurately represented. In order to avoid this far-too-common mistake; it is advised that they get each Job Description checked by the department heads and include KRAs and KPIs, along with roles and responsibilities so that the candidate is aware of what success at the job looks like!

Inefficient Vetting Process

Oftentimes HR professionals end up interviewing candidates that are irrelevant to the job, cannot commute to the location, or have any other roadblock that makes them unfit for the position. Irrelevancy in experience among candidates is the number one reason that slows down any hiring process. To avoid this, HRs must make sure that they have the mandatory requirements in place - be it education qualifications, skill or certification, proficiency with MS Office or any other tool, possession of a vehicle (for blue-collar hiring), etc. These questions need to be answered by the candidate beforehand so that the HR only interviews candidates that have passed the vetting and screening process. Choose job posting sites that have a feature where you can list all the mandatory requirements for screening. Also, make sure that any staffing and recruitment agency that you outsource hiring too is aware of all your requirements beforehand. 

Not carrying out Background Checks

Some candidates are really good at cracking interviews. But the job after that? Not so much. To make sure that a candidate is holistically suited for a role at your organization, you must conduct background professional checks. This will ensure that the candidate you finally decide to hire is ethically and morally sound, along with being skilled for the job. A smart recruitment process is one that relies on various sources for candidate assessment and not just an interview or assignment process.

Assessing Skills and not Attitude

A person’s disposition, temperament, and attitude towards their job determine their success more than a pedigree or skillset. Hence, having behavioral and situational questions in place is essential for HR folks to accurately assess a candidate and his ability to succeed in a role.

Seek Passive Candidates

For entry-level white-collar jobs, recruiters can expand their scope by listing down the perfect candidate persona and seeking these candidates manually. Oftentimes, this approach will result in a more narrow, targeted approach to hiring and will lead to a successful hire. 

Recruiters often rely on free job posting sites to hire staff, and in doing so they can speak to their POC at these portals and communicate their requirements in detail. 

If you wish to have an interactive employer dashboard with real-time insights, post a job in under 2 minutes, and ensure that both relevancy and volume of candidates are maintained, head over to our portal for smart hiring!

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