This post originally appeared on the Talent Technology Blog: http://www.talenttech.com/blog/headcount

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Making the tabloid news rounds today is the story of how UK Prime Minister, David Cameron, and his wife accidentally left their 8-year-old in a pub.

They were traveling in two separate cars, and both assumed the girl was in the other car when in fact she'd gone to the toilet. A simple mistake that was easily remedied in under an hour by a phone call and a trip back to the pub.

But it did get me thinking about parallels in our professional lives, specifically in recruiting.

How many candidate encounters have you inadvertently ruined by assuming someone else has taken care of something?

Are you assuming your software is actually returning an appropriate auto-response to candidates when they apply?

Are you assuming that if your search isn't returning results from your ATS that there must be no qualified applicants who want to work for you?

Are you assuming that screening company's able to use the candidate data you sent them, rather than making your applicant fill out their information again?

Are you assuming the hiring manager is going to follow-up with the candidates they didn't select, so you won't bother calling them to provide some closure and a positive send-off?

This is why it's so important to regularly audit your recruiting processes.

Do a regular "headcount" of candidates in your pipeline and process.

You should easily be able to see how many candidates are applying on your website, what your recruiting system is sending them, the searches being conducted and the results they're returning.

It doesn't take more than a few phone calls to your service providers and candidates to see how the screening and assessment procedure is going, and if it could be streamlined.

And if you're not sure if it's somebody's job to follow-up with candidates, newsflash, it's now YOUR job until explicitly made otherwise.

The number-one complaint we hear from both active and passive candidates is that of a poor recruiting experience, whether or not they were ultimately hired.

So do the headcount. Don't leave them in the loo. Losing the opportunity to hire a star employee isn't fixed as easily as a circle back to the place you left them.