Recruiting new staff is challenging and stressful…To avoid making hiring mistakes, it’s best to plan ahead. So apart from advertising the vacancies, looking at the time it takes to hire, getting the right number and quality of applicants and dealing with the admin burden, what else do employers need to look at? If handled properly, the hiring process can deliver a constant stream of good quality employees and will make a significant difference to a company’s future success. But, what happens when companies make mistakes and hire employees who seem to be a great fit but actually aren’t? Companies will face costly repercussions….

Here are the most common recruitment mistakes which once identified will turn your search for talent into a piece of cake!

Not having a recruitment strategy in line with the business goals: All companies have business goals. But do they all have the right employees to help them meet their goals? Not really… Some companies don’t even have a clear idea of who they need to hire in order to grow their business. And without the right people, no company will ever be able to achieve its goals. A recruitment strategy that aligns with the business goals will give any business access to the right talent so it should be a top priority!

Not investing in technology: What would recruitment be without technology? Most probably, a headache! Recruitment technology was especially designed to reduce administration, to lower recruiting costs and to reduce the time to hire. Moreover, with recruitment software candidates can be instantly filtered and stored and the passive ones can be easily reached through referral schemes. It basically streamlines the entire recruitment process! But not all companies are aware of that. Now that the technology is readily available wouldn’t it be a shame not to take advantage of what it has to offer?

Developing a small candidate pool: As companies continue to expand, the ability to access quality candidates, has become the key to successful businesses. Talent pools help businesses develop and maintain a competitive advantage, keep the recruitment costs down and give candidates a better overall experience. So it’s worth taking the time to implement one. Start by incorporating an Applicant Tracking System (ATS) into your recruitment strategy and then build your talent pool with candidates who meet the desired skills. If you do these activities successfully, you will automatically be able to match candidates to future vacancies which will reduce your cost and time to hire. The more candidates you have in talent pools, the better!

Being unrealistic: Not all employers provide candidates with a proper job description, but all of them request specific background, experience or different qualities from candidates. Moreover, they sometimes tend to make rushed decisions just because they want to fill a vacancy quickly. These are all totally wrong hiring practices. Not giving exact information will result in too many unqualified applicants whilst asking for too much from candidates might limit the applicants. This will lead to employers recruiting employees that do not fit the company’s culture and a high staff turnover. That’s why it is advisable to take the time and follow all the hiring process steps, to make job adverts as explicit as possible in order to filter the candidate pool right from the application stage and to stop looking for superheroes. Growing a business doesn’t go hand in hand with poor selection.

Turnover rates of candidate hires can cost a company a small fortune so the sooner you become aware of these mistakes the better.

Have you made any recruitment mistakes that you regretted later? Please share them with us.