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How Successful Employers Avoid 3 Common Hiring Pitfalls

An immense amount of time and resources goes into onboarding a new member for your team. Given that investment, it is important to make sure it will be a long-term employee who can add value to your company. Here are 3 common hiring pitfalls and how to avoid them in order to bring on the best candidate for your open position.

A Lack of Clarity

Make sure you have a very clear idea of the role you want filled, what a candidate needs to bring to the table and how this position will benefit your company. Inc.com says,”Like most decision-making, employee selection is fundamentally emotional.  Therefore, it is important to define and prioritize critical success factors for the job in advance. This enables clear thinking to establish a specific position profile.  Yes, it takes time, but–compared to shooting in the dark and hiring the wrong person–it’s an effective use of time. Even if this is an existing role, take time to determine how this position can best support your overall goals and objectives.

Make sure to also keep the candidate criteria for this position concise. Evan Carmichael says, “the most accurate prediction of success on the job is based on no more than six to eight factors. Add any more, and you risk diluting your criteria, watering down the prediction of success, and killing selection accuracy”. This succinct and to-the-point job description will help both you and the candidate decide if there is a potential fit on both sides.

Inadequate Preparation

Once you have a clear idea of the qualities you are seeking in a candidate, you then need to prepare clear interview questions. You should ask these same questions to each candidate so that you can easily compare all of your options with a consistent baseline.

Once you ask those questions, listen; it is important to make sure you don’t overtake the interview with highlights about the job or your company. You should be screening a potential candidate more that talking. Inc. says “If you are talking more than 20% of the time, then you are selling the job instead of screening the candidate. Talking too much is also a sign of poor preparation and lack of behaviorally-focused question”.

Use your 20% of “talk time” to ask follow up questions and ask for specific examples. Move your candidates beyond generalities so that you can truly understand their perspectives and experience. Make sure to not allow superficial first impressions cloud your judgement and use your prepared questions to be objective about a candidate’s potential fit at your company.

Failing to Promote Your Company

Consider every interview as a marketing opportunity for your organization. Understand that you will only hire one person for the role, however, you may come in contact with dozens of professionals. These are all future hires or at minimum, advocates of your company; make sure you leave them with a good impression.

Keep these pitfalls and strategies in mind as you move through your next hiring process. You can also feel free to contact Paragon Group International for us to do the work for you and find you amazing candidates for your next open position. Sign-up for our newsletter for more hiring and onboarding strategies here. What has been your biggest onboarding lesson?