Avoid These Common Mistakes to Streamline the Hiring Process

By Adolfo Hatcher

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When it’s time to hire someone new, recruiters often waste time by making common mistakes that could easily be avoided. Check out this article to find out what errors to avoid in order to streamline the hiring process.

When there are multiple positions to fill, a recruiter’s job can easily become overwhelming. Screening hundreds of resumes, interacting with tens of people, and doing your best to make an accurate assessment of candidates’ personalities takes both time and energy. When you’re under pressure, you’re more vulnerable to making mistakes. Unfortunately, mistakes can be costly. According to Free Pre-Employment Test, the U.S. Department of Labor states that a bad hire can equal 30 percent of an employee’s yearly salary. Finding the right candidate for the position is important, but so is making the best use of the time you spend checking assessing applicants.

When I was just starting up, I used to spend hours finding out as much as I could about a potential hire. As I gained more experience, I became more effective in my research, but I still felt like I could streamline the hiring process even more. By trial and error, I started to experiment with different approaches and realized I was making several mistakes that cost me precious time I could have spent more productively. That’s when I decided to share my new-found knowledge with others, hoping to help them craft a better recruitment strategy. Here the most common mistakes recruiters make and how to avoid them in today’s competitive job market.

 

Advertising in The Wrong Places

Writing a strong job description is important, but so is reaching the right people when advertising the position you’re looking to fill. The employment landscape is always changing, so you need to find out where the ideal employees like to hang out and appeal to them more directly. It’s not enough to publish an ad on Monster.com anymore. Instead, search for niche job boards, relevant LinkedIn groups, and freelancing communities. In some cases, buying a banner on a popular industry blog will be much more effective than placing an ad in the local newspaper.  Moreover, you need to be ready to go the extra mile if you want to attract the best in the field.  Interact with them via social networks, send powerful emails to attract their attention, figure out how to effectively sell the company to potential employees.

 

Spending Too Much Time on Resumes

You don’t have to read every single word on the resume to form an opinion about whether a candidate would be a good fit or not. Instead, make a checklist of all the skills and qualities that would be mandatory for the new member of the team. Quickly skim resumes for keywords associated with those abilities and you will easily save yourself some time and effort. Also pay attention to the overall appearance of the resume, to figure out approximately how much time the applicant put into making a good first impression. Assessing resumes may be tougher in the beginning, but you will eventually be able to tell if an applicant deserves your attention or not in a matter of seconds.

 

Skipping Phone Interviews

I’m a big advocate for phone interviews, as they can help you determine if an applicant who looks good on paper truly has potential. They require less time than a face-to-face meeting, so they’re the ideal pre-screening tool.

 

Not Testing Applicants

Asking the candidate to perform a task before joining the team not only allows you to figure out if they have the necessary skill and expertise, but also to determine how interested they are in working for the company you represent. If they refuse to take any tests beforehand, there’s a good chance they wouldn’t have worked out in the long run anyway.

 

Not Checking References

According to Resoomay, 25 percent of recruiters don’t check references, which can be a big mistake. I know it’s time-consuming, but it also gives you the opportunity to find out more about how potential hires conduct themselves on a day-to-day basis. A previous employer may be keen on giving you the inside scoop on why the applicant you’re considering was a valuable asset; or can reveal information that proves the candidate isn’t as professional or hard working as you originally thought. Either way, you have nothing to lose.

Recruiters are an invaluable asset to the company, as they’re responsible for discovering new talent and finding new team members to help the company grow. Your job is stressful enough, so avoid the mistakes above to streamline the hiring process and avoid unnecessary headaches.

 

About the company

The team at Social Hire won't just do social media management. Our team work with you to ensure your business sees great value from the service and that your team gets tangible results.

We create and implement original social media marketing plans that help our customers accomplish their organisational objectives and build up their online footprint.

We're an organisation that helps our clients boost their social media marketing by offering social media marketing on a monthly basis.

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