The top 5 mistakes made in hiring staff
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There can be few business leaders who are unaware of just how difficult it is to hire staff right now. Not only do we have record low unemployment (around 3.5% currently but in practice actually much lower since there is always a small cohort who have no interest in finding work anyway), but there is also a recognised skills shortage in many business sectors, e.g. construction managers, early childhood teachers, ICT (information and communications technology) and others connected with the hospitality sector. Yet, despite this, hiring of new staff is universally poorly done which is costly enough ordinarily, but given the situation today can actually be downright damaging. Here are five common mistakes:
1. Inadequate definition of the role.
There is no substitute for writing down what is required in a Position Description (PD). It aligns expectations of the company and the candidate (and a recruitment agency if one is involved) and should define unambiguously the key responsibilities (not tasks) of the role as well as the key qualifications, skills and personal attributes requirements.
2. Lack of interview skills
How many interviewers do you know have undertaken skills training? It is unusual, yet doing so can significantly de-risk the chances of a bad hire. Without proper training, interviewers often don’t ask the key questions that will determine whether the candidate will be a good fit for the role. Mistakes include not verifying actual skills and experience, asking hypothetical questions and not clarifying exceptional role requirements, e.g. working outside of normal business hours and travel expectations.
3. Failure to align the candidate and the culture.
Really part of 2. above, but a common problem is placing too high a focus on specific experience and expertise and not enough on alignment of core values which is essential (take the recent issue with the hiring of the Essendon CEO for example!). As a result, many companies ‘hire on skills and fire on fit’ when attitude and aptitude is so much more valuable. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is actually beneficial to be missing a few skills since someone who ticks all the boxes may get bored.
4. Rushing the hire.
Analagous to the well-known saying “marry in haste, repent in leisure”, taking the time to get the right candidate is far more preferable than simply hiring someone so that the role is filled. As with marriage, the partnership can be easy to get into, but extremely costly and painful to get out of, so better to wait and find the right one (not the perfect one!) and wear the short-term pain for long term gain. Take the time to identify a number of candidates and verify that the role is right for both parties.
5. Insufficient consideration of remuneration.
This is a tricky one since getting it wrong can have a number of bad consequences, so worth doing your due diligence up front. There are two key things to consider here:
1) what is the real value of the role (can be gauged by employing item 1. above, involving a recruitment specialist and/or market research)
2) taking into considering how your existing staff are currently compensated. Doing both may lead to an overall consideration of staff remuneration since employing someone external at a higher rate than equivalent internal staff may not end well. You don’t necessarily need to be a top quartile payer since other factors such as culture and opportunity also matter, but equally paying below market rate is not likely to attract the right candidates especially in the current market.
Ian Ash ACC, AInstIB Managing Director OrgMent Business Solutions