Hiring the right employees is crucial for any business, regardless of size. Unfortunately, while the goal of recruitment is clear—to hire the best person for the job—being able to do it is another story. Sometimes hiring managers or recruiters don’t have enough information to make the right hiring decisions, or the person who had a great interview can become a bad employee with zero warning signs beforehand.
Unfortunately, bad hires can cost a business thousands of dollars and upset the delicate balance of the office. Every business should avoid making bad hires to efficiently onboard new employees who can provide value, but this is easier said than done. Here are a few dos and don’ts to help you hire the right employee.
DO Discuss Expectations
Before hiring a new employee, always ensure they understand the hours they’re expected to work, their pay and when they can receive benefits and time off. Employees who don’t schedule their PTO or take personal time randomly can make planning difficult, and other employees may have to pick up the slack. Before you agree to hire anyone, set expectations to ensure they will be available when you need them. It’s essential to guide them on how to create a pay stub for their records and for organizational purposes.
Of course, you should also realize that employees must take time off from work now and then. Therefore, you should set expectations for when that happens, including whether there are any consequences for taking multiple days off in a row without advanced notice. Additionally, during the interview process, prospective employees might tell you they can’t work on some days due to personal circumstances or commitments they’ve already made, such as weddings. If this is the case, you should be as flexible as possible since most employees won’t cancel their plans for you.
DO Standardize Your Processes
Most recruiters don’t realize that their interview style could cause bad hires. While all recruiters want to believe either style is more effective than someone else’s, standardizing the process is the only way to ensure every candidate is being interviewed the same, ensuring less bias and more effective recruiting. In addition, standardizing your recruiting processes allows you to find better candidates and ensure they answer the same questions, allowing you to compare them to one another easily.
Standardizing your interview processes will also ensure you’re prepared for each interview because you can ask the same questions, review resumes, and determine what skills and experience to look for.
Investing in the best recruitment software for agencies and independent recruiters can further streamline and enhance the standardization of your interview processes. These platforms offer features like customizable interview templates, candidate scoring systems, and centralized candidate data management, allowing recruiters to maintain consistency and efficiency across all stages of the hiring process.
DO Use a Scorecard
A scorecard allows you to evaluate candidates by comparing their answers. You can use scorecards to determine which candidates are more qualified and have the right soft skills for the job by developing a rating system. Then, you can rank candidates based on the information you have. Of course, your scorecards should also have notes to help you remember what candidates said and why you think their answers were good or bad.
DON’T Skip Background Checks
Once you’ve found someone you want to hire, you should ensure they’re right for the job by verifying their job history and experience. You may also include a background or credit check, depending on your process. However, one of the most important things you should always do is check references by calling past employers to ensure candidates have the right skills for the jobs they’ve interviewed for. If you work for the government, an employment background check may be required, so ensure your business is remaining compliant while onboarding new employees.
DON’T Use Employee Referrals
You trust your employees, and you’d like to think your top performers have friends like them. However, this is rarely the case. While employee referrals can help fill your calendar with interviews, hiring friends or family members can be problematic for your business. In addition, these types of hires typically only work out as long as the person who referred them is a good employee and you expect them to stay at the company for many years to come.
DON’T Only Consider Outside Candidates
Hiring from within is a great way to upskill your existing staff and ensure they have growth opportunities to advance their careers. Every employee is different; some may go to work to earn money, while others want to advance their skills and work their way up through the company. Administering customizable skills tests as part of an employee’s performance and career development plan is an excellent way to track prospective candidates. Unfortunately, far too few employers realize the potential of your current workforce. Instead, they hire employees from outside the company to fill management positions, which can have a negative effect on their staff.
If you don’t provide employees with growth opportunities through promotions and raises, they’re likely to find new jobs with employers that do. While not all of your staff may be qualified for a certain role, you should take the time to invest in them and help them reach their career goals within your company or risk losing top performers to the competition.
Don’t Limit Candidates to Immediate Needs
When interviewing for a particular role, you might meet a candidate better suited to another position. Even if you’re not actively looking for someone for a particular department, you should consider whether there’s a need for them. For example, another department may be short-staffed, but the company hasn’t discussed it with the team. Therefore, if you meet someone with skills better aligned with another position, consider talking to a manager to see if they could benefit from an additional employee.
Even if you don’t currently have the resources to hire this person, you can keep their resume on file and ensure they’re the first one you call when a position for their skills opens up.
DON’T Assume Candidates Will Accept Job Offers
Even after setting expectations, candidates can still reject your job offer because you can’t provide them with the salary or benefits they need. For example, if an employee would need to relocate to work for you, ensure you’re providing a solid cost of living adjustment based on fair market rent of the area. Candidates are looking for engaging jobs and employers who value them and where their needs are supported. If they believe your offer is too low, they may feel disrespected, especially if they’ve already set their expectations with you.
Hiring the Right Employees
Unfortunately, sometimes an interview will go great, only for you to find out that a new hire isn’t right for the job. If this happens to you, look back on your hiring process to determine where it went wrong to prevent it from happening in the future. For example, if you didn’t review references, consider checking them next time to ensure the employee can handle the job’s responsibilities.
