Common Recruitment Mistakes and How to Avoid Them

Did you know that it costs about 20% of an employee’s salary to replace them? If your organization suffers from high turnover rates, this can come at quite the cost. You can help your organization secure top talent that stays, if you know what to look for and what to avoid during the recruitment process. 

However, as a hiring manager you should keep in mind that top quality talent have options and their expectations are high when it comes to choosing their next career move. Nowadays, candidates are not only interested in fair compensation, but they also want to be able to work somewhere that allows for work-life balance. They also want to be able to have opportunities for both personal and professional growth, as well as do work they enjoy in a stimulating environment that respects and values them.

While you might have found the perfect qualified candidate, they will most likely be looking for other jobs while you check their references. This means that employers need to make sure that they have a candidate-focused approach when it comes to hiring and they will need to also avoid some common recruiting mistakes.

Top Recruitment Mistakes

You can attract (and keep) high quality candidates for your company if you look for the following common pitfalls.

Not having an accurate job description. 

Your job posting should describe the role perfectly and honestly to job seekers. If not, you will most likely attract candidates that don’t have the qualifications that you are searching for. A good job description isn’t just a list of job duties, it should outline the role in terms of its purpose and it should highlight key areas of responsibility to better attract top candidates. 

You also shouldn’t overvalue the position to lead applicants to believe that it gives more opportunities or benefits than it actually does. Say, you mention there will be a quick promotion but there isn’t, then your new recruit will most likely end up disappointed and leave. 

Failing to hire through employee referrals. 

Another big mistake is not knowing that the best candidates could be hidden in plain sight. Hiring from within or through employee referrals can also help you save on recruitment costs, such as money and time spent posting your job to external candidates. You should also think about how your employees already understand your company’s processes, values and mission. This means you can bring them up to speed in a new role much faster than someone who is brand new. 

Another benefit is that promoting opportunities and training to your own internal employees can help to encourage and motivate them, thus boosting morale within the workplace. 

Relying mainly on the interview to screen candidates. 

Some recruiters rely only on an interview in order to evaluate potential new hires, but this is not the best interview process. In fact, in many cases interviews are a waste of time and prone to unconscious biases that plague the hiring process. Plus,  a candidate can say or do anything to get hired. 

Instead, you should think about giving candidates a recruitment test, or, you can use less conventional ways to interview them. This ensures that you really get to know your potential candidates and how they will perform in a specific role. 

Not being aware of unconscious bias.

As we mentioned above, unconscious bias can plague the hiring process within your company. Hiring new employees means you need to have sharp decision-making abilities, but these can be clouded by unconscious bias. This means you might be unknowingly discriminating against certain candidates or you could be unfairly favoring those who share the same background, social class, ethnicity, age or gender as you. 

Being aware of your unconscious bias, and accepting candidates who are different from you, means that you will have a bigger pool of candidates to choose from, which helps you introduce more diversity to the workplace while ensuring that you are hiring the best person for the role. 

Waiting too long for the “perfect” candidate to come along. 

You might think it’s a good thing that you have an outline of the ideal candidate in your mind, but this can actually be detrimental to your search for the right fit. Plus, you might be unwittingly hindering the productivity of your team by keeping it short staffed for too long. As a result, your team members might be needing to work overtime or pick up more responsibilities, which can negatively affect their morale. 

Instead of waiting for that unicorn candidate, it’s better to hire someone who can meet most of the key requirements, fits into your workplace culture and who has great soft skills. They can pick up any specific role-related skills once they are settled in. 

Expecting too much, too early from a new hire. 

It will usually take a new hire three months to feel fully integrated and comfortable into the team and begin being productive. It is normal to want your new hire to hit the ground running, especially if the role has remained vacant for some time. But, rushing them to learn the ropes can result in the new employee feeling stressed, and they may end up jumping ship. 

In the first few weeks, it’s important that you allow your new hire to get familiar with your company’s and team’s goals, and to provide them with support as they grow. Your onboarding process should make them feel welcome from the very first day, and it should be a period of learning, asking questions and arranging check ups to make sure that they are set up to flourish. 

At 1Huddle, we offer cloud-based employee gamification software that can easily adapt to any employee recruitment or gamification strategy you want to implement at your workplace. You can customize your content for a seamless experience and all of your employees will be able to access their training anywhere, anytime and at the push of a button. You can use our gamification platform to measure their performance and make key decisions on where you should take your gamification strategy next. 

Do you want to learn more about how 1Huddle can help you level up your workforce? Request a demo today.