There are no specific guidelines that can guarantee 100% successful hiring. However, you can bring the right ones on board by staying away from these common flaws during the recruitment and selection process.
After extensive works to source, attract, and weigh up each profile, the worst thing you may get is a bad hire and you’re back to square one. But it does happen to most of us. Above all, the process of recruitment and selection isn’t a precise science. What you can do is to minimize risks as much as possible.
Let's start by correcting these most common errors in the recruitment and selection process:
Use a poorly written job description
Do a quick Google search and you can find a job description template for almost every position you can think of. Some employers simply replicate those things to make a job post. That’s easy, but not a good move.
Your job post is like a sales pitch. How can you attract the top-notch with a generic and vague proposal?
If you want to go a long way, put a little effort up front. A good job description is far more than a long list of prerequisites. It should include a brief intro to your business and culture, then the overall duties, expected outcomes, and development opportunities. Plus, don’t sugar-coat or oversell your openings. Doing that might help shorten your hiring process, but the low-spirited new hires will leave soon.
Explore 6 more tips to stand out from the rest with our blog here!
Now you’re done with the job posts. It’s time to widely promote them.
Fish in the wrong pond
There’re 2 scenarios here: you keep posting the jobs on the same channels or desperately post them everywhere. In the first case, you’re drawing the same audience over and over again. On the other, you’re likely wasting time on irrelevant sites.
Then how to make it right?
Here’re some things you can do:
- Revise your previous hires and identify the most effective spots to focus on later.
- If you didn’t start yet, set up an internal employee referrals scheme – this is considered the best way to hire.
- Utilize your online presence to find candidates who are already interested in your business.
- Think about where your prospects are likely to look for jobs. Let’s say, if you’re looking for entry-level positions, connect with universities and active student organizations to reach more excellent fresh grads.
- Approach passive candidates who are qualified but not actively looking for a new role. It’s tough to source and hires this audience as they’re currently satisfied with their job, so consider using a recruitment service.
Hiring with your gut feelings
Found some birds of a feather and you think they will be the best matches for your workplace?
We all know that we must avoid discrimination in the recruitment and selection process, yet it’s not easy to avoid unconscious bias. You might unwittingly follow your gut – which is more emotional rather than rational – when you find someone with shared background, age, gender, or religion.
The truth is, one-third of these new hires leave in the first 6 months due to poor performance and inappropriate attitude. So, nothing promises emotional-based hiring decisions can work out. More importantly, trusting your gut also cause a massive impact on diversity and inclusion. Meanwhile, every business needs different perspectives to be innovative and reach the next level.
Want to stay away from these wishy-washy gut feeling? Develop specific guidance and evaluations form to gather more reliable data. Stick with the job description to see if they’re qualified. Structure your interviews with behavioral questions to gauge their culture fit. Use candidate assessment tools to evaluate their competencies. And conduct background and reference check to verify their ability.
Waiting for the “purple squirrels”
Are you looking for someone who precisely meets all the qualifications, completely fits with the team culture, and can immediately handle the jobs without any extra pieces of training?
You’re looking for purple squirrels! Those are perfect hires, and just like purple squirrels, they’re so rare – if they even exist in real life!
Seeking these purple squirrels is a never-ending task. While doing so, you’re letting the team be understaffed for too long. Consequently, the extra workload and overtime hours will hurt their productivity and morale.
Instead, you should look for those who possess most of the soft skills, requirements, and good fit for your workplace culture. With a wealth of experience, they can quickly pick up the job-specific skills and assimilate into the team.
Bottom line
Even the seasoned HR pros find the recruitment and selection process a real puzzle. Do it right, you can boost employee productivity, efficiency, and of course – your bottom line. Otherwise, it will cost you the game-changers, the team motivation, your reputation, time, and unexpected expenses. So, it’s never a waste of time to take a look back at your current processes and work on your failings.
Yet these days, most of the in-house HR teams are keeping too many balls in the air at the same time. And it’s unlikely that they can devote their time to optimize these practices.
Find yourself in this situation? We’re here to help!
For more than 10 years in the Vietnam market, we have served thousands of happy clients. What we can offer isn’t only the best talent, but also the experts’ insights that can be utilized to streamline your HR procedures. Whichever industry you are in, and whichever functions you are looking for, our specialized teams are always ready to find you the best suits.
Simply tell us how we can help by filling the form below. We’ll take care of the rest!
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- The Stress-free Ways to Return to the Office Post-COVID
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