Every manager in a hiring capacity will make at least one bad hire over the course of a career, and some people make nothing but bad hires! What is a bad hire? It's a mismatch between a person and a job.
Managers who make bad hires often can be quick to say, "What's wrong with these job applicants?" There is nothing wrong with the so-called Talent Community. They are fine. It's your hiring process that is broken.
Here are 10 common and lethal hiring mistakes that cause employers to end up with the wrong people on their payrolls. Don't blame your new employees when that happens. Don't blame the educational system or Gen Y. Hiring mistakes fall squarely on the shoulders of the people doing the hiring!
After all, you got to write the job ad. You got to decide where to publish the job ad. You got to screen resumes. You got to interview candidates. You had all the cards. If you ended up with the wrong person in the job -- someone who wasn't qualified for the position or wasn't interested in it -- how can you blame the job applicant? You can't -- you have to look in the mirror and ask, "What did I do wrong?"
Maybe you made one of these 10 common mistakes:
1. Using almost all of your interviewing time talking, rather than letting your job applicant talk.
2. Hiring a person based on their stellar resume, without digging in to understand their personality, their story and their path.
3. Asking stupid, traditional job-interview questions like "Where do you see yourself in five years?" and "What's your greatest weaknesses?" Every job-seeker over the age of 18 has ready answers for these brainless questions.
4. Hiring someone based on their lofty educational credentials.
5. Failing to zoom in on the specific requirements of the job during your job interview(s). Unless you get into the meat of the job, how will you know how a job-seeker views the assignment or whether he or she has any idea how to approach it?
6. Asking dumb "Tell me about a time when..." interview questions instead of laying out your present situation and talking about what's actually going to be on your new hire's desk as soon as they start the job. The more specific and less generic your interview conversation can be, the better for everyone!
7. Using your interview time asking pointless questions about what the candidate thinks of him- or herself, or what other people think about him or her. Outdated interview questions like "What would your former boss say about you?" have no place in a 2016 job interview.
8. Using an interview script instead of conducting a normal human conversation with the job candidate sitting in front of you.
Photo: Liz Ryan
9. Viewing your hiring process like an equation to be solved: "I'll hire the person with the most years of related experience, at least two degrees and an excellent reference from a former boss" instead of using your five senses and your good judgment to hire the person who will be the best fit for the job.
10. Rejecting candidates who don't have the qualifications listed on the job ad (as though the job ad meant anything important!)
The best person for a job is not the person whose resume matches the job spec perfectly. It's not the person with the fanciest education or the most years of experience.
The best hire is the person who gets the assignment and can talk with you about the Business Pain you need to have solved. The best person to hire is the person who understands what you're up against and can tell you stories about having solved a similar kind of Business Pain before -- even if the industry and the function were different in that case.
Who cares about the specific industry or function? You need someone who is awake and aware, and someone who can think on their feet. That's what you'll use your job interview time to figure out. Don't fall into these ten traps, listen to your body and you'll be fine!
