McLean Mills October 13, 2020 
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During the recruiting process, the pressure is on to find your next all-star team member. But when your results are coming up a bit short, it can leave you wondering what went wrong.
From the job posting to conducting interviews, there’s lots of room for error that can keep you from hiring the best candidate possible. When the going gets tough, keep these tips in mind to make sure you aren’t falling victim to some of the most common recruiting mistakes that could ruin your hiring process.
1. Waiting for the Perfect Candidate
In an ideal world, you’d find an exact match for your job posting. And while holding out for the perfect candidate may sound tempting, you could be passing up other exceptional applicants along the way.
Keep your eyes open and your expectations in check as you browse applications. Although a candidate may not tick all your boxes right off the bat, you never know someone’s true potential until you give them a fair shot.
2. Equating A Strong Resume With Strong Writing Skills.
It’s easy to assume that if an applicant has a top-tier resume, it must also mean their writing ability is top-tier as well. However, this is not always the case. Nowadays, a lot of job applicants are taking advantage of professional resume writers to prepare their resume and other job documents, instead of doing it themselves.
3. Failing to Prepare the Candidate
The interview is your chance to get to know a candidate and analyze how they field your questions. And although you may be interested in seeing how well an applicant thinks on their feet, make sure you’ve done your part in preparing them for the fundamentals of the interview.
Once you schedule an interview, provide any details a candidate needs to know beforehand such as whether the interview will take place over the phone or through video-conferencing as well as the next steps in the process. While in many cases, you may want to throw unexpected curveballs to test the candidate – and that’s fine – it’s also part of your job to “prepare” the candidate and let them know ahead of time what to expect.
4. Asking the Wrong Questions
There are endless resources for scripted interview questions you can reference if you’re unsure of what you should be asking a candidate. There’s nothing wrong with getting some inspiration elsewhere, but don’t let your entire interview contain cookie-cutter questions.
Dig deep into the role you’re looking to fill. How should the ideal candidate handle day-to-day tasks? What soft skills would be the most helpful to succeed in the job?
To get the most out of an interview, ask questions that are specific to the job as well as more general prompts. With the addition of job-specific questions, you’ll likely get to learn more about the applicant and how they might perform in the role rather than only basic employment history information.
5. Not Checking Applicants’ References
If you’ve found a candidate that has made it through your final round of interviews, that’s great! But before you pat yourself on the back and extend an offer, don’t forget to check on the candidate’s references.
Simply put, some job seekers are excellent interviewees. But, although they may excel in answering your questions, one of the best judges of character are past employers or colleagues.
Do your due diligence and be sure to speak with any references provided by the applicant. They’ll likely be able to provide more insight on the candidate’s character and personality you may not learn otherwise.
6. Never Updating Your Hiring Methods
Whether you’ve been in charge of recruiting new team members for years or only a few months, there’s always room to improve on your processes.
The best hiring managers know there’s always better recruiting tactics available, and they actively review their current processes as well as make necessary adjustments. Be sure you’re constantly fine-tuning your methods rather than letting your recruiting process turn stale.
The job market is always evolving and your hiring practices should grow with it.
Building Your Dream Team
With the above tips in mind, there’s no excuse for falling victim to these types of common recruiting mistakes! Although finding new team members will always be challenging, you have more power than you may think in spearheading a successful recruiting process.
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