Current research from the recruiting software firm TalentLyft found that a single bad hire costs a company $15,000 on average. It also discovered that nearly three in four employers say they’ve hired the wrong person for a position and 83 percent of talent say a negative interview experience can change their mind about a company they once liked. Costly hiring decisions can affect many business areas, from team morale and productivity to company turnover costs and brand reputation. For example, to replace a C-level executive can cost over 200 percent of their salary. In other words, a $100K CEO might cost over $200K to replace.
So how can businesses sidestep these errors? Below we list the top mistakes managers make during the hiring process and what talent acquisition experts say are the best ways to avoid these risks to find the best workplace talent.
Top Three Hiring Risks: What You Don’t Know Could Cost Your Team
Lack of Preparation & Rushing a Hire
During our interview with Executive Career Coach of Wayfind and former Talent Acquisition executive Susan Nadritch, she reveals to Endominance, “One of the biggest mistakes hiring managers make is that they are not prepared for the interview and rush the process. Mistakes can be avoided if talent acquisition managers have a more holistic approach to hiring. They need to ask their team members to divide and conquer when reviewing the specific skills required for the role. For example, ‘Interviewer A’ reviews skills with the candidate, and ‘Interviewer B’ gives a case study for the person to examine. Then ‘Interviewer C’ asks deeper questions to understand the candidate’s emotional intelligence and so on. By preparing for the interview in this way and tailoring the questions to the specific person and role, your company gets a bigger return on investment.”
Poorly Crafted Job Descriptions
According to Recruiterbox, not including the right information in a job description could end up wasting a company’s time, resources, and money. It also reflects poorly on the company brand issuing the position request. The top four reasons why the wrong job description could make the hiring process more complex include:
- Vague or poorly written job descriptions could attract unqualified applicants.
- Without a transparent job description, the hiring manager’s recruiting process may come to a grinding halt.
- An unclear job description (not sure what your company is looking for) may lead to hiring the wrong candidate.
- The company may face higher employee turnover rates without a thorough job description.
The Right Person – Wrong Role
According to Forbes, another popular mistake companies make is hiring the right person but placing them in the wrong role. This often means that the hiring manager loves the candidate and wants to find a way to make the hire work. They figure out a way to place the potential employee in a position similar to the original role needing to be filled. The Forbes article suggests, “What happens, then, is the company is without the proper resource for the job they needed to fill, and the new employee is frustrated because they aren’t doing the kind of work they thought they were going to do.”
Strategies to Find the Best Talent – What Experts Say
Focus on the Right Skills & Traits in Job Description
Susan Nadritch tells Endominance, “Many hiring managers will see someone from Harvard or NYU Stern with a good GPA and be like ‘Ok, you’re hired.’ Yes, those are strong credentials, but will that person be a strong fit for the company? Do they have the right skill-sets for the job? Are they collaborative? Do they have integrity? Everyone may seem like a good hire – but you need to see if they truly fit into your organization and team.”
According to the Harvard Business Review (HBR), “The two biggest mistakes managers make when hiring and evaluating talents are: focusing too much on their past performance and overrating the importance of their resume, education, hard skills, and technical expertise. The World Economic Forum predicts that 65 percent of today’s jobs will no longer be around in 15 years.” What does this mean? Leaders shouldn’t place too much emphasis on the current educational curriculum. HBR suggests, “It [education curriculum] is designed to prepare individuals for the present, rather than future, jobs.” People will be more equipped to handle these future positions if they have specific soft skills, such as drive, emotional intelligence, learnability, and adaptability. HBR believes, “These are the traits that determine new skill and knowledge acquisition.”
Utilize Talent Assessment Tools
Talent assessment tools cover everything from aptitude and personality assessments to position-specific written tests. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) sees these tools as necessary. It states, “Many organizations seek more of a ‘whole person’ gauge of candidates. They are assessing not just skills but personality traits, cultural fit and motivational drivers that can prove the difference between candidates who thrive and those who quickly derail.” Unfortunately, most personality and aptitude assessment tests are not scientifically valid and are based on age-old formulas.
For example, a traditional test like the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) was first published in 1962. Based on how the world has changed since its production, coupled with the standards of psychological test validation – tests like the MBTI are limited. Additionally, most aptitude/career assessments do not consider an individual’s cognitive orientation – or worldview. This part is crucial when understanding the “why” behind “who” they are – seeing the whole person. Recruiters and other talent acquisition professionals will find tools, like our PIC (Performance, Interpersonal, and Challenges) Report, that can fill the spaces where most assessments fall short. Our PIC Report uses scientifically-backed team analytics to reduce costly hiring risks and maximize the talents of current employees. Our tool helps leaders make decisions based on the role, not their gut, saving time and money.
Watch Out for Affinity Bias
A recent article in Linkedin by John Vlastelica, former corporate recruiting leader, turned consultant, reveals the act of the same people hiring the same type of people, also known as “affinity biases,” is a genuine issue. Vlastelica states, “We need to transition our thinking from culture fit to culture add. We need to explicitly communicate that we want talent that isn’t just carbon copies of our existing teams, that we don’t want a monoculture.”
Think Synergy
According to HBS, “When you consider your talent pipeline, focus less on individuals and more on the configuration of your team. Ask questions like: will people work together well, are they likely to complement each other, and do their functional and psychological roles align with what the team needs? On great teams, each individual is like an indispensable organ in charge of executing a specific function, making each part different from others, and the system greater than the sum of its units.”
