From rushing the process to failing to consider transferable skills, here are some common hiring mistakes and steps you can take to avoid them.

In the fast-paced world of talent hunting, recruiters and hiring managers are constantly faced with the challenge of finding the best candidates in short timeframes. 

With employers in many industries currently grappling with critical talent and skills shortages, it’s all the more important to remove errors and friction points from the recruitment process in order to avoid missing out on top talent.

Are you making these common recruitment mistakes?

Working in recruitment, I’ve seen businesses make the same mistakes over and over again when it comes to their hiring practices, costing them both time and money in the process. Research shows that the cost of a bad hire can be around 15-20 per cent of that employee’s salary, depending on seniority.

Here are three of the most common mistakes and how you can avoid them. 

1. Not considering transferable skills

Many recruiters automatically assume that in order to hire the most skilled candidates, they should engage only with candidates who have direct experience within the same industry or similar roles. However, this is a very quick way to cast a narrow net and eliminate great candidates with valuable transferable skills. 

A recent whitepaper released by workforce compliance automation platform WorkPro found that focusing only on industry experience recruitment process is a missed opportunity. The findings – derived from a survey of over 2400 job-seekers – found 60.7 per cent of respondents had received job offers in new sectors solely on the merit of their transferable skills. 

Before you start the hiring process, consider what you’re looking for in your ideal employee. Skills such as communication, problem-solving, conflict resolution, critical thinking and relationship-building are transferable across various industries and are often far harder to teach than technical on-the-job skills. 

When you open your hiring process up in this way, you can potentially unlock a far greater talent pool that will add value to your business in the short and long term.

Avoiding these common recruitment mistakes will not only streamline your hiring process, but also ensure you are hiring the best people for your business. Whether you hire an expert recruitment agency or do it in-house, a great recruitment strategy will set your business up for success.

2. Speeding through the recruitment process

In the hustle and bustle of running a business, taking the time to screen and interview candidates can feel tedious and unproductive. After all, ‘time is money’, and any employer or recruiter knows how much time can be spent conducting interviews or sifting through resumes. With that said, rushing the recruitment process can lead to one of the most costly mistakes of all: hiring the wrong person for the job.

More often than not, filling a role as quickly as possible only costs your business in the long run. The wrong candidate is more likely to be unsuccessful in the role, meaning you will likely need to repeat the hiring process all over again a few months later. 

Read HRM’s article on the 9 questions you should ask to avoid hirer’s remorse.

For this reason, it’s essential to thoroughly screen and assess each candidate to ensure you’re hiring the right person for the role. Finding a great candidate is an investment in the future of your business, saving both time and resources down the line.

3. Not engaging help and a fresh perspective

Most recruiters have been in the tricky situation of advertising a role only to find that it attracts all the wrong candidates. Leaving a job posting online for months on end in the hopes that the right candidate will apply is costly and time-consuming, but many businesses still do it, despite there being a far better alternative: engaging help.

This might come in the form of partnering with an external recruiter or even just getting fresh perspectives from your internal staff to see if the job advertisement is reflecting all the best parts of your workplace culture. Perhaps you can reconsider the language you use, to convey the fun and collegial vibe of the team that the recruit would be joining. 

Perhaps you’ve missed out a crucial piece of information that would draw in, say a Gen Z employer, such as highlighting your career development program. Fresh eyes will help you identify these opportunities to present your business in the best light and draw in your target audience.

 Jas Singh is the Founder and Managing Director of SKL Executive.

Do you want to sharpen your recruitment skills and learn how to ask the right interview questions? Sign up for AHRI’s short course to arm yourself with best-practice information.