You hire someone who performed great during the interview, only to have them fall short when they’re on the job. Sound familiar?
As one of Miami’s top staffing agencies, Future Force Personnel knows that many employers have experienced this scenario a time or two. And unfortunately, making a hiring mistake can cost your company big time in the form of lost productivity, reduced morale, and administrative hassles.
So why do so many employers make this same mistake? And what can you do to avoid it in the future?
Reasons for hiring mistakes include:
- Interviewers who aren’t trained in effective interviewing techniques.
- Interviewers that don’t properly prepare for the interview.
- Job candidates who don’t tell the complete truth in interviews or exaggerate their backgrounds.
- Job candidates that have the right skill set, but don’t fit with the culture.
- Making a hiring decision on instinct, rather than evaluating the facts.
And here’s what you can do to avoid these mistakes in the future:
1. Learn the Ins and Outs of the Job Opening.
If you don’t work directly in the department you’re hiring for, then you may not be familiar with the day-to-day duties required. If that’s the case, then you need to talk with employees in the department or those who work in similar positions and ask them to outline their responsibilities and the skills it would take for a new hire to perform well.
2. Prepare a Mix of Questions.
Once you have an in-depth understanding of the job, you can prepare more targeted interview questions and be on the lookout for specific skill sets in candidates. You should also ask questions that are behavior-based and situation-based.
Behavior-based questions will force candidates to give you specific examples of challenges they’ve faced and successes they’ve achieved; for instance, “give me an example of a time you failed on the job” or “what achievement are you most proud of?” On the other hand, situation-based questions ask what a candidate would do in a specific situation, such as “what would you do if you knew a co-worker was lying to clients?”
3. Follow the Same Structure.
When interviewing candidates, be sure to follow the same structure and ask the same kinds of questions of all candidates. It’s ok if you go in different directions based on a candidate’s answers. But when it comes time to make a hiring decision, you want to be able to compare apples to apples.
4. Don’t Forget Personality.
Sometimes, in the quest to find employees with just the right skills, interviewers forget about personality. But considering that failure to mesh with the culture is a major reason employees don’t work out, evaluating personality is critically important. To do so, consider conducting personality tests on the top three candidates you’re interested in hiring. These will provide you with a strong sense of each candidate’s attitude, interpersonal skills, and behavior.
Want More Help in Avoiding Hiring Mistakes?
Let Future Force Personnel know. As one of Miami’s top staffing agencies, we specialize in sourcing, screening, and recruiting top-notch candidates for our clients, each time, every time. Contact Future Force Personnel today to learn more.