Top 6 hiring mistakes of 2021
It’s a tumultuous economy out there and one of the best ways to remain stable as a business is to get a handle on your people needs. But in the midst of a skills shortage and a lot of hesitancy among candidates (after all, they want stability too, so why change job?), hiring managers need to be on top of their game.
So, what are the biggest mistakes companies make when hiring, and how can you avoid them?
In this article:
Hiring personas, not skills
Avoiding new ways of working
Unstructured hiring process
Disregarding migrant talent
Ignoring the candidate experience
Failing to market or excite as an employer
Need help avoiding these mistakes? We’re here for you
1. Hiring personas, not skills
Here, the mistake being made is trying to hire someone to perfectly mimic the staff member who was in the role previously. As in, you had someone in the job who was great and so you go out looking for a carbon copy of that individual.
Why is this a mistake?
Well, carbon copies of people don’t exist!
This is an active use of bias, and could lead you to not consider what your business actually needs in the role. The danger is that you’ll hire someone you ‘like’ or who closely resembles the incumbent, but for some reason they don’t click in the role - cue frustration.
By narrowing down your vision like this, it comes at a huge cost to potential. The business loses out on what it really needs, and you miss out on great people who happened to have quite different personalities.
How to fix this mistake
Review what the business truly needs, for now and the future. Does it need the role in this form? Was it built around the individual? What value and outputs do you need to deliver? Does this need to be reframed?
Check what skills you need versus what skills you have. Hiring the skills you need for a role is a far stronger method for getting it right because you bring in the capability to get the job done.
Invest in the process of job design. Job design workshops will help you with both of the above, and formalise your company’s needs so you and your fellow hiring managers have clear objectives when it comes to recruitment.
Read more: Our job design services
2. Avoiding new ways of working
Technology is always changing, and COVID-19 really accelerated this transformation. Changes to the lifestyle aspects of work, like hybrid and flexible working, were becoming increasingly desirable before the pandemic - now they’re an expectation.
The hiring mistake here is trying to ignore that technology and people have fundamentally, and irreversibly, evolved.
Why is this a mistake?
Those who can’t keep up with these changes will, over time, become less and less desirable as an employer. This is because new ways of working tend to have quite significant lifestyle and wellbeing benefits, or just day-to-day convenience benefits, and the more companies that offer them, the more candidates will expect them. And the more we see these in action, the more research is showing they have significant commercial benefits too.
Chances are, if you let your business fall behind then you’re going to lose candidate engagement and struggle to find top-quality talent. And if your company can’t engage with the right talent, its performance may soon suffer too.
How to fix this mistake
Get clear on what transformations are right for you. What new ways of working are essential, and what can you flex on?
Update your business. Make sure that any core technology you use is up to date and easy to use. Those ancient laptops probably aren’t up to scratch anymore.
Be up front about what you can offer, and know where your areas of flexibility are. Making it a conversation means people know what you’re open to, and starting that conversation in itself creates trust and respect for you as an employer - as opposed to companies which are cagey about it, or avoid the question. This is a red flag that they haven’t thought about it yet.
Don’t forget your existing employees! This isn’t just a conversation for your new joiners - chances are existing staff will want the same benefits, so this could be another tool for delighting employees and improving retention.
3. Unstructured hiring process
An unstructured hiring process is one that has no design, or poor design. Things tend to be done on an ad hoc basis, or are the whim of the current hiring manager. Think casual interviews, reviewing CVs without clear criteria, or aptitude tests that aren’t relevant to the job.
Why is this a mistake?
Unstructured processes and interviews tend to deliver poor results. And if you think about it, that makes sense, right? With no set criteria to base candidates on, no process to follow that has been designed to align with team objectives and culture, there’s no guarantee that the talent you find will be right for the business.
Therefore, structures and criteria in recruitment significantly multiply your chances of finding what you’re looking for. The better designed, the better the results will likely be.
Recruitment is an investment, and like any other investment it requires good strategy to succeed. If you were to spend the same cash on anything else, you’d need a solid business case for your senior managers or the bank. Treat hiring the same way and build your strategy!
How to fix this mistake
Invest in job design. We mentioned it earlier and we’ll mention it again - job design will help you understand exactly what you need, when you need it, and why.
Use job design to get the hiring process right as a whole. If you know what to look for, you can build a recruitment pipeline around that objective - interviews, tests, anything you need, it’ll all point you in the right direction.
Get professional help if you need it. The People, Culture and Talent profession is a profession, and it pays to get expert help (just like you’d consider expert help before making a raft of other major financial investments).
Read more: Our recruitment process design services
4. Disregarding migrant talent
We’re aware that there is quite a lot of controversy and political discussion over immigration, but when it comes to recruitment, migrant talent is a huge pool of potential that a lot of companies are (knowingly or otherwise) ignoring.
Three of the big mistakes hiring managers make in this area in New Zealand are: shying away from the applications of people who are on a visa; feeling uncertain about anyone with a foreign-sounding name; saying you embrace diversity in hiring but then overlooking certain applicants because they don’t fit a certain persona.
Why is this a mistake?
We should note before we go into any further detail, overlooking candidates on the basis of race or country of origin is actually illegal and unethical.
But let’s not focus on the law, and talk instead about the lost opportunity here.
New Zealand is a tiny country at the bottom of the planet. We have relatively little skilled talent here compared to other OECD nations, and this has led to skills shortages in a lot of sectors. Cutting yourself off from the possibilities of migrant workers means cutting off a huge pool of people who could be qualified, experienced and passionate.
But what about the complexities of visas?
Visas can seem like an added complication, yes. However remember that visas are something you can do something about, especially for people with a genuine skill that NZ as a country desires.
If you need the talent, visa sponsorship is a small price to pay in the scheme of your business. Yes it has costs (and there are upcoming administrative changes), but what’s the cost to your business for missing out on the capabilities crucial to your future success?
Read more: New Zealand skills shortage list checker
How to fix this mistake
Check your filters. If you’re using an automated CV crawler to scan for keywords, double check that it isn’t loaded with any biases. Or, consider not using one at all - they’re often not cost effective for most SME Kiwi businesses, and could lead to you missing out on a huge number of otherwise perfect candidates.
Blind hiring is great, but not always practical. Some people use ‘blind hiring’ techniques when recruiting - this is where you would screen CVs by removing references to gender, name, nationality, visa, and so on, to remove any potential bias. This is a fabulous idea and often worth the time if you can manage it. But, the practicalities of setting this up means most companies aren’t able to consider it. This is something to think about, but perhaps not rely on.
Design your job well and structure your processes. A well-designed job and structured interview framework mean you can review CVs and interview candidates based on hard facts and evidence. Looking purely at these factors, do your candidates fit the bill? Do they have what you need?
Be careful of your own bias. Often we’re biased without even knowing it, so think hard about your biases when interviewing and CV screening. If you see what feels like migrant worker CVs coming through, take an extra second and ask yourself if you’re judging them objectively using your set criteria, and not in any shape or form judging them based on a bias you may be unaware of. If you’re unsure, don’t be afraid to get a second opinion!
5. Ignoring the candidate experience
It’s relatively common for hiring managers to accidentally fall into the mindset that it’s a privilege for candidates to be coming in to interview, or being spoken to on the phone. It plays up the hiring manager’s position of power as an employer, treating talent like they are lucky to be getting the attention. Other symptoms include: keeping someone waiting to hear back from you, not providing meaningful feedback, failing to communicate.
This mindset can lead to formal, cold, impersonal interviews and communication styles. It puts people on edge, making them feel like they have to perform to impress you. Worse, it could lead to poor manners (i.e. not letting someone know when they haven’t been chosen for the role).
Why is this a mistake?
The nature of the employee-employer relationship has changed. It used to be a kind of master-servant scenario … but that was 50 years ago.
Now? It’s a partnership. Employers need to keep their employees happy, and in turn happy employees keep the business running. So, you need to treat candidates the same way - as respected equals - otherwise why would they want to work for you?
In 2021, humans expect to be treated like humans. That means there’s a degree of respect, value and politeness that must be adhered to at all times. The old-school approach can turn people away, and could start to give your business a poor reputation which may make it harder to get any attention from candidates in future.
How to fix this mistake
Good old fashioned hospitality. Make people feel welcome, respected. Act like you want them to be there. Remember, you’re not just building your first impression of candidates - they are building a first impression of you.
Treat candidates like clients. In this talent-short market, you will probably need to romance your candidates a little as you would a client or sales prospect. Treat them like someone you want to work with, and they’ll start to think of you the same way.
Keep up your basics. Courtesy and communication go a long way. Acknowledge their applications, keep them updated on the process - especially as they get deeper into the pipeline. Even if there’s no news and the process is just taking ages, it can make someone feel a lot less anxious, and a lot happier, to hear from you to tell them, “Hey, we apologise for the delays but things are taking longer than expected and we’ll get back to you soon.”
Let them know if they aren’t successful. This is one of the biggest gripes of almost any candidate out there on the job hunt. If someone isn’t successful, especially if they are unsuccessful after putting in the work to come in for an interview or test, let them know.
Be willing to provide feedback. A lot of candidates will ask for feedback, and it’s OK to give it to them. You don’t need to write a novel, even just a simple two-line email will close the loop and help them understand why they weren’t successful this time around.
6. Failing to market or excite as an employer
This is a huge mistake being made in the current market.
How often have you seen a job advertised that sounds dry and uninteresting? Putting out dry job ads that aren’t geared to market your business to applicants in a compelling way will often have the obvious result - candidates feeling unexcited by the role and, therefore, ignoring it.
Why is this a mistake?
As we’ve mentioned, this is a talent-short market. It’s always safe to assume that you have a lot of competition out there for the few skilled individuals available at a given moment - especially roles where those skills are quite rare.
Even for lower skilled roles where there may be more candidates available, you want to ensure your business captures the best of them.
If your company doesn’t look compelling or exciting, chances are you’ll get fewer applicants. And, those that do apply probably applied for the sake of it, rather than because they are genuinely interested in working with you.
How to fix this mistake
Market your role like a product or service. Think about how to make your adverts compelling and interesting while remaining honest, and without going over the top.
Understand what you have to offer. If you know what your business has to offer and who you are as a company, you can sell yourself on those merits. So, what are your USPs?
Pictures paint a thousand words. Consider this - how can you use visuals and video to showcase what’s great about your company? What are you doing with social media, and could you get it involved?
Need help avoiding these mistakes? We’re here for you
At Openleaf, we understand that recruitment is all about treating people like people. We know how to deliver tailored recruitment experiences including job design, wise hiring decisions, and more. Whether you need help here and there or someone to guide you through the entire process (or handle it on your behalf), we’re here for you.
To find out more about what we can do for your unique needs, get in touch with us today.