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Steer clear of hiring faux pas

Hiring is an extremely important managerial function.

Steer clear of hiring faux pas


Harrish Sairaman

Hiring is an extremely important managerial function. ‘Human’ is the greatest asset to an organisation and thus, managers have to take their hiring function extremely seriously. The success of any organisation ultimately boils down to the caliber of its employees. An organisation that’s growing has an ever-increasing demand for manpower. Such an increase in demand often exerts tremendous amounts of pressure on managers. Managers are tasked with the responsibility of filling in job positions with the right kind of people, at the right time, for the right remuneration packages. In the process, sometimes the pressure gets to them and they end up making a costly mistake. 

In the absence of proper hiring there is a constant disconnect between the recruitment department and the department that holds the hired. Here are the five most common hiring mistakes that under- pressure managers make:

Inability to select the correct source of recruitment

Back in the day managers did not have the option to choose where to place their job openings simply because there weren’t too many sources of recruitment. But now managers have many different sources to choose from. In fact, the challenge is that there are ‘too many’options. Sadly, the proliferation of choices has proven to be an obstacle towards recruitment. Many managers are unable to choose the right source of recruitment to fill the job openings in their organisation. And hence, they often make the wrong choice and are disappointed with the end-result. To correct this mistake, managers need to go back to their textbooks and study the different sources of recruitment — the pros and cons of each — and then, choose correctly. This is not a one time job. A constant discussion with the vendors and their systems and approach is essential. At the end, what is being sourced is the ‘most important resource’ for the oOrganisation. 

Skipping important steps in the recruitment process

The recruitment process is a series of steps that are involved in the recruitment process. It guides managers to go about the entire process chronologically. However, some managers choose to use short-cuts and incorrectly skip some important steps. 

The most skipped step is the ‘telephone interview’ step. By doing so, managers miss out on obtaining crucial information about the candidates that’s needed to give them the job. Instead, managers opt to go with their ‘gut-instinct’ and are left shattered six months later on. 

It’s unwise to skip steps of the recruitment process just to address your own conveniences. Each step has a purpose and is important for some reason or another. Gut feeling and intuition are amazing but these can’t serve as replacements of the   standardised process.

Avoiding technology

Old school managers aren’t receptive to change. And thus, technology, despite all  its efficiencies fails to enter their work life. 

By overlooking technology, managers hurt nobody but themselves and their organisations. The same applies to hiring. Technology can assist managers in speeding up the entire hiring process and increasing its overall efficiency. 

There are many different kinds of hiring technologies available in the market and managers should embrace these tools and integrate these seamlessly in their hiring process to improve its overall efficiency. 

Human beings make mistakes and managers, too, at the end of the day, belong to this race. Making a mistake isn’t all that bad. It’s how one reacts to it and overcomes the challenges posed by it that defines one as a successful manager. 

The process of  hiring is a continuous learning process. Times change, people change, skill sets change, attitude and priorities change, hence the approach, attitude and methodology of hiring and the hiring manager, too, has to be dynamic enough to source and extract the best. While one may not the get the credit if eventually the ‘hired’ performs well, but the reward is the inner feeling of the hiring manager’s contribution to the bigger picture.

Outdated job description

One common problem that most managers face is battling the dynamism that encapsulates a particular job. Job descriptions need to be constantly reviewed before being advertised in order to ensure that the information disseminated  is accurate to the current situation and job role that the company is seeking to fill. Know what it is that you want before looking for people who can give you exactly what the organisation wants. One of the biggest complaints of employees is the contradiction between “What they expected and what they have.” This can be minimised and avoided if there is clarity in expectations. 

Focus on talking rather than listening

A common fault with most recruitment managers is that during the interview process they talk too much. They talk so much that they do not let the prospective candidate speak. Hence, they do not gain anything as such out of the interview. A fruitful interview is the one where the interviewer speaks less and listens more. By doing so, he or she gets to learn a lot more about the candidate than would be otherwise. A candidate is anyways well prepared, asking powerful questions, gauging not only their responses but their approach, mentality has to be assessed. If any person is a good listener, the speaker on a platter offers information beyond the spoken words. 

— The writer is a noted motivational speaker (www.harrishsairaman.com)

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