It’s time once again to take a good look at some of the nasty mistakes we make that ruin our reputations as recruiters. I’ll be the first to admit that this is a painful post to write, but nonetheless, it’s something that if ignored could cost everyone a lot of money and time.
Before I start pointing out mistakes and poor practices, let me interject that everyone recruits differently. While you may be able to conduct a very thorough and effective interview over the telephone, someone else may need to see each and every candidate face-to-face. Your style of recruiting is important to your success. The mistakes I’ll point out are simply the breaking of the fundamental rules of recruiting that make hiring managers cringe at the thought of your recomendations.
 
Let’s take a look at some of those:
 
1. FAILURE TO PRESCREEN:
 
These days, many jobseekers hire out their resume writing to professionals. These people know EXACTLY what you want to see and hear to get their client in for an interview. Sometimes the perfect resume is a huge temptation to just have the candidate come in for the interview. After all, the resume is dead on right?
 
WRONG!
 
The 10-20 minute follow-up call to find out what salary requirements are and ask a few basic skill testers could be the difference in a lot of wasted time by the hiring manager.
 
No matter how tempting, before ANY interview is set, make sure you do a pre-screen.
 
2. GREAT PERSONALITY VS. GREAT SKILLS
 
It’s hard not to be guilty of this common error, because youre in the business of working with people. And most of these people are very likeable, or at least are trying to be to obtain a job.
 
Unfortunately, most companies’ bottom lines aren’t affected by their employees’ personalities, but by their skills and abilities. As a recruiter, you are the one who’s tasked with being the bad guy when it comes to weeding out the candidates who are not MOST qualified for the position regardless of how great they are to be around.
 
3. NOT ENOUGH CANDIDATES
 
Recruiters aren’t paid to make hiring managers “settle”. The job is to bring in top talent no matter what the position is. Recruiting, like almost everything else is a numbers game. When you give the hiring manager a large pool of highly qualified candidates to choose from, you are the superstar of the hour.
 
4. FOCUSING ON THE WRONG SKILLS
 
Your client is in need of several spanish-speaking customer service agents who understand how to use the Internet proficiently. If you spend all your time finding spanish-speakers, only to find out that none of them have any idea how to even turn on a computer, there’s no way they’ll be hired. And if they are, you can bet turnover will be a major issue and will certainly come back to bite you.
 
Be sure to familiarize yourself with the company’s and the position’s needs, and you’ll understand which skills are most important when you’re running tests against the candidates’ skills.
 
5. RELYING ON INTERVIEWS FOR ACCURACY
 
I know you have a sixth sense about these things. That’s what makes you so great at your job. But what if I told you that studies have shown that interviews only increase your chance of choosing the right candidate by a whopping 2%? You’d probably stop spending as much time doing it, right?
 
Think about this: an interviewee is going to say whatever it takes to get the job. It is up to the recruiter to put the jobseekers skills to the test. Questions, aptitude testing, and skill checking will take you much further than having multiple people asking the candidate the same questions over and over.
 
While there are definitely other common mistakes made in recruiting, these are the top 5 that send any hiring manager running for the hills if you commit them too frequently or at the wrong times.
 
So take a look at your practice, and if you see yourself doing any of these things, STOP!