Understandably, there’s plenty of advice out there for candidates on how to make a favourable impression on those who are hiring. It’s equally important, however that hiring managers portray their business’ in a way that’s attractive to candidates if they want to secure top performers who have the potential to add immeasurable value.
Here are some classic mistakes that hiring managers often make.
- They let their own prejudices and personal bias’s cloud their judgment. It’s human nature to like people who are similar to ourselves or who display behaviours that appeal to us. Selecting a person for a job because they display these attributes doesn’t necessarily mean you are hiring the best person available for the job. A competent hiring manager will remove from their decision-making any preconceived ideas they have and assess a candidate objectively against the criteria for the job.
- They forget that candidates are assessing them as a potential employer as much as they are assessing the candidate. Top performers often have a number of opportunities available to them, which means hiring managers have to compete with other organisations to secure their talents. This fact is all too frequently lost on those making hiring decisions and can result in them not doing enough to attractively ‘market’ the opportunity to the candidate.
- In an ideal situation, panel interviews are all held on the same day. If this is not possible then the next best alternative is to hold them within as short a period of time as is practical. Holding interviews over a short period of time helps ensure the first candidate interviewed is not disadvantaged relative to candidates interviewed last, because their performance has faded in the minds of those interviewing. I recall hearing about an interview process where the shortlisted candidates were interviewed over several weeks and felt for the poor candidate who had to go first. As it turned out, half of the candidates withdrew from the process after accepting competing offers due to the drawn-out time-frame – hardly a surprise.
- They allow the results of a selection tool used in the latter stages of the process, such as psychometric testing or reference checks as the deciding factor of whether or not to offer the role to their preferred candidate. Both of these ‘tools’ have validity, but should always be used in conjunction with the parts of the process used to assess a candidate i.e., competency interviewing, presenting to the interview panel, a work sample test etc. If all the other indicators suggest the person is right for the role then this should be balanced against the one indicator that raises a concern.
- Once interviews have concluded, a mistake hiring managers sometimes make is a lack of decisiveness in confirming their preferred candidate. It’s in the interests of everyone for a decision to be reached quickly. This reduces the chances of a competing offer for the preferred candidate coming into play, and just as importantly, allows the unsuccessful candidates to move on and focus on other opportunities.
If your goal as a hiring manager is to hire the best person available to you, which it should be, then recognising that top performers are sought by other organisations and not making the mistakes above will increase your chances of the achieving this.
julian davidson 