Recruiting the wrong person can be a costly nightmare so here are some tips to try and avoid making the mistake.
A bad hire is costly. A recent report by the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) found that a poor hire at mid-management level can cost a business more than £132,000.
But you also need to keep in mind the indirect costs created by the fall out. These include a lower team morale, a drop in performance, and the potential finger pointing as to why it went wrong. If you have people leaving, or being fired, after less than three months then this is going to negatively influence your team. Additionally, it takes a lot of time to train and induct a new hire successfully which ultimately if they leave is a complete waste of time. External perception of your company will also be damaged and could negatively affect future recruitment campaigns.
Therefore, what can be done to minimise the risk of a bad hirer.
Interrogate the CV
A poorly written CV is the first warning sign. The CV should provide enough detail to convey the persons skills, but succinct enough to not go into unnecessary detail. Anything different would show a lack of awareness. Spelling and grammatical mistakes are also immediate red flags and indicate immediately that the person may lack attention to detail.
If there are a high number of job moves, then this needs to be investigated further. Be careful not to jump to conclusions as sometimes there are valid reasons behind moves but these need to be fully explained and validated. If there are no valid reasons for the moves, then you might want to question the candidate’s resilience.
Ideally you will want to see a proven track record of internal progression and positive career moves that make sense that validate their performance and work ethic.
Interview warning signs
One of the easiest things to spot is a lack of preparation for the interview. By asking some basic questions about what they know about the interviewer, role, company, or services/products should indicate how much time they have spent preparing for the interview. A lack of preparation will generally show a lack of commitment.
Body language and attitude are also good indicators of their interest in the role. You can’t really hide enthusiasm, and this is displayed by how the candidate is sits and listens to the interviewer. Another thing to look out for is the candidate’s attitude to their current role, and their stated reasons for wanting to leave. Negativity about a current employer is also a potential danger sign and whilst the candidate may not be happy, the candidate should still explain their issues in a positive and constructive way.
The interviewee questions to watch out for
The questions the candidate asks during an interview can be very telling and if they fail to take advantage of this opportunity it should be cause for concern for the interviewer. Where the candidate does ask questions, you ideally don’t want to solely hear questions that focused on “what’s in it for me?” ie employee benefits, salary, holiday allowance, working hours etc. Whilst it is only right that the candidate wants to understand these benefits, the questions need to be balanced and a lack of curiosity about how the role will develop or deliver job satisfaction should cause concerns.
Interviewers should also be wary of candidates who don’t engage fully in conversation. Candidates that are closed or defensive may indicate that a candidate is hiding something or generally inflexible and could affect how they would work in your team.
Indications of good fit
Candidate that are open, engaging and ask the right questions during an interview are the best candidates for the job. Whilst candidates are not there to entertain the interviewer, If the hiring manager is bored by the end of the interview, then it’s usually a bad sign.
It is also important to have a reasonably structured interview where similar questions are asked to ensure their answers can be assessed equally. It’s often not just what the candidates say in either their CV or interview that’s important, but how they say it as this is a good indicator of their attitude and potential and skills can generally be taught.