There are some common mistakes employers make when recruiting – we thought we’d point out a few for you to have a think about:
- Advertising in the same place – every time you recruit. For a few, it works, but others need to find ways of reaching a different and larger audience of potential candidates.
- Online recruitment, on both job boards and across social media, has now become the most effective way of finding candidates for most employers, and gives recruiters the opportunity to attract people who might not have been on the lookout for a career move until they see a new opportunity in their news feed. On that note, it can always be useful to use different job boards too - your ideal candidate might not be a fan of the one you use.
- Not involving the right people in the selection process. Making sure the right managers / colleagues / team members are involved can help recruit someone with the right personality, as well as skills. This can make a real difference to a working environment and depending on the industry can help to recruit the right people for upholding the company culture.
- Looking for someone who has done exactly the same job for a different employer. This can potentially mean you’re restricting your candidate pool to people who might not be ambitious or keen on their own development. They don’t actually have to have done the exact same job to be useful and they may have wanted to try a different working environment. Being able to adjust your person specification a little to include relevant skills rather than just experience in the same job at a different company.
- Too many ‘essential’ bullet points in your person specification – this has the effect of excluding people who are very quick to learn, could easily grasp new tasks and could be a real asset to your company. Sometimes having too many “essentials” makes it harder to find the right person, not easier so it should be possible to drop a few of those from the clipboard and place a little more emphasis on how their brain works.
- And finally, asking for qualifications which don’t necessarily enhance someone’s ability to do the job. Many recruiters ask for ‘recent graduates’ or specify that candidates ‘must have a degree’ which again can exclude people who could do a great job, without having felt the need to attend University. One of the most ridiculous requirements for many people is the need to have attended and passed University level courses for some of the jobs that they are applying for. It can seem insulting to suggest that someone has a lower level of ability if they haven’t got a university education behind them. There is sometimes an arrogance that comes with the assumption that people who have had the privilege of being born into a family where it was assumed that they would go to University, vs being born into a family where nobody ever had before.