Top 10 Mistakes in HR Management: Mistake #3

Mis­take #3: Hir­ing the Wrong People

An old adage has it that manager’s make up their mind about a can­di­date within the first 30 sec­onds of the inter­view.  This may have some truth to it, but ‘hir­ing by feel” is plain wrong.   Sub­jec­tive impres­sions do not work.  Many man­agers ‘wing it’, sans a plan or any train­ing.  The major­ity of hir­ing man­agers we talk to in well known orga­ni­za­tions (with HR depart­ments) have never had a brief­ing on Human Rights and Interviewing.

Our advice:  Know the job you are hir­ing for.  Know the organization’s require­ments.  Cre­ate an Employee Refer­ral Pro­gram.  Hire for atti­tude, not just apti­tude.  Learn behav­ioural inter­view­ing tech­niques.  Know your human rights oblig­a­tions.  Use semi-structured inter­view­ing guides.  Be hon­est about the work envi­ron­ment and expec­ta­tions.  Involve oth­ers in the process.  Con­duct effec­tive ref­er­ence checks.  Watch out for infat­u­a­tion.  Don’t hire out of lazi­ness or desperation.