Hiring Advice

Common errors made by employers in candidate selection

Employers make all sorts of mistakes when selecting candidates for a job, such as inadequate specification of requirements, believing they can “make do” with (cheaper) individuals who have lower levels of skills or experience, internal company politics and many others. Whether the employers’ vacancy is due to someone departing, or a new job being created, employers are often unsure of their needs. This is because few employees work within their job descriptions, often covering a variety of additional tasks and areas, and employers fail to communicate effectively with their workforce.

Employers may know what they want done; but not necessarily the skills and outputs that are required to achieve the outcome. Therefore, it is in the employers’ best interest to spend time on getting a clear job specification. Professional recruitment companies can be of great use to employers as they attract the best candidates, know the skill sets and requisite experience levels, have insight into the market and can assist employers throughout the process. Unfortunately, some employers interfere in the very process which recruitment specialists are adept at. In extreme cases, the resultant employment engagement can be frustrating for both employees and employers.

Another common problem is the employers not investigating the candidate pool appropriately, holding onto unrealistic candidate expectations or an exact replica of the previous employee. An employer needs to be flexible, remembering that people can grow into roles while adding a new dimension for the employers’ benefit.

Employers are occasionally side tracked in the selection process, skipping steps that lead to the employers failing to choose the best candidate for the position. Common errors committed by employers include unstructured or unprofessional interviewing, taking too much notice of the irrelevant, or allowing prejudices to cloud judgement, and failure to conduct follow up checks. Some employers cannot even be persuaded to see the best candidates due to prejudices or preconceived ideas about the candidates.

Another reason why employers pick the wrong candidates is that people like the predictability and comfort of choosing people that are 'like them'. Often people like the job to be done a certain way for no other reason than that is the way they do it or are used to seeing it done. The comfort zone that these employers often revel in is a dangerous place indeed for performance, responsiveness and innovation in business. The best advice for these types of employers is: variety is the spice of life, adding to the richness of the experience!