The 7 common mistakes employers make when recruiting and hiring

The following are 7 mistakes employers are making when looking to recruit and hire both internally and externally:

1. Relying too heavily on rigid educational and experiential criteria - don't be so black and white!

• HR departments are known for screening out top candidates who do not meet "exact requirements" to the letter. For example, one of our clients has an HR Director who is a stickler. If "7 years" is required for a given job and a strong candidate has merely 5 years 3 months, they are screened out without a thought.
• Or, maybe your firm is part of the exclusive club screening and only taking MBAs from Wharton or Harvard? Perhaps an MBA graduate from Arizona State University, University of Texas, or even Wheaton university may be the best candidate. Open your horizons.

2. Making decisions based primarily on interviews.

• Most socially skilled people can interview well in their sleep. Those who interview best often perform the worst. Conversely, many who stumble on interviews, or who lack polish or visible confidence, may be superstars that just need to be identified and supported a bit to shine.

3. Allowing management's personal bias and need to surround themselves with clones, replicas or 'feel good' types impact selection. Decision makers need to step out of their current comfort zones or restrictive paradigm and image of what a successful candidate looks or acts like. Exceptional talent is diverse, and yes, different.

• I've had a Sr. VP tell me, yes I can understand that this is undoubtedly the best fit candidate, but he just doesn't fit the executive mold here. What??? You can sign him up at Macy's with a wardrobe coahch: we can teach etiquette: we cannot re-hardwire inherent capability.

4. Interviewing or wasting time on non-fit candidates.

5. Conducting cursory reference and background checks.

6. Listening to the advice of head hunters (i.e. External recruiters)

• They can get you people to consider; but then you have to identify the talent. Don't rely heavily on recommendations made by recruiting firms. Many are like car salesmen, Albeit smoother in their communication skills. They sell and earn a commission. We've seen many hiring disasters because of following the advice of recruiters.
• It should be no surprise that recruiters resent what we do for obvious reasons. Many of the candidates they try to push on our clients don't make it in the door for an interview.

7. Using your current (leadership promotional) and succession processes that rely too heavily on ticket punching, political savvy, technical know-how and superficial performance results.

Visit our website to read more on how to prevent these costly mistakes.

www.cdrassessmentgroup.com