Having the right team of people working in a business is one of the most important aspects of a successful firm. As such, it’s vital that when you need to hire new workers, you do so carefully and take your time to choose the right person, the first time.
After all, having to replace employees who didn’t work out or who end up quitting early on is incredibly costly, not just financially, but also when it comes to time, energy, and the overall team morale. To ensure that you round out your workforce with the best people then, and avoid these problems, read on for some of the most common hiring mistakes business owners make.
Too Narrow in Their Search
For starters, many entrepreneurs make the mistake of being too narrow in their search for employees. When putting together their teams, people often sub-consciously look for people who are like them, or the workers they already have on board and value highly.
However, it’s important for businesses to have a diversified workforce, made up of a wide range of people from different backgrounds and cultures. Look for diversity when it comes to ages, gender, experience, education, and more. The more varied a team you have, the more you will attract a broader group of people over time, too.
Having a diversified workforce means you get new and different ideas and opinions into your business. This will help your organization to keep progressing and growing in a healthy way. With assorted perspectives you’re more likely to enjoy innovation. This, in turn, leads to more creative products and services, solutions to problems, and cost-cutting ideas.
By being broader in your search, you will also be better able to surround yourself with a group of people who have complimentary, rather than matching, skills. Because there are all sorts of different tasks needing to be handled in business, you need people with different abilities, experience, and qualifications to complete them. If everyone has strengths in the same area, your business will flounder.
When you search for new team members then, don’t lock yourself into looking for a particular type of person, or someone only with the same kind of background as you. As you read resumes, think about how the training and experience candidates have had may be helpful in your business.
For example, someone who has studied social work in the past, such as via online MSW programs or the like, might make for the perfect HR manager, or head up a customer service team really well. Alternatively, a candidate who has a teaching background could be just what you need in a training facilitator; while someone who has traveled all over the globe might do exceedingly well in sales since they could communicate effectively with clients from disparate cultures.
To hire more diversely, make sure you try all sorts of different advertising avenues too, such as various social media sites, magazines, newspapers, blogs, business associations, events, word of mouth, and more. This will help get news of the job availability spread around, so you will attract a more diverse range of candidates.
Not Considering the Fit with Company Culture
Another mistake many employers make when hiring is not considering how the personalities of different people will mesh together. Although you want diverse candidates when it comes to backgrounds, skills, training and the like, when choosing a new team member, you do want to find someone who has similar values to the rest of the staff and yourself.
As well, to have a cohesive team with high morale, look for people who seem to have a positive outlook. You don’t want negative “downers” who regularly complain or have a victim mentality. There will be other things, too, which are particular to your company culture, which you need to be on the lookout for when hiring. To help you make the best decision, it often pays to have one or two other long-term employees sit in on interviews so that you can get their opinion on who might fit in well.
Not Being Clear About the Realities and Requirements of the Role
Some entrepreneurs make the mistake of not being clear about the realities and requirements of the roles they need to fill. Your advertisements should be open and transparent about what the person who gets the job will need to handle, such as things like work outside of normal business hours, or regular travel. Don’t make it seem like there will be perks or benefits that aren’t true, either.
In interviews, ask candidates questions to see if they seem to understand what the job will entail. This will help ensure you don’t hire someone who won’t be able to cope with the work, or who will quit because their expectations weren’t lived up to.
