3 Critical Hiring Mistakes Companies Are Making Right Now
There’s a lot of pain to be found in companies these days.
- Uncertainty about where the marketplace will go and what that will mean for the company
- Resignations that leave remaining employees with too much to do
- People working remotely who resist returning to the office
- Days spent in meetings, so the “real” work isn’t getting done
And much of that leads to hiring mistakes that companies are making over and over again. Look out for these common (and often hidden) traps when you’re looking for your next great employee:
Mistake No. 1: Hiring for Personality
The person you interview for a position is different than the one who shows up to work. And someone’s ability to perform well in a high-pressured conversation is not an indicator of their future performance on the job. Instead, it’s an indicator that you like their personality. When new hires are selected or prioritized by personality rather than performance or strategy, company culture suffers, and this is damaging to long-term success.
Yes, there needs to be a cultural fit, but that should be a final-stage assessment after the candidate qualifies in every other way. So, if you’re a hiring manager who has been swayed by personality in the past, insulate yourself and protect your company by having your candidates fully vetted by others before you meet them.
By the way, this can take the opposite direction as well. You might not hire someone because you misread their personality in an interview—when actually they would have been a fantastic employee.
Mistake No. 2: Hiring for Politics
Organizations are all somewhat political, but where that’s not kept in check, you’ll find favoritism, people competing for the attention of leaders rather than focusing on their goals, and infighting over resources.
Proximity. Frequently, the decision to hire help relates more to the influence of the person to whom they will report than to the objective needs of the company. For example, Justin, who works in the HQ office and is tight with the CEO, complains about overwork and gets an assistant. Celia, who manages twice Justin’s work volume, heads up a branch office but has never met the CEO. Her requests for help go unheard because she is unseen. Although Justin is content, the branch office is struggling to keep up with the workload, and Celia ultimately resigns to work at a company with more equitably distributed resources.
When there’s lack of clarity about fairness, companies will hire to satisfy people who have a disproportionate share of influence. Then, they’ll balance the budget by being stingy about hiring for others. Not only does this create an imbalance in staff that skews the company’s ability to serve its objectives, but it also creates divisiveness.
Every time the rules are bent for influential personalities, it erodes trust and confidence in the company’s leadership.
Inconsistency Among Roles. When there’s no consistent definition of roles, confusion and conflict are the natural outcomes.
For example, let’s say Department A has openings and the manager writes a persuasive job description and gets it signed off; the resulting job is graded and paid at Level X.
Soon thereafter, Department B’s manager creates a job description for a very similar position, but because English is their second language, the prose is not as sharp or persuasive. So, the job is rated two grades lower than Level X.
It’s harder for Department B to get the help they need, as candidates prefer to work for higher pay in Department A. Bad feelings ensue.
If the roles had been created by a central authority mindful of organizational goals, then both jobs would have been graded appropriately at the same level.
Mistake No 3: Hiring for Pain
When there’s so much pending work that help is urgently needed, it’s tempting to react by hiring new employees to handle the overflow. While this seems logical on the surface, the result can be costly.
It’s non-strategic. The investment in the new person doesn’t serve the company’s natural or long-term goals. So, once the overflow is under control, you have an inflated payroll that prevents you from hiring in other, more strategic areas.
Overqualified and costly. The easiest way to remove overwhelm from a leader is to hire another leader. But that’s an expensive, top-down solution that ultimately inflates payroll at the wrong end of the scale. Often, the overload is actually coming from mushrooming administrative and technical tasks — important, but not director-level duties. By hiring more administrative assistants or technicians, companies can often relieve the stress of leaders at a much lower cost.
Tips for Strategic Hiring:
Buy Some Time – Sometimes you just need an employee ASAP. In today’s gig economy, any company can hire qualified people on a short-term basis for virtually any role; and this buys time needed for a proper assessment of roles and responsibilities — one that aligns with the organization’s longer-term strategies.
Define Roles & Responsibilities – It is hard work to determine what every employee is doing, what they’ll be needed to do in the future, and where the gaps are. But that doesn’t make it any less necessary. Set aside that time to define the organization’s roles and responsibilities in depth and review them every five years or so to ensure they fit within the company’s vision. During periods of evaluation, leave time in your process to listen deeply to staff and learn:
- What everyone does now
- Where time or resources are spent, wasted or duplicated
- Where boundaries no longer support the company’s structure or strategy, and
- What’s missing that could make the organization better
This can be a daunting task – if you’d like to use a free template I’ve created to evaluate roles and responsibilities in a structured way, you can access it here.
If you’re managing thousands of people, you can lean on the expertise of one of the major consulting firms such as Deloitte or KPMG.
Know What Workers Want – One area of expanding division between senior leaders and the broader workforce is organizational structure and related matters – like where and when people work. According to the Future Forum Pulse Report, senior leaders are more comfortable reverting to what worked in the past.
Failing to listen openly and often to the workforce can leave leaders and their reorganization plans in the dust, as we see presently with the Great Resignation. Knowing what workers value will not only help you keep current employees, but also attract new ones.
By steering clear of common mistakes and thinking strategically through your hiring process, you can hopefully avoid the pain associated with hiring. And with prudent, thoughtful alignment of roles and responsibilities, you’ll support your company’s purpose and promote its long-term productivity.
Source: Forbes
Patty Block, President and Founder of The Block Group, established her company to advocate for women-owned businesses, helping them position their companies for strategic growth. From improving cash flow…. to increasing staff productivity…. to scaling for growth, these periods of transition — and so many more — provide both challenges and opportunities. Managed effectively, change can become a productive force for growth. The Block Group harnesses that potential, turning roadblocks into building blocks for women-owned businesses.
