4 Hiring Mistakes Employers Make

Interview Tip

Last week David Sakamoto (Global VP of Customer Success) and I talked about 4 mistakes employers make when hiring.

Here's our 30 minute conversation.

Before we go into what those 4 mistake are, it's important to recognize the impact behind it.

Why is it so important to get interviewing right?

On the candidate side, if you're not interviewing the company back, you're leaving this up to chance.

It can cost you time, money, stress and more.

On the employer side?

Time. Money. Productivity. Prospect/Customer Impact. The list goes on (get's worse if you hire the wrong leader).

The 4 mistakes employers make when hiring?

1. Lack of Clarity
2. Lack of Strategy
3. Lack of Feedback
4. Managing Stress

Let's break each one down.

1. Lack of Clarity

-> You MUST have a detailed and specific job description
-> What are the responsibilities, what skills and qualifications do they need, avoid using internal jargon
-> These aren't just used for hiring, they're used for promotions (original job -> performance -> decision)
-> If you don't have alignment on the job description across all parties internally, this leads to the candidate and hiring panel being confused

2. Lack of Strategy

-> Develop a recruitment plan, who are the right people to interview and help decide on this hire
-> Don't make the process too long (candidate gets exhausted) and don't have too many people, 4-6 (harder to make a decision with more people)
-> Get a blend of people who know how to test/evaluate the actions necessary for this role (leadership, stakeholders, peers)
-> MAKE IT REALLY CLEAR WHAT YOU WANT INTERVIEWERS TO TEST FOR (domain exp, Customer Success skills, technical aptitude, etc.)
-> If your company preaches DE&I as a value, make sure it's reflected in your interview panel/process
-> Ensure your interviewers are trained (How to ask questions, understanding bias, do they know how to give internal/external feedback, what they can't say/ask)

3. Lack of Feedback

-> There are many parts of the process that don't get the feedback they need
-> Hiring manager's need to calibrate with Recruiters on the front end of the process often to ensure the right candidates are coming through
-> Recruiters need to prep candidates, tell candidates who they're meeting with and what they're probably going to ask questions about, no tricks, you want them to perform
-> Interviewers need to give good feedback, during the interview and after (write the summary right after the call so you don't forget)
-> David offers finalists who don't get the role 30 minutes to give feedback and have them ask questions
-> At the end of the day, this is your and your company's brand, whether you hire them or not, they need to have a great candidate experience

4. Managing Stress

-> If you're an interviewer and you see a candidate that comes in a little stressed, take a minute and try to settle them in
-> Even before the interview, you can reduce some stress on the candidate side by sending them materials to help them prep, give them direction
-> Recognize that this is a tough process and there's a lot going on in that person's life, outside of the interview process as well