How To Avoid Disastrous Hires - Business Quick Magazine

In business, it’s not just about exploiting opportunities. It’s also about avoiding mistakes. More companies go out of business because they get things wrong than firms that succeed in getting things right.

So, what do you need to do to avoid disastrous hires? Here’s a checklist:

What to expect in this article:

Define Your Requirements

The first step is to define what you need so you have a benchmark you can compare candidates against. Everyone involved in the hiring process should be crystal clear on what you expect.

Write a list of the skills and qualities you need. Check this against the people who come along at the interview stage. You want to attract individuals who are a good fit and don’t waste your time.

Record The Interview For Review

Another important thing you’ll want to do is record the interview so people who aren’t there can review it. Even if the person seems impressive in the room, you want to check that their responses make sense.

Things like video clips and transcription services can help with this. Executives can use them to perform quality control and ensure that the right type of person is joining the organization.

Look Beyond The Resumé

You also want to go beyond the resumé. Low-quality employees tend to be quite good at presenting themselves well on paper. However, they struggle when it comes to actual real-world performance. While everything might look great, you can wind up hiring people who simply don’t understand how to add value in the real world.

Furthermore, the resumé rarely tells you anything valuable about their personality. It might seem like they are a solid bet from their SAT scores, but you don’t get an insight into a person’s ability to add value through that alone. You need more probing questions.

Get Feedback From Others

Another tip is to avoid making hiring decisions in a vacuum. You might perceive someone to be friendly, competent, and a cultural fit while someone else might not.

Ideally, get feedback from the people who will work with the new hire. Find out what they think about them and if they believe this individual is a good match. When team members are happy with a new team member, it often offsets any slight productivity disadvantages they have against other candidates.

Structure The Interview

Structuring the interview can also help because it lets you compare candidates fairly. Different formats can make it harder to make apples-to-apples comparisons.

The best approach is to develop a set of interview questions and find out how candidates respond. Writing these down or recording them can help enormously when it comes to decision-making.

Use Your Gut

Finally, if all else fails, use your gut instinct. If a candidate doesn’t feel right to you, pass the role over to someone else. It is much better to be safe than sorry, particularly when a business is on the line.

So, there you have it: some of the ways you can avoid making disastrous hires. Use this information wisely.