Have you ever been in the situation where, even though something was telling you not to, you hired someone only to regret it a few months later? You wish you had listened to your instincts. Many people forget to pay attention to the subtle warning signs, either from a bad feeling to a weak candidate pool, when recruiting new employees. If you’re a seasoned professional in your industry, sometimes you can sense when someone is either right or wrong for the job based on a gut feeling.
However, while those feelings are valid, you’ll also want to take notice of other, more tangible cues. Read on to discover signs that indicate you’re about to make the wrong hiring decision.
The Team Isn’t In Full Agreement Over Job Requirements
A big red flag that you should never ignore when hiring is when there’s internal disagreement over the position in question’s requirements. If you create a position description and move on to hiring people with unfinished or partially-agreed upon job responsibilities, finding the right candidate will be a challenge. It would help if you had a clear and concise description of duties so everyone is on the same page and knows what to expect from the potential employee.
Consider creating a document of one-year position goals with the entire team. That way, everyone will have a clear understanding of the role’s objective and needs and how the hired person will successfully engage with team members with an end-goal in sight.
The Candidate Isn’t Clear On Why They Want the Job
You’ve finally narrowed the list down to one person based on an excellent resume, references, and a stellar interview. But you’re not entirely in agreement with their answer to the question, “why do you want to work for this company.” Any answer that doesn’t reflect an enthusiasm to do the actual work and why and how they’d like to move forward with the company in later years is a bad sign. It could indicate that they’re more excited about the salary than the work itself. If you feel uneasy about a candidate, even if they look great on paper, you might want to tune in to what your gut is telling you.
A Poor Candidate Turn Out
Is there a lack of applicants? Or, are top candidates dropping out early during the recruitment process? A weak candidate pool, either in quantity or quality, is a sign that you may need to review your hiring process. You might be missing out on top talent. Perhaps the job description wasn’t enticing enough or didn’t thoroughly expand upon the required tasks. Or, maybe you didn’t send the posting to the right employment sites.
Consider consulting with the executive search team at IQ PARTNERS who will help you create a more effective hiring process. They’ll avoid hiring errors because they pull candidates from exclusive recruitment pools. You won’t have to worry about posting the job description because they’ll source talent for you.
Every organization makes hiring mistakes sometimes. But if you pay attention to the warning signs, you can avoid them.
