To prevent your business from making any bad hires, it is important to ensure that you have an effective hiring process in place. To ensure that you can hire the best person for the job, you must try to avoid making these common hiring mistakes:

Rushing The Process

When your business is short-staffed, you might feel pressured to find a replacement quickly. However, don’t feel like you have to cut corners and rush through the hiring process. According to human resources experts, businesses need at least six weeks to find and evaluate suitable candidates. So, be sure to take your time to properly vet applicants.  

After deciding on the final candidates, it is common for employers and HR managers to want to get straight to hiring. So, they will tend to rush the reference checks, and may only speak with just one of the candidate’s former managers. It is important to take your time while checking references. Speak to several former co-workers at several former places of employment. This will provide you with a comprehensive look at the candidate’s personality, work ethic and skills.

Not Pre-screening Candidates 

Some employers tend to schedule interviews after picking out a few impressive resumes. This can help to save time in the hiring process, but it eliminates pre-screening. This is a valuable part of the process that lets you know who is worth calling in for an interview.

Making a phone call to potential candidates will help you get a feel for their personality and allows you to determine if they are suitable for the position. Paying attention to their tone of voice and how enthusiastic they sound about the job will give you valuable insight into whether or not the person is right for the job.

Pre-screening actually saves time in the long run. You can weed out unsuitable candidates with a 20-minute phone call and some research, before inviting them in for an interview.

Not Testing Candidates

It can be an expensive mistake if you find out after hiring someone that they cannot perform a particular task or that they do not have a necessary skill. This is why it is important to evaluate your candidates’ skills before deciding on a final hire. You can ask them to perform a test during the interview or send them home with a test project that they can complete over the next couple of days. This will let you know if they are truly capable of being a valuable member of your team.

Going Solo

In many cases, the hiring process is completed by one person. It is usually someone who is high-up in the company, like the managing director or the human resources manager. However, it is crucial for several members of the team to weigh in on the potential candidates. Key team members can provide you with a new perspective about the candidates themselves, as well as whether or not they would be a good fit for the job and your particular office environment.