The Art of Hiring Smart: Costly Mistake #2
The second biggest and most costly hiring mistake is not investing the time, money and energy to develop a disciplined recruiting process. As well, this process must be communicated, practiced, and trained consistently so that everyone in the organization is on the same page.
Let's face, employees get training for a wide variety of job functions. Sales, accounting, shipping, receiving, marketing, HR, etc. So where's the beef when it comes to training for hiring? Budgets and line items for such probably exist more at the Fortune 1000 level than Joe Shoe Repair down the street. (By the way, where have all the good cobblers gone. I gotta drive a ways to find one anymore and they're barely hanging on by a thread due to their new rent. How I digress.) Most small businesses don't take the art of hiring seriously enough.
So what about all the companies that operate without a well planned hiring and recruiting process? If finding and hiring great people, those who really make a contribution to any business, is the biggest issue most companies face, why don't owners and leaders take the discipline more seriously? Why not commit to a well-designed hiring and recruiting program? Happens all the time.
If you own a company or hire people and your living depends on their success or failure, please get some training. Read some books. Take a seminar. Hire a coach. Or hire a great recruiter if you can afford one. (The good ones are worth their weight in gold. They'll find candidates you'd never have a prayer of finding.) Make it a priority to get good at recruiting.
If you're the owner of the business or lead a team of people who hire and fire, get everyone on the same page. From defining the performance objectives to placing the ad. From conducting the search to sourcing candidates. From sourcing to qualifying and screening. From screening to interviewing. From interviewing to background and reference checks. From offer to acceptance. From acceptance to "on boarding" as I like to call it. This in essence is the process. Detail one for your company or team.
If you think about the costs of lazy or stupid hiring mistakes, companies can't really afford not to invest the time, money and energy necessary to getting the recruiting and hiring process nailed down. I often tell clients, that if they're not, the need to "always be recruiting. (ABR) And I tell every client they have a choice when it comes to beefing up their hiring. Pay my team to do it or do it yourself using our proven system. Either way, use a system.
So to all the business owners and hiring managers who blow this off, get smart and about the art of hiring smart. It may prove to be one of the best investments you ever make.
Cliff Jones
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