The hiring process is usually complex and exhausting as it requires much time and effort. Hiring the wrong person simply increases the cost of a business, whether it is a large-scale business or a small-scale business.
A business is like a puzzle in which everything depends on a person. As in a puzzle, there is a person who thinks and join pieces to be successful in making a puzzle, similarly in business, behind every move, responsibility or operation, it is all about whom you hire. That is why employees are always said to be an important asset of a company. Most companies make mistakes at the time of hiring a new candidate.
Some companies fail to clearly define the responsibility of a post before recruitment while others hire a person with no background check, no in-person interviews, and no consideration over employee referrals. Such companies end up hiring a wrong person at the job. According to a well-known talent development and employee assessment corporation, Caliper, wrong hiring can cost a company up to $20,000 or even higher each year. As small businesses are already short of money, so they have to suffer more if they hire the wrong candidate for the job.
As a service business owner, if you want to improve your hiring process, you must implement an effective hiring strategy. This post highlights six common mistakes that you do not want to make when hiring a new field team member. Let’s dive deep into the post so you can avoid the hiring mistakes and improve the overall hiring process. Let’s get started now.
1. Unclear definition of responsibilities
The most important mistake that businesses do while hiring new employees is the unclear definition of responsibilities. It can be a disastrous mistake for a company because instead of taking advantage of the new employee, they have to spend much time and effort to manage new talent. Moreover, the newly hired person will not be able to get an understanding of his roles and will make bad decisions which will ultimately affect the success of a company.
So, if you want to hire a new field team member for your service business, you should clearly define the roles and responsibilities of a job post. It is better to write down the main duties and responsibilities as well as the skills needed. A clear job description can not only affect your business positively but can also assist the candidate if the job is right for him or not.
2. Creating a Hiring Process that is Long and Cumbersome
It is better to have an image of the best candidate in your mind but waiting too long to get the right candidate may affect your business negatively. If the vacant position is not filled for a long time, there will be more burden on other team members which will affect their morale and decrease the productivity level. Therefore, instead of waiting for the best candidate, hire a person who meets most of the job requirements. Although you have to give a little bit of training to the new field team member, once he is on job, he will pick up the necessary skills required for a job.
3. Posting the job ad on ineffective hiring channels
The next biggest mistake that you must avoid when hiring a new field team member is posting the job ad on all promotion channels. Most companies post their job opening on the same old platforms whether they have been posting for years. As a result, they get the same type and level of people for the job.
Plus, posting the job ad on all promotion channels is also not a good choice at all because not all channels can be relevant to fill your vacant position. For your service business, if you want to hire the right candidate as a field team member, you must post the ads on relevant talent acquisition platforms. Moreover, posting the ad on your business website may also generate good results.
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4. Candidates without references
This mistake should be avoided when hiring new talent in your service business. Do keep in mind that reference checking may give crucial information to you about the candidate. If you depend only on the qualification, education, or work experience that a candidate mentioned in the resume, how you can come to know that the stated information is right or wrong. It is possible that the candidate has overstated his resume information. So, to avoid the harmful effects of the wrong hiring, you need to check for the references.
The referral person is always in a better position to tell the strengths and weaknesses of a candidate. Checking the references may aid you to know about the work ethics of a person along with accomplishments, awards, and duties at a previous job. In short, along with other factors, reference checking may give you a clear picture of whether the selected candidate is suitable for the work or not.
5. Candidates without background checks- Yikes!
Hiring a field team member without considering doing a background check is a common mistake that you must avoid. Acquiring a new person onboard needs proper time and research but one thing that should be kept in mind is the background check. It means checking the educational, financial, employment, or any criminal record of a person.
To avoid the chances of the wrong hiring to affect your business, first, you need to confirm the education, work history (if any), skills, driving records, medical records, bankruptcy, and certifications of a candidate. After that, check for the criminal history, credit history, and court records as well. By doing so, you can avoid unsafe conditions, crime, theft, or fraud.
In short, all these efforts will help you to get to know if there are any red flags that may impact your business in one way or the other.
6. Focusing only on the interview
Most businesses hire a candidate with no in-person interview. This should be avoided as in-person interviews are imperative to get the best person on the job who is suitable for the organization. But at the same time, we cannot deny the fact that businesses focus only on the interview while hiring a new employee at the job. Although conducting an interview may tell you the important traits of a person, relying only on the interviews is not a good idea at all.
It is always better to conduct a test, demo, or exercise to determine whether the candidate can perform well on the job or not. There are many recruitment and skills assessment tools that you can use if you want to conduct effective recruitment.
Final & Last thoughts
The recruitment process is a time-consuming activity but hiring a person without any background and reference checks is a big mistake that should always be avoided. In addition, rather than depending only on the interview process, it is better to opt for some tests to see if a candidate can perform in the work environment or not. So, these are the 6 hiring mistakes that you should avoid in your recruitment process. You can now improve the chances of making good hiring choices if you avoid these mistakes. So, do not wait anymore and avoid wasting your time and money.
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