One area that many businesses fail miserably at all the time is their employment processes. There is a lot of talent out there – much more than you might think – but bad hiring policies and antiquated company cultures are often the causes of that talent fleeing to the competition.

As a business owner, you cannot afford to take your hiring programs with anything less than your full focus. The people you employ can help your business enjoy success greater than you can imagine, but you just have to get it right.

Here are some of the surprising ways that employers can make a complete hash of hiring staff – make sure you don’t do the same for your business.

source

Poorly designed jobs

Far too many employers out there just hire for the sake of it. They have a rough idea of what they want, and instead of designing a role, just fill it with tasks. Employers should not forget that hiring people, is, in fact, a sales process, and if you want to attract sharp, smart, and capable talent, it’s going to take a little work on your behalf. So, stop writing job descriptions as a list of tasks that three people would struggle to do. Instead, put more thought into creating a role that attracts people, and that they can imagine excelling in – and perhaps even enjoying!

Ridiculous job ad promotion

Anyone looking for a job knows exactly where to start their search: on online job sites. The trouble is, hundreds – if not thousands – of other job seekers are looking in the same places. It’s a big problem for employers who think that getting their job ad out there and exposing it to as many people as possible is a winning strategy. It isn’t. The result is that you will end up spending hours, days, and weeks going through hundreds of applications – most of which will be unsuitable. Instead, consider being smarter about your job openings, and target your ideal applicant just like you would an ideal customer.

source

Taking on too much work

As we mentioned above, the hiring process can take up a lot of your time, but the truth is it needn’t be like this. Screening candidates properly is the first step, and this is something you don’t even have to do yourself. Using recruitment agencies can help in the early stages and take away a lot of your hiring workload. According to Portfolio Procurement, agencies can help you target candidates across multiple sectors and with a broad range of category specialisms – which is something you will struggle to do yourself without allotting plenty of time and energy into the process.

Failure to be human

Once you have several candidates lined up, the interview processes can begin. But don’t forget, talented candidates will also be interviewing you – it’s not just a one-way process. If you are just reading questions off a script or asking them inane, cookie-cutter questions that everyone else asks, don’t expect to receive much enthusiasm back. Be human, engage the candidates, and vet and woo them at the same time.