In our last post on this topic we discussed reason #1 your hiring may end in abysmal failure: hiring out of pain and overwhelm instead of filling a specific need.
In this post we’ll share reason #2 your attempts at hiring a new staff member may fail. It’s very simply a lack of process and time. In a moment of frustration or overwhelm, you place an employment ad. Now what?
It sounds simplistic, but considering that your next three days are back-to-back with meetings, work you promised would be completed, phone calls to return and emergencies that will inevitably pop up, it could easily be a week before you even have time to start sorting through the flood of resumes you receive.
When you do find some spare time, often at home when you would rather be spending time with your family, you start reviewing resumes from a “mood view.” This means you delete some, keep some, aren’t sure about some, then eventually get frustrated and shut down the computer. Unqualified candidates slip through and good candidates are inevitably deleted. Welcome to “the process.” And what is already a time-consuming, frustrating ordeal for you is made worse by failing to produce valuable, dependable results.
Most important, once you get around to contacting candidates, a week or more has probably passed. The best of the best have already received job offers and are unavailable. At the very least, they have interviews lined up that will occur before they can meet with you, which will likely result in them receiving and accepting a job offer prior to your ever getting an interview.
Your hiring process should be just that – a process – predetermined, with consistent standards and steps. It should be designed to weed out not just the unqualified candidates, but the ones who are great (overqualified), but who aren’t a fit for your position. And the process should be streamlined and move candidates through quickly.
So, before you ever place an ad, make sure you have a process in place that will spell out what to do next, and schedule time on your calendar to handle the next steps.
If you are trying to hire a new team member but don’t have a solid process in place, consider our Smart Hire Solution™ and let us be your virtual hiring team. We handle guiding you through clarifying what you are hiring for; crafting and placing an ad that attracts qualified candidates and weeds out unqualified ones; receiving and reviewing resumes in a systematic, consistent, timely fashion; conducting phone interviews to further qualify candidates; and assisting you with a decision after your face-to-face interviews. Give us a shout if we can be of service.
Don’t miss the last FREE webinar in 2013, “Essentials to hire, empower and keep great employees” on Tuesday, December 3rd from 5-6pm ET. Click here to register.
Champions of your continued success,
Molly and Laney
