Myths and Misconceptions of the Hiring Process

Most company executives believe they have an effective hiring process in place. In reality, many ineffective hiring practices are used at organizations across the globe. First find out which myths you believe and how much these misconceptions are costing your company.

Three Basic Hiring Myths

1. Companies believe they have a defined hiring process.
2. Companies believe they have realistic expectations of the time it takes to recruit, interview and hire top talent.
3. Companies believe that when a new employee isn’t performing they will terminate them quickly.

The Truth

1. A “defined hiring process” may consist of a place to post job listings, an employee to gather resumes and a manager to conduct the interviews.
2. The authors of Topgrading: How to Hire, Coach and Keep “A” Players recommend companies try to fill every position with A players. Yet most companies continue to hire Bs and Cs. One reason is that some leaders believe it should only take 30-45 days to hire the right person when it can take much longer.
3. Most companies actually spend two-to-eight times longer firing an employee than they spend hiring that person.
   

Most Common Sourcing Myths

1. Companies believe job postings need to “sell” the position and the company.
2. Companies believe that the more applicants who respond to a job opening, the better.
   

The Truth

1. Some companies routinely post job advertisements that sound too good to be true. This is not the way to find serious, committed and loyal employees.
2. Even when using accurate advertising the wrong people show up – in droves. Yet some managers are elated with an onslaught of applicants – even though unqualified.

The biggest problem with this scenario? It costs money to process unqualified applicants.

Three Interviewing Myths

1. Companies believe they have an objective, unbiased interviewing process.
2. Companies believe they interview candidates impartially and don’t focus on personality.
3. Companies believe that interview performance indicates job performance.
   

The Truth

1. They don’t have an objective, repeatable, scalable and assessable interviewing process. Interview training and assessments can help determine a person’s true strengths and weaknesses.
2. Many managers spend too much time bonding with an amiable candidate and ask very few job-pertinent questions. Or the interviewer spends 80 percent of the time talking instead of listening.
3. Many hiring managers end up hiring the wrong person because they like the candidate.

So what should you do?

The hiring process begins with defining the position – which should not be underestimated. Then define the key required knowledge, skills and abilities needed to perform the job effectively.

Next gather and analyze information on the candidates. Typically the more structured information gathered, the better the quality of decision. Include an online application, followed by a resume review, phone screen, assessment, interview, verification and background check. Each step in the process provides a decision point to funnel candidates down to the final selection.

Finally comes verification – ask the right questions.

Don’t ask, “Can I call Bob and ask him about your job performance?” Instead ask, “If I asked Bob what you enjoyed or didn’t enjoy doing, what would he say?” This can have tremendous impact not only on verifying the truthfulness of the answers you receive from the candidate but also on the level of detail from the reference.