Hiring mistakes
A TOP SOFTWARE company wanted to hire a project manager for one of its important software projects. Leena was one of the candidates in the race for the job. She was beautiful, well dressed and was confidence personified. The interview panel was totally smitten by her and most of the panellists felt she would prove to be a perfect fit and selected her for the post. Leena was only too happy to be selected and liked the idea of working for a top company. However, on the very first day of her joining, the manager who was to guide Leena in the project discovered she had little or no knowledge or ability to work on that software project. Hiring her was a major faux pas and those who interviewed her had to face the ire of the company head.
The above story is not a stray incident of hiring goof-ups. Companies often commit some common recruitment mistakes only to regret later. The following are some of the common hiring mistakes you come across in the corporate world:
Sometimes, candidates are hired just because the interviewer likes the way they look, act or speak. There was this manager who hired a candidate because he looked like his favourite film star and both had a common friend. Later, the candidate was found to be unqualified for the job.
In another incident, an interviewer was impressed by a candidate's experience that reflected his work proficiency. But, later, the candidate's expertise in one or two aspects was found to be insufficient for the job he was selected for.
References of some candidates sometimes impress the interviewers so much that they hire them without doing a background check.
Interviewers think the work history printed on the résumé is true and accurate and fail to crosscheck before hiring the employee.
Employers find candidates with a long list of degrees after their names impressive. They overlook the fact that degrees cannot replace actual on-field experience.
Sometimes, employers hire people to cope with a sudden overload of work but have no long-range plans on what to do with such employees once the workload declines.
Employers are sometimes ill prepared for interviews and fail to ask the right questions while hiring a candidate for the job. And, even when they select somebody, they do not know what they can or cannot offer the prospective employee.
Interviewers do a wrong assessment of a candidate's personality at the time of interview; this can affect the team chemistry and create interpersonal problems later.
Another common hiring mistake employers make is they expect too much from the prospective employee - long list of qualifications and wide experience. They often end up hiring people who can do a little of everything but are bad in key areas.
Companies inevitably commit at least one of these hiring mistakes when recruiting people and later end up wondering how they could have hired such an unsuitable person for the job. The management gets a jolt when the employees cannot deliver what is expected of them. They feel shattered when they find the supposedly brilliant and highly qualified recruits are a failure when it comes to the actual work.
Hiring the wrong people can prove to be a costly affair for companies because they will have to find a way to get rid of such employees and also start the recruitment process all over again. Companies should try to learn from their earlier hiring mistakes and tread very carefully when it comes to taking new people on board.
HEMA GOPALKRISHNAN
faqs@cnkonline.com
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