Hoping to recruit new staff for your company?  Make sure that you don’t make any of these big blunders – they could result in you hiring the wrong person.

Making your job ad sound too demanding

This is a common mistake among companies. If you’ve had bad experience of taking on unreliable staff in the past, you may be eager to wean out the wrong type of applicant by listing the demands in your job ad. However, if your job ad sounds too demanding, it could put off a lot of applicants including those good candidates that you’re trying to attract.

On top of listing the requirements of the job and the ideal qualities that you’re after, you should list some of the benefits of working at your company.

People don’t want to work for a slave-driver and they want to know that there’s something positive in it for them – make your job ad more attractive by showing that your company can be fun and that you can improve their quality of life.

Not casting your net wide enough

When advertising a vacancy, don’t just stick to online job boards. Find creative ways to reach out to more people such as utilising social media, posting an ad in your local newspaper or posting flyers in a key location such as a university campus or a town noticeboard. You could also consider using a recruitment agency to try and headhunt the best talent for you.

Invest in as many methods as you can so that you have a good range of applicants. Remember that if your job is computer or phone based, there’s nothing to stop you taking on remote employees too 😉 -this could allow you to advertise far and wide and not be restricted to applicants within commuting distance.  

Rushing the application process

Never rush the application process – whilst you may be eager to fill a vacancy, this could cause you to miss out on key applicants. Give yourself enough time to read applications and interview applicants, even if you have to give up time outside your usual working hours.

Try to leave the vacancy open for at least a week to allow applications to come through – if you only leave up an ad for a day, you’re not giving people a chance to see it. Some of the best companies may stretch out the recruitment process for months just to ensure that they attract the right candidate.

Not keeping the application process organised

In order to keep on top of the swathe of applications, you need to come up with a clear system of reading them and then filtering people through to the interview stage, as well as any other stages you may have in place. Use an applicant tracking system to do this. There are many types of software available to choose from.

Not sparing time for introductions/training

Don’t assume that you can relax once you’ve hired an applicant – there needs to be a clear introductory period in place. This should be used for training the employee, signing contracts and settling them in. If you throw new employees straight into the deep end, regardless of whether they’ve got experience in the role, many will likely feel neglected. Every company has its own way of doing things and it’s important that you guide new employees through this.

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