While it might be tempting to think this way as a manager, the reality is that a recruitment decision is a two way decision. The organisation decides who it wants and the candidate decides if they want to work for the organisation.

So what are 5 mistakes to which you need to be alert when recruiting staff?

Mistake 1: Expecting Candidates To Tick Every Box

When candidates are making a decision about a job opportunity, particularly at a more senior level, they want to know that there is some personal growth and challenge in the role for them. Think about it: if someone comes into a job and can do 98% of it perfectly on day 1, how long are they going to stick around? Be willing to accept that in only very rare circumstances will you find a candidate who perfectly matches your specification.

Mistake 2: Not Selling The Organisation

You will quite happily ask candidates what they know about the organisation and why they want to work there. By the same token good candidates will want to do their own due diligence on the job, the people and the organisation. Expect them to ask you about the good points of working in the organisation and be ready to sell the benefits to them.

Mistake 3: Talking About Failings Of Others

Yes, it is good to be honest and not paint a picture of it all being perfect. At the same time you don’t want to give the impression that every employee is a problem employee. Everyone has areas of strength and areas in need of developing. As a manager you need to accept this.

Mistake 4: Not Having Clarity

In any job there are things that are so key to the job that if the candidate does not have them it is a show stopper. You need to have 100% clarity on any show stoppers in terms of candidate fit.

Mistake 5: Wasting People’s Time

Every single person who turns up for a job interview will more than likely have put in a huge amount of time and effort to prepare. If you are just inviting someone along to get your quota of applicants you are wasting their time and not giving a great impression of yourself or your organisation.

The Bottom Line: Recruiting staff is a major investment decision so treat it as such and avoid these common mistakes.

Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps professional people to become highly effective managers. He invites you to sign up for his free e-course, Management Mastery, at www.goalsandachievements.co.uk.

Tip 1: Know what you have 

Chances are you already have people in post.  What skills, experience, knowledge and attributes do they have?  Truth is few organisations take the time to even consider this.  Instead they jump straight into what they need.  Take the time to review what you currently have as the first step of the process.

Tip 2: Know what you need

In determining what you need, think about what you already have.  You also need to consider what the organisation or team is going to need over the coming years.  You should also be thinking about the overall business strategy and think about recruiting people who will contribute to achieving the strategy.

Tip 3: Provide good candidate briefings

Too often organisations dust down an old job description and send candidate’s one sheet of A4 with company information.  While this is better than nothing ask yourself what would you want to know if you were a potential applicant for the job?

Tip 4: Plan the selection process

Interviews are still by far the most common way of selecting people.  However, it might be worth adding extra activities especially if you are looking for particular skills.  This might be for example a presentation, writing a report, creating a spreadsheet or even a group role play.  Consider the role and the things that the successful candidate will need and use this to inform the best selection process.

Tip 5: If in doubt don’t recruit

This is what I would say is the golden rule of recruitment.  If your intuition is telling you that for some reason a candidate is just not right, then don’t recruit.  It is better to take a little longer to find the right person than appoint someone who only stays a few months.

Bottom Line – Recruiting a member of staff is a major recruitment decision. So what changes do you need to make to achieve more success as a manager when it comes to recruiting?