14 common mistakes we all do as recruiters
Recruiters are the one who make dreams come true for many people. While applying for the job it’s the recruiter or talent acquisition manager or hiring professional who stays with the candidate in his/her entire journey. They are the one who knows the truth of the candidate’s life with all his personal information, status of the interview, strength, weakness etc.
Therefore if you are into recruitment, you play a very important role in the life of a candidate or an applicant. In my 10 years of experience I may have forgotten my interviewers or the company name but I remember all the recruiters with whom I shared my needs, questions and insecurity. It’s like a small relationship which is made. As people remember talent managers for a very long time, it is very important for them to create a good experience for the applicants which they can take life long.
However there are few mistakes that we all make being in this profile.
1.Working the same way
They use the job portal the same way they have been using for years. Technology keeps on changing and so do the job portals and internal career platforms. Recruiters in today’s time need to keep on upgrading themselves with the latest technology and platform to source the right candidate faster. Many platforms are emerging to be widely used like dribbble, linkedin, Upwork, Indeed, Glassdoor etc.
2. Not using the application manager of career platform
They switch on the email version of applications. Let’s say they post a job for a sales executive, they get hundreds of applications on their email. It is humanly not possible to go through each application. Then selection is done either randomly or the top latest cvs which may be an injustice to the applicants. Therefore it’s important that they use the application manager of the particular job portal. There they can add the filters and shortlist the resume on basic factors like minimum education, industry, experience, location, salary etc.
3. Making the calls monotonous
It becomes a tedious job to call so many candidates on a regular basis and shortlist them when they all answer similarly. But recruiters are also given the same list of questions to be asked so within that limited set of questions recruiters lose their interest after a few calls. It’s important that recruiters should first understand the Job description, vision the role and then analyse who can fit in the best. It’s high time that the companies should give more importance to a recruiter’s decision on referring a candidate as they are the ones who do maximum search and know the market.
4. Giving too much importance to the authority
Sometimes a managerial person makes a bad hire by taking an interview in an off mood. They may select or reject a candidate on irrelevant topics. Many times At the end it’s the recruiter who has to take the blame in case of wrong hire as it was only the manager and the recruiter involved in the process. Therefore a system of 2 to 3 interviews from different perspectives is important to be taken. However the questions type and knowledge to be assessed should be different at every level.
5. Having A long job application form
A long form which is almost a copy of the CV gives a very bad impression on the candidate. I have seen if the company is not a brand and it’s a small startup then in many cases candidates leave just after looking at the long job application form. Therefore it is important to have only the relevant questions on the application form and no repetition information which is already there on their CV. Also in today’s digital world we need to go paperless. It is advisable that the candidate may fill the required information while applying for the job and when coming for the interview the candidate only needs to focus on the interview questions rather than filling up extra forms. Saving precious time for both parties always gives a good impression.
6. Inappropriate job descriptions
I have worked in different industries and observed that Job descriptions made by the management or senior are not proper at all. It is confusing and has 1 or 2 tasks which are irrelevant to the profile and does not contain information like actual experience required, benefits to candidates etc. It is either too short or too long. This happens especially in case of small scale companies. To save cost they do not hire specialists but freshers or inexperienced profiles. Further their expectations from the profile are not clear and they make weird job descriptions. Therefore Recruiters need to be an artist while creating a job description. They should ask the questions from the management and understand the profile first before publishing. This will help them to source the perfect match.
First job description gives a brand image so it should be error free, properly formatted and in order . It should have the specific and relevant points that Candidate should have in his profile. Skills should be properly segregated into primary and secondary. The description should have clarity of job title, qualification, experience, salary range etc. Using headers gives it a readable view.
7. The description having the word – OR, every word matters
When the recruiters post a job where they write executive /manager/ assistant manager and say that the designation does not matter. This just states that the company is confused about the position. They can hire anyone as per their will or mood and they do not have a vision for that position. Vision includes the growth chart of that profile in the company with respect to the level increase, work profile, team size, salary range, job rotation, department segregation etc.
8. Giving less importance to candidate’s time
Recruiters fall prey to the wastage of time which is from the interviewer or the candidate’s side. Therefore rather than wasting time in following up again, recruiters should install calendars which keep on giving regular reminders to both of them. Recruiters being a part of the company still have to act as third person where they have to analyse that the interviewer also needs to be punctual and not waste the time of the candidate. The experience of the candidate should be good at a company. There are sites like glassdoor, mouth shut, quora etc. Where candidates give their candid feedback for their interview experience which acts as negative or positive promotion for the brand.
9. Not Getting back to all the candidates
This may sound tedious but the recruiter should always get back to all the candidates who have been interviewed for the position as per ethical recruitment process. They can use software or an automatic email generator to send the feedback within a day as the candidate has also taken out time from his work to visit the office. 2 to 4 points regarding the reason for rejection not only help the candidate to improve and apply back but also gives a positive experience. In cases when the candidate hears the profile has gone on hold and they never get any further information. Then they search and find out someone is working on the same; it really gives a bad impression as the company has made him/her wait for no reason.
10. Delay in taking feedback from the interviewer
An interviewer judges a person within 20 seconds of talking to him and makes a feedback in his mind. It is important to take the feedback from the interviewer just after taking the interview. A delay of a few hours or a day may change their feedback depending upon various factors or other persons’ review.
11. Not taking Candidate’s feedback
Recruiters can also take feedback from the candidates regarding the interview experience. This will really give good insights to improvise the process and hire fast in future. It should be the job task of the recruiter to analyse the interviewer as well, which is done on a long term basis. For example – a good interviewer can be defined when the candidate that he/she has selected fits the job properly, performs well, does all the tasks which was asked in the interview, has the knowledge and is internally motivated.
12. Too much importance given to 1 factor
While shortlisted a candidate a variety of factors are to be considered by the recruiter as per their weight age. Sometimes a candidate’s CV is rejected on only 1 factor like current location although he may have mentioned his comfort level in relocating. Therefore in these types of scanning it’s better to let the machine do the job.
13. Omitting the Organizational culture information and benefits
It’s not always what kind of candidate the company wants but what benefits the company provides to their employees. This not only attracts a lot of applicants but also gives a glimpse of the organizational culture. There are a lot of positions where hiring managers face confusion by selecting 1 out of 2 or more equally talented people. The break of this is selecting the one who will fit into the organizational culture and values better.
14. Giving importance to background checks
In my personal opinion I feel that background checks have lost their importance. I have seen the recruiters send the same form to all the HR managers of the candidates current company. Many forms are pretty lengthy which HR managers tend to ignore. This leads to putting the candidate on hold and selecting the one whose HR manager has reverted back. Is it right for the candidate to suffer the loss due to non willingness of the concerned person to fill a form? But as HR manager we all have to accept that we may have done it some or the other time. Let me confess, my company was laying off employees on unethical grounds. It was difficult for me to write the truth that the employee has been laid off as it might have taken away his/her new opportunity. On the contrary I could not even say that it’s my company’s fault that they made incorrect job descriptions and wrongly hired people for a department which they don’t even require.
Background checks are important in the following cases like Criminal record, Driving record issues, Absconding history from a job etc.
This kind of information may or may not be available with the current company. Therefore it’s the need of the hour for a recruiter to ask specific questions from the candidates and do the recruitment process right.
