Avoid these two problem areas when hiring

It’s no secret that having the right staff is a crucial part of a successful business. Yet it is not easy to know how to find the best person to hire.

Brad Remillard, a founding partner of IMPACT Hiring Solutions, has conducted more than 50,000 job interviews and has seen that most businesses, despite recognizing the value of working with top talent, don’t have a dedicated strategy for hiring.

What are some of the biggest problems that result from this? Remillard detailed these two situations:

1. Untrained managers. Remillard said this is the No. 1 reason hiring fails, and that few managers have been trained on how to hire. “Most managers have never even attended one course or read a book on hiring,” he said. “For the few who have had training, it is usually limited to interviewing. Granted, this is better than nothing, but interviewing is only one step in an effective hiring process. If you aren’t finding qualified candidates, this training can only validate the interviewees aren’t qualified.”
2. Poorly defined job. Job descriptions often describe a person rather than a job, Remillard said, and the result is an employee search going wrong before it even begins. The job description lists behaviors but mostly defines a minimally qualified person, not the job. “Is there any wonder why the least-qualified person shows up at your door?” he said. “Instead of defining the least qualified person, start by defining superior performance in the role or the results expected to be achieved once the person is onboard.”

Read two more situations to avoid in Remillard’s Round the Table story

Written by Matt Pais, MDRT Content Specialist