5 Reasons Why You’re Bad at Hiring (and what to do about it!)

It’s no news flash that hiring good talent is tricky. Have you ever wondered why your new hire turned out to be a dud, despite acing the interview? Let’s dive into the cringe-worthy missteps you might be making in the hiring process and how to turn them around for accelerated performance and reduced regrettable turnover.

Five Reasons you’re Bad at Hiring

1. Your job descriptions are unclear
2. Your interview team is burnt out
3. Your hiring managers are misaligned
4. You’re over-inflating the importance of past experience
5. You believe you’re immune to bias

Your Job Description is Speaking Greek

Let’s face it: your job descriptions might as well be in ancient Greek to outsiders. Even if “Senior Node.js Architect” sounds crystal clear to you, it could be a head-scratcher for potential applicants. And please, let’s not mask a truck driver position as a “Logistical Operations Specialist.” That’s just a fancy way of setting up for disappointment. It’s crucial to translate your technical lingo into “Saturday speak” — straightforward, clear, and relatable terms that resonate with the real people you want to attract. 

Try reading your job ad to your roommate or partner and ask them simply if they understand who you’re trying to hire. You can also run your job posting through an AI tool and ask it to simplify your word choice or explain complex descriptions in fewer words.

You Are Burning Out Your Interviewers

Imagine hitting the grocery store on an empty stomach. Sounds like a bad idea, right? You end up with a bunch of stuff you didn’t need and don’t really want by the time you get home (darn you, free samples). The same goes for exhausted interviewers. If your hiring managers are swamped, they’re likely to make hasty, ill-informed decisions out of desperation to fill the vacancy and get out of the train of interview meetings. And let’s face it, after a few interviews, they all start to run together in your memory. In-person interviews should be about quality, not quantity. 

Be realistic about the expectations of your interview team and create a filtering mechanism to weed out low-quality candidates earlier in the application process. Introduce scientifically validated assessments, like the Predictive Index, to pre-screen candidates effectively. This way, you’re only sending top-notch contenders to your interview team, streamlining the process and ensuring a better fit for the role.

You Don’t Have Consensus on what “Good” Looks Like

Ever had one manager rave about a candidate while another totally disagrees? That’s the talent acquisition version of a facepalm moment. If you don’t have consensus on the profile you’re hiring for, you’re stuck at the great divide and talent acquisition gets the short end of the stick (again). The key to avoiding this chaos is alignment. Understanding what truly makes someone excel in a role is crucial. We’re not talking about education or years of experience. In fact, studies have shown that past experience in a prior role is not a good predictor of future performance. So, your ideal profile should be focused on behavior and work style.

Identify which behaviors are truly necessary to achieving high performance in the particular position and set a benchmark to compare candidates to. Utilizing tools like the Predictive Index Job targets can help clarify and unify your team’s vision of the ideal candidate, paving the way for talent optimization.

You’re Focusing on Experience, Neglecting Potential

Obsessing over a candidate’s past experience can blind you to their potential for growth within your organization. Instead of fixating on what they’ve already done, consider how you can help them level up. Yes, skill-based hiring is all the rage, but what development opportunities can your company provide? 

Keep your hiring benchmark focused on behavioral strengths and potential (you read point #3, right?). Consider how you can tailor the onboarding and training process to nurture these rising stars. Remember, hiring is an investment in the future, not just a review of the past.

You Believe You’re Immune to Bias

The hidden hiring hazard: bias. Think you’re immune? Think again. We all have blind spots that can skew our judgment, often without us even realizing it. 

To combat this, strip your evaluation process of subjective elements like names, graduation dates, or even locations on resumes. Embrace tools and assessments like the Predictive Index Behavioral and Cognitive Assessments that focus on candidates’ innate strengths and behaviors, giving you a fairer, more accurate picture of their potential.

Wrapping Up: Hiring, the Right Way

To nail the hiring game, you need to streamline your process: ask the right questions, focus on behaviors over resumes, and ensure your team is interviewing only the best candidates. Remember, the goal is to foster talent optimization, leading to accelerated performance and a happier, more productive workplace.