5 Hiring Mistakes Small Business Owners Should Avoid

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Avoid the nightmare of having employees who can’t do their jobs.

Key points

• Rushing the hiring process may save you time today, but it can be costly in the long run.
• Always check people’s references and make sure the job description is accurate.
• Make sure your interviewee does the majority of the talking so you can get a good sense of who they are.

Hiring the wrong person for a position can have a big impact on your business, particularly if you have a small team. There’s an understandable temptation to rush the process, but taking on an unsuitable candidate can prove costly, especially if you’re a small business.

Here are five small business hiring mistakes to avoid.

1. Moving too fast

The biggest hiring mistake I ever made was to rush the decision. I publish a small local newspaper and at the beginning, my need to have people who could take on some of the workload overtook the need to get the right people in the right positions. It’s a bit of a vicious cycle. You need to hire staff because you’re drowning in a neverending to-do list. But if you move too quickly, you’ll end up with people who cost you both time and money.

For example:

• You’ll waste the initial cost of hiring, onboarding, and training that person (both time and money).
• Salaries are expensive, particularly if you’re paying someone to do a job they’re not able to do.
• Employees who aren’t performing well can suck up huge amounts of time in additional supervision, training, or correcting their mistakes.
• If you have to let that person go, there are legal steps you need to follow. It isn’t easy to fire someone. Plus, it will cost you even more money.
• Having an employee who doesn’t pull their weight can make a big dent in team morale. If that person is client-facing, it can also hurt your company’s reputation.

There’s a fine line between moving too quickly and getting stuck in analysis paralysis. But in my situation (and speaking with the benefit of hindsight), it would have been better to pay a freelancer to meet our immediate needs and take more time to recruit the right permanent staff.

2. Not checking what candidates tell you

Sadly, people don’t always tell the truth on their resumes and it’s not always easy to spot the exaggerators. Don’t ever skip reference checks, as this can give you a lot of insight into a candidate’s strengths and weaknesses. Similarly, check any educational qualifications they list. If it’s a long time since that person went to college, the qualification itself may not matter. But it’s a good way to check that a seemingly stellar candidate is telling the truth.

3. Not using technology

There’s a whole host of technology out there that can make the hiring process easier. Check out our list of top applicant tracking systems for programs that can streamline your recruitment. You’ll find apps that help you create job postings, put them on social media, filter the applicants, and more. You may need to put in a bit of time to find the right program and get it working, but it is time well spent.

If you are already apped out and don’t want to use hiring software, make sure you use social media — particularly LinkedIn — to cast as wide a net as possible. On that note, it’s also worth asking for internal referrals. Perhaps one of your existing team members knows someone who could be perfect for the role.

4. Unclear job descriptions

You’re not going to find the right person if you’re not clear on what you need. Nail down exactly what that person will do before you even start the hunt. What will their main responsibilities be and what skills or qualifications will they need to carry them out?

This process may seem unnecessary, but drilling down on the job description will help you at every stage of the hiring process. It will mean you get better applicants and can quickly weed out the unsuitable ones. It may also highlight desired qualities, such as empathy or quick thinking, that you can watch out for during an interview.

5. Not getting the most out of the interview

Interviews are your big chance to get to know the person you’ll be working with. Organize a quick phone interview beforehand to fill in any gaps in their application and potentially save time on face-to-face conversations.

I’m a big believer in creating interviews that get the best out of people rather than trying to trip them up. Try to think about open questions that don’t invite a yes or no answer. Give the candidate a space where they can talk. If you do the majority of talking in an interview, it won’t help you make a decision.

I design interview questions with a view to getting a sense of who the person is, how they work, and how flexible they are. Most small businesses change and evolve quickly, so transferable skills are often important. I also pay a lot of attention to the questions the interviewee asks me. These tell you a lot about the person’s understanding of your business, their priorities, and their level of interest in the company they might be working for.

Bottom line

Even if you urgently need to find staff, skipping key steps, such as writing a good job description and checking people’s references, can create bigger problems further down the road. It isn’t always easy to find the right people for your business, but avoiding these hiring mistakes could improve your chances of recruitment success.