5 Strategies for avoiding Recruitment Errors

Recruitment is like a surgical operation; the chance of success or failure is most times a 50:50 affair. But good surgeons understand the science of prognosis and they can always tell the chance of the patient surviving or dying. But good surgeons do not come five for a penny; so do good managers. Many managers just don’t know how to get it perfectly right with recruitments. Most times, candidates who should be high flyers end up as unmitigated disasters and the organisation is suddenly calling for the head of the HR Manager who should have seen it coming in the first place. What strategies should managers put in place to avoid recruitment errors? Here are five:

Understand the Granules of the Job Requirements

Many HR managers do not see recruitments beyond the need to fill a vacancy. The Sales Manager has just resigned and there is a need to recruit someone else. Why did the Sales Manager resign? Were there key performance indicators that the management set that the old guy could not meet? What are the immediate and long goals of the department or the business that the recruit must align with? Many managers usually fail to ask and answer all these questions and to that extent, they usually end up recruiting the right person for the wrong job. Technical understanding of a sector or a product does not translate into skills for the job. Recruitment even for the same role, at different times, may not be one size fits all. Circumstances matter; business conditions matter; even local politics matters. An exceptional relationship manager in Zenith may turn a monumental failure in Guaranty Trust. This error can particularly be damaging for senior and managerial functions; some bucks stop on these desks. The best way to avoid this error is to do circumstantial analysis of every recruitment. Why are we recruiting? To turn around a business? To maintain an existing relationship? To create a new frontier? A detailed understanding of the reason for the recruitment will help in scoping and understanding the right candidate for the job. Not all the candidates that are qualified are qualified.

Don’t get bewildered

Many recruitment panels get carried away with English and theatrics. Really, some candidates are damn good in the use of this technique. They speak in parables and idioms. They use analogies and examples. Once they are recruited, those magics disappear. The best way to beat these candidates is to ask practical questions. Once a candidate begins to show flair for grammar, take him through case studies of situations relating to the job in question. If he is not good enough, he will stutter before the third sentence.

Analyse CVs before Interviews

Many panellists are damn guilty of this; they never have enough time, so they say. Many people on the interview panel probably see or read CV five minutes before interviews. Questions that would have provided leads as per the competence of the candidate would have been missed. For HR Managers, the best way to address this is to do a short questionnaire to all interview panellists, say two days before the interview session, so that they answer some questions on the shortlisted candidates. Tabulate them. What is the strongest point of each candidate? What is the weakest point? Where are we likely to get him right with him? Is any red flag (e.g. age and time of leaving secondary school not making sense)?

Search for Vested Interests

Some recruitments are bound to fail right from the word go. They are destined to be so because the outcome has been pre-determined before the event actually holds. One of the candidates is either MD’s cousin or Chairman’s sister or a friend to the head of the interview panel. So, he or she is not grilled the way others are. Everything is programmed to ensure that he wins. And then on assumption of duties, he begins to falter. Good HR Managers know how to raise the flag in a situation like this to avoid disasters. They either ask each candidate how they got to know about this job opportunity or they ask the Interview Panel or Management if there is anyone among the candidate you introduced. If any of the candidate is coming from a top management staff or say customer or shareholder whose interest is too substantial to ignore, they approach the person concerned to understand expectations. Sir, is the candidate someone you would like us to employ, even if…? Do you mind if we give him another role if panellists do not find him suitable for this particular role? Is there any other way to satisfy this big interest without this employment?

Communicate expectations to prospective employees

Write shortlisted candidates and tell them this what your organisation wants to use this recruitment to achieve. We want to displace PZ from this market; we want to raise deposit to N1 billion; we want to make N500 million in the first three years. It is always better for prospective employees to have an idea of a mountain that they are coming to climb than for them to come and meet a surprise. However, give them an idea of the perks involved. Also, share with them the resources that are available. Many organisations send people to the farm without giving them the hoes.

Don’t get carried away with high profile experiences

Some candidates sell themselves with their experiences in Shell, Unilever and Guaranty Trust. Many panellists, especially in small and medium sized organisations also usually get star-struck, forgetting that past lives in Guinness or ExxonMobil may not necessarily deliver the results in the universe where they are operating.

Multinational or large corporate experiences usually serve as an advantage but whether they count for much or not is a function of the circumstances or that role, particularly. So, when next you are looking for that candidate, ask yourself: do you need a Shell experience or an SME specialist who knows how to get things done in a small market with umbrella-size sheds and stores.

Do background checks

Good recruitment is not the stuff of lazy managers. For you to get it right, it must go beyond the spur-of-the-moment. At the point of recruitment, it helps to do background checks. If the HR manager knows someone in the candidate’s former places of work, some checks may help. Technology has made some of these things easy. The HR manager may even look at LinkedIn or Facebook to profile the candidates’ posts and comments. Who are his friends? How does he react to issues?

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