5 Biggest Hiring Mistakes

Recruiting top talent is crucial for the success of any business. However, many organizations make hiring mistakes that can prevent them from finding the best candidates. These recruitment mistakes can be costly: the US Department of Labor estimates that the average cost of a bad hiring decision is at least 30% of the individual’s first-year expected earnings.

In this blog post, we will explore five of the biggest hiring mistakes that could be impacting your bottom line, and how an employee advocacy program can help with recruitment.

Mistake #1: Not Having a Clear Job Description

One of the biggest mistakes companies make is not having a clear job description. According to the Job Description Library, poorly written job descriptions are responsible for reducing application numbers by 52%. 

Without a clear job description, candidates may not fully understand what the job entails, and may not be the best fit for the role. Therefore, a job description should outline the responsibilities, qualifications, and expectations for the position. Make sure every position you post includes: 

• A clear headline
• A summary at the beginning that outlines the company’s mission and values
• A section of responsibilities that outlines the day-to-day activities of the role
• Requirements—e.g., skills and experiences that an employee will need to have to perform well in the role
• An overview of compensation and benefits. 

Once you have better job descriptions, companies should use their employee network to share these updated open roles. An employee advocacy program can help with this by leveraging current employees to share job postings with their networks, providing a detailed and accurate picture of the job to potential candidates.

Mistake #2: Not Leveraging Employee Referrals

Another big mistake that companies make is not leveraging employee referrals to find candidates. Referral candidates take less time to hire, cost less to recruit, and tend to stay with an organization longer than traditional candidates. Likewise, referral candidates tend to be “passive” job seekers, meaning they are a largely untapped pool of talent and bring more to the table than traditional job seekers. An employee referral pipeline can also help you reach more diverse talent—and companies with diverse workforces outcompete their less diverse counterparts across numerous business metrics. 

Some companies implement a formal employee referral program, while others use employee advocacy to help source referrals. An employee advocacy program can encourage current employees to refer their friends and connections for open positions. With a tool like Clearview Social, you can easily post new job descriptions and automatically distribute them to your employees to share on Linkedin, Facebook, and Twitter. This helps you reach passive candidates and simultaneously save on expensive job ads.

Mistake #3: Focusing on Cultural Fit

“Culture fit” has been a measure by which companies evaluate potential candidates since the 1980s. However, culture fit is something of a moving target, and can lead to companies turning down well-qualified candidates for arbitrary reasons. Companies that focus on culture fit today miss out on hiring diverse, skilled professionals who can make the business more innovative, productive, and successful. 

Instead of culture fit, recruiters should focus on finding team members whose values align with the company mission. The Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania reports that this alignment can be determined by interview questions such as:

• “How much of a team player are you?”
• “How detail-oriented are you?”
• “What type of emotions do you tend to display or suppress — anger, fear, love?”

At the top of the hiring funnel, an employee advocacy program can help by activating current employees to share information about the company’s mission and values. This content can resonate with potential candidates and help attract applicants who self-identify with the company’s mission. 

Mistake #4: Not Investing in Employer Branding

Offering competitive salaries and the opportunity for advancement simply isn’t enough to win the attention of today’s workers. Employees are aware that they will spend roughly one-third of their lives at work. Therefore, employees want to be part of a company they are proud of. This is what makes employer branding — which focuses on a company’s values and culture — so valuable.

Employer branding isn’t all that different from traditional branding in the marketing sense. Employer branding refers to the content a company uses to portray itself as an attractive place to work. This content could include anything from a jobs page with videos of happy employees to a word-of-mouth reputation for great perks.

And, a strong employee advocacy program is integral to employer branding. Your employees are the best spokespeople you could hope for when it comes to recruitment. A staff that is so thrilled with their employer that they are motivated to share the positive experience they’re having will go a long way toward building your brand. Clearview Social makes it easy to empower your workforce to share their stories, news about the company, and other great content that makes your brand stand out. 

Mistake #5: Ignoring the Power of Passive Recruiting

Passive recruiting, like employer branding, should be a consistent, regular effort on your company’s behalf. “Passive recruiting involves headhunting and networking on social media, as you won’t always find the best talent on job boards due to the limitations of the platforms and ATS systems,” wrote Forbes. 

Passive recruiting allows recruiters to find candidates who aren’t actively seeking a new job. It’s a process that involves building a relationship with a potential new hire over time. This can involve sending regular messages with company info, wishing them a happy birthday, or sending along a news article of interest to their field. 

And, regularly sharing content is one of the best ways to spark conversation with a potential passive candidate. Clearview Social arms your recruiters and your employees with tons of content to share with passive candidates. With posts tailored for LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter, Clearview Social makes it possible for recruiters to stay in touch with dozens of passive candidates in just a few clicks. 

An employee advocacy program run through Clearview Social can help companies avoid these common hiring mistakes by leveraging the networks of current employees to reach and attract top talent. By encouraging employees to share information about the company, its culture, and its development opportunities, companies can increase the chances of finding the right fit for the role. Additionally, by encouraging referrals, companies can increase the chances of finding high-quality candidates. 

Learn more about Clearview Social and how we can help you build and implement an effective employee advocacy program. Sign up for a free demo today.