Hiring People, Or Seeking to Be Hired: The Pitfalls of the Hiring Process 

It is fitting to discuss the challenging work of finding good people to fill important roles in your organization at the same time we discuss the frustration of job seekers to get the attention they need to land just the right job.  Job seekers are well-served to understand how the other side meets this challenge in order to present themselves well.

There are five critical mistakes organizations make when they are hiring new people:

1. We write a job description that is incomplete, fuzzy, and that focuses only on the transactional items of the work to be done.
2. We fall into the trap of hiring people because they have “direct experience” instead of honoring talent as a selection criterion.
3. We look only at the “usual suspects” – those people who saw the job posting and presented themselves for consideration.
4. After we hire, they forget about the critical importance of onboarding well.
5. We overlook talent right under our noses and fail to grow talent inside our own organizations.

Organizational leaders should take these pitfalls to heart and advance their thinking to avoid them if at all possible.  One strategy that works very effectively is the use of what I call a “job description overlay.”  Essentially, it is a one sheet description of the specific mission of the position,  three to five objectives this position will focus toward over the first three years of their work, specific emotional and behavioral characteristics that would fit best within the work setting and current team, and a set of core competencies the most successful candidate would bring to the team.  This upfront work pays off in being able to truly describe what is desired in the call for applicants.

Job seekers can position themselves well by understanding the pitfalls organizations often fail to avoid.  For example, knowing hiring managers fall for the “experience trap” in their selection processes, job seekers need to frame their experience VERY close to the direct experience elements of the job description.  They can lift themselves up to hiring managers further by addressing the transactional items of the job description.  This encourages hiring managers to work to their bias of “having done the work already, you should be good at it.”

Next week, we will discuss how those hiring and those seeking to be hired can benefit from leveraging their capacity for networking and relationship building.