22nd November 2023 6 MIN READ •Hiring Tips
Everyone makes mistakes, even recruiters. After all, we’re all human. But, when it comes to recruitment, making what might seem to be small recruitment mistakes can be the difference between hiring a great candidate and taking an premature trip back to the job boards.
Here, we’ll take you through the mistakes recruiters make almost on a daily basis and our solution on how to avoid these recruitment pitfalls.
10 common recruitment mistakes and how to avoid them
Life as a recruiter is anything but easy. With so many stages of the recruitment process, it’s easy to forget something as simple as reaching out to a candidate after their initial interview or forgetting to add salary to your job adverts.
But making these simple hiring mistakes could be costing you some pretty great candidates.
To ensure you don’t fall victim to these recruitment mistakes again, we’ll discuss what we think are the most common mistakes recruiters make and share our tips on what you can do to avoid them.
1. Not disclosing pay when advertising your job roles
Do you disclose your salary when advertising your roles? If not, you’re likely missing out on a good amount of top talent. Reed.co.uk discovered that approximately 80% of candidates are less likely to apply for a position if they cannot see the salary.
Not only are you turning away salary-driven candidates with this hiring mistake, but other candidates may assume that you are paying lower than other roles, which could see application rates dwindle even further.
We often see this recruitment mistake when hiring managers are unsure about what salary they should offer for a role. With Talent analytics from Talos ATS, you can take the guesswork out of your hiring and use market insights to determine how you should position your roles.
2. Rushing your hiring decisions
One of the biggest mistakes recruiters make is rushing into hiring without ample time to consider all options. Whether it’s pressure from above or an effort to reduce time to hire, making a rushed hire is neither good for employer nor candidate.
Without assessing all your options, the likelihood is that you’re not going to make the best hiring decision, and bad hires cost time and money. But don’t panic; this recruitment mistake is easy to solve, especially with an applicant tracking system to hand.
With an ATS, hiring managers can track, manage and assess candidates all within one system. Recruiters can even use scorecards throughout the process and during interviews to assess and compare candidates.
3. Hiring based on biases
Although we’d like to think our unconscious biases don’t affect our recruitment, it’s more common than you’d think. In fact, 48% of employers have shared that their bias has influenced previous hiring decisions.
Bias in recruitment isn’t just a hiring mistake; it can really damage your chances of hiring successfully. To resolve this, you first need to identify where bias may be creeping in. Only then can you find a solution.
Are you struggling with bias in your screening process? Try implementing science-based candidate assessments for a more standardised recruitment process. If you’ve identified bias in your interviewing process, experiment with video interviewing or utilise AI-powered interview insights to remove any human bias.
4. Ignoring internal talent
Another recruitment mistake many employers make is overlooking the talent that is right in front of their nose.
Organisations are quick to jump at external talent with the hopes that they will bring a fresh perspective and innovative ideas. But the reality is that the person you’re looking for is likely to be in the business already.
Not only does hiring from within save significant costs, but it could also help with your turnover, with 21% of external hires expected to leave within the first year when compared to internal hires.
To keep your hiring mistakes to a minimum, ensure you run any new roles by your current staff before launching any roles on job boards like LinkedIn and Indeed.
5. Ghosting candidates
As organisations grow, many have been guilty of making the same recruitment mistakes, including ghosting candidates, and it’s pretty clear to see why.
Without the proper hiring technology available, workload increases and hiring managers become overwhelmed, making ghosting one of the frequent mistakes recruiters make.
It may seem like a simple mistake, but ghosting can seriously impact a candidate’s journey, and if they share their negative experience online, your simple error could lead to a poor employer brand reputation.
The solution is simple. Keep your candidates in the know by introducing hiring hiring automation into your hiring process. The best hiring solutions out there are more than capable of automating candidate communications so that no candidate is left in the dark.
6. Underutilised career pages
One of the most important and overlooked tools for recruiters is the careers site. While it’s not necessarily a recruitment mistake to not use a career site, if you do have one and you aren’t using it to attract talent, you’re missing a trick.
There are plenty of benefits of a career site, and it’s a great way to promote your organisation, share key details of the role, and ensure applicants applying for your roles are the right people for your business.
If you’re not using your career site as much as you should, take the time to review your site. Remember, career sites are your opportunity to sell your organisation. Shout about your culture, share some key milestones from the previous year and tell your applicants why they should join your business.
7. Outdated hiring technology
Next on our list of hiring mistakes to avoid is having outdated hiring software. If you’re currently using older software, you know just how clunky and unreliable it can be. One of the worst mistakes recruiters can make is persisting with their systems instead of choosing new hiring software.
The first step to hiring better is to get your hands on a hiring platform you can trust. Advanced hiring software like Talos ATS helps you track and manage your candidates from their application right through to onboarding.
8. Pre-employment checks
Pre-employment checks, including reference checks and right-to-work checks, are crucial for any new role, but many recruiters carry out these checks manually, which can take hours out of your working week.
Instead, to prevent this recruitment mistake, automate your essential pre-employment checks and background screening. Not only will this help save valuable time when recruiting, but it will also help ensure your recruitment compliance.
9. Poorly written job adverts
Job ads are often the first point of contact for your candidates, so they need to be compelling, well-written and share crucial information about your vacant role. One of the most common mistakes recruiters make is rushing their job adverts to get the vacancy live.
Writing good job adverts, and especially the ones that convert, takes time. When job adverts are rushed, recruiters can miss out on valuable information about the role or miss grammar and spelling mistakes.
If you’re pressed for time and want to avoid making hiring mistakes, you can utilise AI tools to write your job advert and job descriptions. Hiring software like Talos ATS can provide generative AI tools to help you write your job ads so you can get your ads out quickly and with confidence.
10. Employee referrals
Underutilising employee referrals is one of the biggest recruitment mistakes hiring managers can make. Around 55% of employers are likely to hire someone based on a recommendation from a work colleague or friend.
Implement an employee referral scheme to help source new talent. Whether it be monetary compensation or additional perks, incentivising your people to find new candidates for vacant roles can help you save on recruitment costs and find the right fit for your organisation quickly.
Introducing…
Eliminate common hiring mistakes with Talos ATS
Avoid costly recruitment mistakes by using comprehensive hiring software that allows you to attract, manage and onboard candidates.
With Talos ATS, you can fill roles quickly and reduce the costs that come with sourcing new candidates. With a number of integrations and features, including integrated background checks and right-to-work checks, you can free up time on recruitment admin and get your new talent through your door quicker.
