5 Hiring Pitfalls to Avoid

Hiring Pitfalls to Avoid, OSHA is coming out with a Heat Rule and hiring managers need to read resumes

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The Deputy
June 20, 2024

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In today’s email:

  • Job News:  5 Hiring Pitfalls to Avoid

  • Overheard at coffee: Feeling the Heat? Don’t Wait for OSHA to Save the Day

  • Trending AI Tools: Streamlining Medical Records: Meet Tavrn

  • Hot Jobs: (keep scrolling down ⬇️)

  • Recruiting Fails: Reading the resume is always a good action ❌

Job News

Hiring the right talent is crucial for any organization’s success, but it’s not without its challenges. Even well-intentioned hiring managers can fall into traps that can undermine their efforts and harm candidate relationships. Do your best to NOT make recruiting harder than it needs to be by recognizing these pitfalls. Learning from the mistakes of others can make the difference between a successful hire and a missed opportunity.

Here are The Deputy’s five common hiring behaviors to avoid:

1. Seeking Constant Agreement

Hiring managers often fall into the trap of seeking consensus in every decision to maintain harmony. While this might seem like a way to ensure everyone is on board, it can actually stifle diverse opinions and innovative ideas. Encouraging healthy debates and diverse perspectives during the hiring process can lead to better decisions and a more dynamic team. Remember, it’s through constructive disagreements that the best solutions often emerge.

Limit your interviews to 4 interviews or less before you make a hiring decision. Too many companies think more is better and studies show you reach a point of diminishing returns past 4 interviews and there is no correlation of hiring accuracy past 4 interviews. 

2. Trying to Be Everyone’s Friend

While building a friendly rapport with candidates is important, it’s equally crucial to maintain professional boundaries. Over-familiarity can blur lines and lead to perceptions of bias or favoritism. Keep interactions professional and focused on the candidate’s skills and how they align with the role and company culture. This ensures a fair and objective hiring process and helps in making decisions that are best for the organization.

If you know a candidate very well (i.e., family or friend) - try to remove yourself from the hiring process and find a delegate. 

3. Getting Too Involved

Micromanaging the hiring process can be counterproductive. It’s important to trust your recruitment team and give them the autonomy to do their job. Over-involvement can slow down the process and create a bottleneck. Set clear expectations, provide guidance, and then step back. Trust your team to handle the details, which will empower them and ensure a smoother hiring process.

Our recommendation is that the hiring manager should do the first interview and move the TOP candidates forward but not get involved in the later interviews. Listen to others feedback on your top candidates and calibrate where it’s needed. 

4. Providing Too Much Autonomy

On the flip side, some hiring managers become too detached from the recruitment process. While it’s important not to micromanage, it’s equally vital to stay engaged and provide direction. Regular check-ins, clear communication, and timely feedback are key. This ensures that the recruitment team feels supported and aligned with the company’s hiring goals, leading to better outcomes.

If you are not checking in with your recruiter every week, you are not involved enough. Check-in and offer support. 

5. Overly Shielding Candidates

Transparency is key in the hiring process. Sometimes, in an effort to attract top talent, hiring managers might gloss over potential challenges or negatives about the role or company. However, candidates appreciate honesty and it’s essential for building trust. Being upfront about challenges allows candidates to make informed decisions and sets the foundation for a transparent and trusting relationship from the start.

Do your best to show all parts of the job to the candidate. Give them assignments and ask them to show you their work. Let them know the challenges of the job and see if the candidate is up for the challenge. 

Conclusion

Avoiding these common pitfalls can significantly improve your hiring process and help build stronger, more effective teams. By fostering open communication, maintaining professionalism, balancing involvement, and promoting transparency, you can ensure a more successful and positive hiring experience for both the candidates and your organization.

Hiring is a team sport. Let’s go!

Overheard at coffee ☕️

Summer 2023 was hotter than a jalapeño's armpit, marking Earth's hottest year since Jesus walked on water. As global temperatures soar, protecting workers from heat stress isn't just a good idea—it's a necessity.

Now, don’t hold your breath for the government to ride in on a white horse. Sure, OSHA’s proposed heat rule has finally made it to the White House, but let’s face it, government processes move slower than a sloth in a hammock. While we wait for bureaucracy to catch up, employers need to step up and take action.

Heat isn’t just uncomfortable; it’s dangerous. We’re talking about exacerbated health conditions like asthma, kidney failure, and heart disease. At its worst, heat stress can lead to heat stroke or even death. So, if you care about your team, don’t let them roast like marshmallows in excessive heat.

Next time you’re grumbling about those TPS reports in your cool, air-conditioned office, spare a thought for the guy hammering away at a construction site in 100-degree heat. Suddenly, those reports don’t seem so bad, do they?

Bottom Line. Don’t wait for a heat rule to drop. Be proactive. Look after your team, and keep them safe from the sweltering heat. After all, a happy, healthy worker is a productive worker.

🚀 If you’ve ever had to piece together a chronological medical record, you know it’s a time-consuming and error-prone process. Trust me, I’ve been there, helping compile medical records for employees filing Workers Compensation claims. It's a slog.

Enter Tavrn, the AI-powered game-changer for attorneys dealing with complex medical claims. When cases drag on and documents pile up, things can get messy fast. But Tavrn steps in to create accurate medical chronologies in under an hour. Yes, you heard that right—one hour. Thanks, AI!

Now, if only Tavrn could help me find out when I got my last tetanus shot...

Tavrn promises speed and accuracy, cutting through the chaos of medical records like a hot knife through butter. For attorneys, this means more time to focus on winning cases instead of wading through paperwork.

🔥 Hot Jobs - $1K Referral Fee

Recruiting Fails: We had a hiring manager who wasn’t reading resumes, complaining about candidate quality, and it cost us a great candidate. We did what any great recruiting team would do….we hand-delivered the resume, he read it, and guess what? The candidate aced the interview and got the job.

Moral of the story: Read the resumes before you complain about candidate quality.

Do you have recruiting Fail Stories? Reply with your epic fails – we'll feature them. Own your blunders, embrace vulnerability, and let's all level up together.

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