Hiring the perfect candidate – things to avoid

Hiring the perfect candidate should be easy. First, you advertise the role. Second, you carry out a series of interviews and choose the person who is most suited to the role. You can spend the rest of the day with your feet up. Simple. 

Except, it rarely works out that way. Here’s how it works in the real world. First, you advertise the role. Next, 96 people who have no experience in the field apply for the role and you are left wondering what on earth you wrote in your ad. Then, you approach a recruitment agency as a way of benefitting from their database of candidates. And maybe, just maybe, if you’re lucky, you might just find someone who is more than 70% suited to the role. It’s an absolute minefield. 

Let’s take the example of hiring drivers. These employment opportunities come in temporary and permanent durations, with mostly single jobs and sometimes batches of 10 or more drivers required. The applicants are going to cover a huge range of skills and availability, and you must filter for things like issues with licences and accident history (see truck accident lawyer in New Orleans if you have been affected). It can all get a bit much. In the end, you may start to think about cutting corners. Today, we’re going to look at things to avoid when going off the beaten track to hire staff.

Hire your sister-in-law 

There’s nothing wrong with hiring people that you know. We’re not going to bang the nepotism drum and bemoan the way that certain employment opportunities don’t seem to exist outside of certain circles. It can be a safe and reliable way to ensure that the person is suited to the role. The only problem is that headhunting someone you know rather than hiring someone who has gone out of their way to apply for the role often means that the intent to fulfil the opportunity longterm just isn’t there. Sure, hiring your uncle can be a stop gap, but if they weren’t an applicant through official channels, is their heart really in it?

Being blinded by stereotypes

The world is a very different place to how things were done 20 or 30 years ago. When you think of hiring for a particular role, your mind may automatically fill in some blanks regarding the persona of the person you’re searching for. For example, if you wish to hire a circus leader, you’re going to look for someone who wears a top hat and tails and likes to start most sentences with “roll up, roll up”. That person, sadly, doesn’t exist. Let go of preconceived notions to open up a pool of talent you may have been ignoring.