Why Companies Hire the Wrong People

We’ve been writing for months about the exorbitant costs of making a bad hire, but now I want to show you exactly why so many companies hire the wrong candidate, passing over far superior choices without even giving them an interview. But, more importantly, I’ll give you a few hints on what you can do about it right now.

Computers and Glances

In today’s electronic hiring environment, many companies rely heavily on computers to select candidates. Before any candidates are considered for a job opening, their resumes are scanned through an inefficient applicant tracking system. This system looks for given keywords and their frequency within the document. If a resume is carefully crafted with target keywords, it will be flagged by the system and sent to a generalist in human resources who has little or no formal training in the field of hire.

That generalist will give the resume a quick glance — and I do mean quick — and either pass it to the next step or reject it. In his recent blog post, “Study in laziness—Six seconds looking at a resume isn’t good enough” on Linkedin, Paul Wallis, CEO, Sydney Media Services.com, makes the great argument that companies are wasting billions of dollars on ineffective processes that don’t select the ideal candidates that companies are looking for.

This means the very best candidates may never even get past the computer, and never be considered for the job.

Finding the Perfect Fit

While we don’t see the entire business world scrapping current hiring methods overnight, there are reasonable steps you can take that can help you yield the best candidate for the job:

• Remember: you’re trading in people, not pencils. Keep the human factor in your process.
• Commit to hiring skilled people to analyze the resumes coming into your system, or partner with a recruiting/staffing agency and let them review your online screening tools and resumes.
• Train your generalists to become specialists in the specific positions for which they are recruiting.
• Use your applicant tracking system as a tool, not a solution. Review the reports, but remember that some of the top candidates could be passive applicants. Create a passive candidate recruiting program, or partner with an agency to take on that responsibility.

Don't Be Afraid to Ask for Help

If you have unique, niche positions to fill, try screening your recruiting team or your agency partners to be sure they have handled that type of position in the past before you begin recruiting. If they haven’t, find a firm that can help you with specialized positions.

Recruiting in today’s world should be a “multiple choice” program versus a “one size fits all” program. It’s worth the up-front costs of hiring experts to avoid the cost of a bad hire.