As someone who has built and led many different teams over the last almost twenty years, I’ve hired many people. While most have been good hires, a few really bad hires come to mind. The bad ones always stand out, and it causes me to regret making some of these choices. Without getting specific about anyone in particular, here are my top biggest regrets regarding hiring over my career. In helping support other leaders and business owners, I know these are shared regrets experienced, too. Learn from these mistakes.
Hiring Regret #1 – Compromising
Compromising to fill a role (Just because someone breathes doesn’t mean you should hire them). I’ve learned this mistake the hard way, hiring roles out of desperation, only to regret it. Then, the person either doesn’t have the experience needed or, worse, they are a pain to manage.
Hiring Regret #2 – Cheaping Out
Cheaping out on talent (even a slight change of $5k can make a world of difference in the caliber of the candidate). One of the worst hires I ever made was choosing a person because they cost a bit less. I cared more about the budget than the value someone would bring. Had I been willing to spend more, the candidate I thought was much stronger would have been hired. I would have avoided a ton of drama and unnecessary work dealing with a subpar employee.
Hiring Regret #3 – Hiring The First Applicant
They are hiring the first person who applied (just because they were the first person doesn’t mean they are the best person for the role). I see this mistake made way too often with solopreneurs who are excited at the prospect of hiring. The first person they interview, they fall in love with and hire. Sometimes, more often than not, they need to fire the person shortly after that as they realize they made a huge mistake.
Hiring Regret #4 – Not Probing Enough
Not diving deep enough to probe into irregularities (isn’t it odd how they never lasted at one place more than a year?) Sadly, I was interviewing for a critical role at one point in my career and was getting fatigued with back-to-back candidates. I stopped probing as much as I needed to, failing to connect the dots that someone bounced around a lot over 10+ years. The claim was that it was all contract work. I failed to probe deeper, and it wasn’t until this person was hired that I realized it was probably short stints because the person was a nightmare to work with. The lesson here, probe into irregularities.
Hiring Regret #5 – Do It All Alone
Not working with an expert to find the right person (don’t do it alone if you don’t know what you are doing, that’s why we’re here!) When you work with my team and me at Hire4Me Inc, you get the following support on the hiring side:
- The job posting, social media assets, and more to announce you’re hiring are all done for you.
- We proactively hunt for the right talent you need
- Screen and interview relevant candidates and if applicable, put them through personality assessments to determine if they are the right fit for you.
- As part of the initial intake process, we can negotiate the terms of employment (or give you recommendations based on your specific business needs)
- Competing recruitment agencies charge between 15-25% of first-year salary, which incentivizes them to work to get higher compensation for the employee. We work for the business owner, offering flat-rate pricing depending on the complexity of the position.
- With the average recruitment cycle being 46 days, we aim to fill our roles for most positions within 30-45 days.
Connect with us today for additional support with onboarding and keeping your employees.
