BL Magazine

Business
important to address how robust – or not
– the company’s interview process is.
Inexperienced interviewers (who talk more
than they listen), poor communication and
ill-defined requirements make the selection
process little more than a lucky dip.
Lack of information about the
candidate is another common mistake.
Shelley Kendrick, Director at recruitment
company Kendrick Rose, suggests a
‘360 degree’ approach to hiring. She
recommends “getting opinions from old
colleagues who know this person and how
they work, having in-depth meetings”.
Employers need to be more sleuth-like,
to find sources of information beyond
what they’re presented with.
There’s a race on between you (the
employer) and the person who wants the
job – you want to know their weak point;
they want to shield it from view.
However, these preventative measures
aren’t foolproof. Once an employee has
joined a new company, the next task is
retaining them. An onboarding strategy
– the way you bring new recruits into the
Last year, online
shoe retailer Zappos
said bad hires had
cost it about
$100 million over
its lifetime
company – will be key. If the first couple of
months aren’t working out for them – they
may feel sidelined, underused or that
you’ve plain lied to them about the job
– this will slash the enthusiasm of even the
most ambitious hire. A happy employee
will become lacklustre, eyeing the exit.
A good onboarding strategy introduces
the employee to the company, makes them
feel a part of it and sets up a system for any
early worries and concerns to be dealt with
before they become severe irritants.
HONEST AND OPEN
Feeling misled can be a particularly bad
problem, says Pallot, and it will be difficult
for a newcomer to recover from this. If they
feel they’ve been mis-sold a job or culture,
it will create resentment towards the
employer, and each day in the office will
reinforce this feeling.
Employers must be candid in the
interview process, rather than sugarcoating
the role or making presumptions, to avoid
misunderstandings once the candidate has
entered the business, says Pallot.
“A company can give the impression
they are quite relaxed and social, but in
fact are very heads down. That doesn’t
make it a bad culture, but it can quickly
disengage a new employee who wasn’t
expecting it. It’s important that companies
understand what their culture is and
communicate it effectively,” she says.
Probationary periods are a good way of
safeguarding the company against such
situations, but this isn’t necessarily the case.
As Victoria Clohesy, Senior Manager of
Resourcing at RBC Wealth Management,
says: “They aren’t ‘try before you buy’,
but a two-way system for company and
employee to get a sense of each other.”
All the same, if a firm lets someone go
after their probationary period, the damage
has already been done – in reputation,
cost, disruption and wasted time.
A standardised, robust recruitment
strategy and a friendly, informative
onboarding strategy are essential. Beyond
that, there are no silver bullets – every
FIVE FATAL MISTAKES
Poor interview process
The interviewer talks for 40 minutes
about how demanding the role is, leaving
the candidate little time to show what
makes them right for the job. Investing
in interview training or outsourcing to a
professional interviewer can solve this.
Lack of research
Start at the CV but go deeper. Establish
why the role is needed – such as moving
into new markets or selling an established
product – and gather information on
whether the candidate is right for the job.
No onboarding process
A good onboarding process makes a
new employee feel part of something.
Victoria Clohesy, Senior Manager of
Resourcing at RBC Wealth Management,
says: “We go through RBC’s history to
make them feel welcome and give them
shared ownership.”
Negative work experiences
Issues can arise on the job, such as
poor relationships or lack of contact.
Rowlands Recruitment CEO Jeralie Pallot
recommends keeping in touch with
newcomers “from three to six months into
the job” to keep them engaged.
Weak employer brand
A company that hires and fires recklessly
comes across as skittish and demanding.
It won’t attract the strongest candidates
and the recruitment process will drag on
much longer than it needs to, while costs
rise and productivity falls.
employer must act as the situation
demands. Some recommend an objective
approach to interviewing, keeping track
of the details of every mistake made
thereafter; others underline the importance
of talking to potential employees to find
out who they really are. A candidate who
is good at thinking on their feet may not be
up to spec in the workplace. Alternatively,
someone who comes across as antisocial
or unenthusiastic in the interview, could
be perfectly fit for the role.
Nobody can be certain that they will
never make a bad hire. Somewhere along
the line a candidate will misrepresent
themselves or an interviewer will make a
poor judgement call. But a company must
do everything it can to minimise mistakes
in the recruitment process – and avoid that
final awkward conversation. n
JACK FLANAGAN is a freelance
business writer
46 January/february 2016 www.blglobal.co.uk