Finding the right employees/plan and prepare

Hiring decisions are among the most important decisions you will make as a manager. To add to the complexity, these hiring decisions are highly visible. Your bosses and peers assess you in part by the quality of the people who work for you. Arguably the success of the people you hire, determine how successful you are as a manager.
Additionally, when you hire the wrong person for the job, the costs to your employer are significant. Studies show that the real cost of a hiring mistake is between two and four times the person's salary. This means that hiring the wrong person into a job could be as much as a six-figure mistake.
Hiring the right people is essential if you are going to succeed as a manager. And, while hiring mistakes can never be completely avoided, understanding how they happen lowers your risk. I have worked in the recruitment field for almost twenty years. Based on this experience, here is my list of the eight most common errors managers make when interviewing and selecting candidates:
1. Not defining the job clearly
Many employers will start the interview process without clearly defining the job duties and the requirements needed to succeed in the job. It seems pretty evident to me that if you do not know what you are looking for, the risk of hiring the wrong person is high.
A thorough job description should identify duties and responsibilities, reporting relationships, academic or professional qualifications, technical skills and personal qualities, such as interpersonal skills. A well-written document will help you develop systematic interview questions that assess an applicant's suitability for the job.
2. Stereotyping
Each of us is guilty of stereotyping to one degree or another. While interviewing, you may stereotype based on appearance, background, or personal circumstances. For example, I've overheard employers make these observations:
He played football in university; he must be aggressive.
All of her personal interests, outside of work, are individual activities therefore she must not be a team player.
He's wearing casual clothing; he's probably too laid-back for our company.
She has three children; there's no way she can work overtime.
When you make assumptions like these, you're potentially overlooking well-qualified candidates, as well as running the risk of being accused of discrimination. Be careful to assess each candidate only on their qualifications and experience relative to the job requirements.
3. Forming first impressions
How many times have you heard an interviewer state, "I knew in the first minute of the interview that she was the candidate we had been looking for"? Probably all too often.
Like assumptions made when you stereotype, first impressions can also lead you down the wrong path. Several factors cause you to form first impressions in interviews including the greeting, the handshake, the candidate's manner of dress or appearance, or "small talk" between you and the candidate at the beginning of the interview.
Research does confirm that a decision about a candidate's suitability is often made in the early stages of the interview. But this can be dangerous. What happens is that you then tend to seek out evidence that proves you to be correct. You unknowingly ask questions and search for answers that support your initial impression. For example, if you feel a candidate is disorganized because of appearance or because they're five minutes late for the interview, you tend to elicit information from them that proves this to be valid. Often, the candidate doesn't have a fighting chance.
As an interviewer, you should seek out both positive and negative information and wait until you have completed the interview before making a decision.
4. Not preparing interview questions in advance
If you "wing it" by not preparing questions in advance, you will probably leave the interview without the information you need to make an informed hiring decision. Effective interviewers always prepare questions ahead of time that seek out relevant job-related data about the candidate. Reviewing the position requirements and creating questions from that list is a good way to prepare. And, because you are asking the same questions of all candidates, you are able to compare candidates with each other easily.
Likewise, you should record all the candidates' answers. There's a belief that if you take notes during the interview, you'll leave the impression that you're not listening to the answers. That's wrong. I believe that if you tell a candidate, at the start of the interview, you will be taking notes so you don't forget any important facts about their qualifications, the candidate will be impressed with your professionalism. Since studies show that over 50% of interview content is forgotten within 24 hours, taking notes is simply a sound business practice.
5. Accepting resume information at face value
Unfortunately some individuals feel the need to misrepresent or embellish the details on their resumes. Whether it is claiming they hold degrees they don't have or falsifying employment dates to conceal gaps in their work history, certain applicants will never give you the complete history.
Through structured interview questions, detailed reference checking, and confirming stated educational achievements, you can verify all resume information including education, dates of employment, positions held, and accomplishments. Time invested checking this information upfront, before you make the selection decision, can be time well spent.
6. Poor interviewing skills
Let's face it: many managers are thrust into the hiring process with very little training or the experience necessary to make such an important decision. It's a lot like asking a non-technical manager to evaluate and choose sophisticated production equipment for a manufacturing plant.
Inexperienced interviewers can commit any one of several possible errors. For example, you may inadvertently tip off a candidate by asking leading questions. I once heard an employer ask, "In this job, we need someone who is very organized. You're pretty organized, aren't you?" Guess what the answer was.
Or, you might overlook non-verbal behaviours demonstrated by the candidate during the interview. Poor eye contact, restlessness, and long pauses before answering can tell you as much about a candidate as what they actually say.
Or, you might simply talk too much - a common mistake of inexperienced interviewers. Interviewing is about exploring a candidate's suitability for the job through good questions and even better listening. To be effective in an interview, you should be listening about 80% of the time.
7. Insufficient evidence
Many managers make hiring decisions based on the results of the interview alone. While I do feel the interview is the most important step in the selection process, as it provides an abundance of information about the candidate, it fails to take into account valuable information gathered from other sources. Thorough reference checks, completion of personality assessment tests, and role-playing, all provide complementary evidence that will validate (or refute) the impression you have from the face-to-face interview. They should all be used in the final selection decision.
8. Rushing to hire
Finding good people has always been challenging. Add labour shortages, which will only become more acute in the years ahead, and it can be very tempting to hire the first person who comes along and meets the minimum requirements.
But jumping too quickly can be a trap. As much as you might want to fill a position fast and move on, doing so can backfire on you. You may have to increase employee workloads temporarily, but doing so will buy you time to make the right hiring decisions. Plus, if you have hired well in the past, your employees will understand the importance of careful hiring practices. Getting the right person for the job will more than make up any inconveniences your team suffers in the short term. So take the time you need to hire properly. Your reputation as a manager depends on it.