4 signs your hiring process is broken

Hiring is one of the most important processes for any business – but it can also be one of the most neglected. Simon Slade reveals the tell-tale signs.

Hiring is one of the most important processes for any business. Sadly, it can also be one of the most neglected. Like any facet of running a business, your hiring methods need to be examined and refreshed regularly. The way your business discovers and interviews new talent needs to be modern, efficient and effective. Here are some signs that your current hiring process could use a little TLC.

1. You’re Unsure About an Employee After Several Months of Working With Them

While there is always a settling period, you should be able to have a confident opinion about an employee’s fit after just a week or two. If you’re hiring people who you (and/or your team) still feel wishy-washy about after several months of working together, they probably weren’t the best fit for the position. 

This could mean that you rushed the decision and took the first candidate that was “acceptable” rather than searching for the candidate who was truly well-suited to the role. This inability to decide on a person’s fit could also be a symptom of a problem with your training and onboarding processes. If the employee isn’t getting a good education about their role and the company culture, they might continue to feel like an awkward fit because they aren’t realizing their potential. Examine your new employee training programs to ensure you are providing them with all the resources they need to succeed. 

If your training seems to be in good shape, then this new employee is probably a poor match for your company. Tweak your hiring process to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

2. Your Team Never Agrees on a Hire

It won’t always be possible to achieve a consensus between you and all the members of your team, but it should happen occasionally. Your team’s opinion on any new hire is important, as they are likely to be working closely with that person on a daily basis. If you can’t bring in a single candidate that your team agrees on, you need to examine your hiring process. 

It’s possible that your existing employees aren’t assessing potential candidates with the same lens. Many employees might be thinking about their personal opinions of the candidates rather than how they would fit into the company culture or perform the tasks associated with the position. It can be helpful to provide your team with a rubrik for scoring candidates to help get them on the same page and hopefully agree on candidates more often. 

3. You Are Still Hiring The Way You Did Five Years Ago

Hiring trends have changed dramatically in recent years. If your strategy for finding and hiring new talent for your team hasn’t changed in several years, you’re in trouble. 

One of the most dramatic ways the hiring game has changed is with the expansion of remote work and outsourcing. Many companies are opening their workforce to remote workers based anywhere in the world, which is giving them a much larger pool of candidates to choose from. 

There are plentiful online platforms for job seekers, all of which your company needs to have a presence on if you want to be connecting with the best talent. 

If you haven’t made updates to your hiring strategy in a couple of years, it’s definitely time to modernize. One new technique that we are using at Doubledot Media is to ask for a video cover letter – a chance to see how candidates present themselves, especially handy considering we hire remotely for most jobs. 

4. You’re Rarely Hiring Your First Choice

This can mean a few things. One obvious factor could be that your hiring process is too long and candidates are getting hired out from under you before they get to the fifth round of interviews at your company. Look at the process used on your existing employees: from the moment you received their initial application, how long before they accepted your offer? Days? Weeks? A month?

While I would never encourage rushing an interview process, I would also discourage dragging it out for too long. Not only does this frustrate candidates, but it can also disillusion the higher level staff who are involved in the hiring process. If the position you’re hiring for is critical (and in theory, all positions are critical), then your company is operating at a deficit until you make the hire. The process needs to be as quick and streamlined as possible. 

Hiring Is A Powerful Tool

Another easy way to tell if your hiring process is broken is by looking at your company’s employee retention rate. If employees aren’t staying long, this might mean you aren’t picking the right people for your company during the hiring process. But this could also signify problems with your company culture or employee appreciation, so there isn’t a direct correlation between hiring and employee retention.

These signs have a more direct correlation to your hiring process. If you find any or several of these signs to be appearing in your company operations, it’s time to reexamine your hiring process and improve it. Hiring is a powerful tool: by adding the best new talent to your team, your company might be capable of more than ever before. 

Simon Slade is CEO and co-founder of SaleHoo. He is passionate about providing e-commerce professionals with the education and resources they need to start their own businesses and achieve occupational independence.