The five biggest hiring mistakes – and what you can learn from them
Hiring is a critical part of every organisation’s success – but it’s also one of the most complicated internal processes. What works for one company or industry might not be best practice for another. However, there are certain principles every hiring manager can follow to avoid making major hiring mistakes.
To gain some real-life insights into common hiring mistakes, we asked two experienced hiring managers – Talent Aquisition Specialist Zoe Zhang and Kristine Tuazon, director of Good People HR – some of the ‘lessons’ they’ve learned when recruiting new team members.
Here are some of the biggest mistakes they’ve made and actions they took, so you can avoid the same pitfalls in the future.
The five biggest hiring mistakes
1. Rushing a hire
Few tasks benefit from being rushed – and with time pressure to get a candidate into a role, it’s easier to make mistakes or overlooking important details.
When Zhang was new to her career and keen to deliver, she focused on meeting deadlines, rather than spending more time looking for the candidates.
“Don’t hire someone until you’re sure they’re right for the role,” Zhang says. “If I doubt anything, such as their experience or attitude, I take the time to investigate until I’m confident they’re a good fit.”
Her biggest learning from this was to take her time, even if that means pushing back.
2. Not verifying a candidate’s claims
Taking the time to check a candidate’s claims is something Kristine Tuazon learned the hard way. “I have this approach called ‘trust, but verify’,” she says.
She says she believes what candidates say about their experience, education or working rights, but also takes the time to double-check what they’re saying is true. In the past, she’s had candidates exaggerate or even lie about having permanent residency out of desperation to get a job.
“If someone says on their resume they achieved $30,000 over sales targets, you need to probe deeper to see if the candidate is embellishing in any way,” she advises. “Most recruiters develop a sense for this stuff – like an antenna alerting you to possible issues.”
3. Overcomplicating the hiring process
While it’s crucial to take the time to find the right candidate and verify their claims, Tuazon has seen how overly complex hiring processes can have a detrimental effect. Once, a client kept adding more steps and interviews to the process until eventually the candidate chose another hirer – only for it to take another six months to fill the role.
“Don’t drop your standards but try not to make the hiring process too complex either, especially when there’s a candidate shortage or you know they’re in high demand,” she says. “Once you’ve identified a good candidate, there’s a risk of losing them if you set countless interviews and tests weeks apart.”
4. Being too rigid about role requirements
It’s easy to fall into the trap of noticing what a candidate doesn’t have, rather than the boxes they do tick. “Sometimes people become too fixated on a candidate needing 10 years of experience when someone has eight years of experience and meets all the other criteria,” says Tuazon.
“It’s important to look at the full package. Some of the best candidates we’ve had met 60-70% of the listed criteria, then our clients were able to train them on the rest.”
She suggests focusing on what’s critical to the role. For example, when hiring for manufacturing clients, Tuazon looks for the specific experience and knowledge needed for those roles, rather than just years in the industry or their degree.
5. Ignoring your intuition
Intuition or ‘gut feeling’ is a reaction to picking up on subtle, even subconscious, cues – and those feelings shouldn’t be ignored. If you feel you have reservations about a candidate, but can’t pinpoint why, it’s worth further investigation.
A candidate might tick all the boxes on paper but may not seem like a good fit in the interview – something Talent Acquisition Specialist Zoe Zhang experienced early in her career.
She was once tasked with filling a senior role and found a candidate who seemed a perfect fit, but whose attitude in the interview seemed ‘off’. Still, she put them through, and they were hired – but during onboarding they lost their temper, calling Zhang in an angry outburst.
“It triggered an investigation,” says Zhang. “Problematic behaviour can lead to bigger issues later and I should have trusted my gut in this instance.”
Her takeaway? If something feels off, take the time to dig deeper. Ask more probing questions, cross-check references thoroughly, and consider getting a second opinion from a colleague. Behavioural cues in the interview often point to bigger issues down the track.
Employing new team members is a critical function for any organisation and a big responsibility for hirers. Hiring takes time, it’s a process that shouldn’t be rushed, requires thorough verification, and relies on good intuition – stick to these core principles and you’re halfway to finding the best candidates for the job.