10 Classic Hiring Manager Bloopers and Blunders Revisited

If you ask them, most managers will tell you they're pretty good at hiring. In a post last week, I suggested that they are probably not as good as they think they are, presenting 10 classic hiring mistakes managers repeatedly make. Each one precludes them from seeing and hiring the best people possible. This week you’ll have a chance to officially chime in.

Here’s a one-minute opinion survey you can take to rank how often you've experienced the bloopers and blunders described below. The results from the survey are shown next to each of the bloopers and blunders. Six of the 10 had over 80% agreement that these were serious and very common problems. The other four (60-70% in agreement), while less common, were equally serious.

Consider the enormous personal cost for hiring managers who make these blunders. At the most obvious level, it's hiring competent people who are either unmotivated, or need too much direction to obtain average results. At the less obvious level, these types of hiring mistakes demotivate every other person in the department. At the least obvious level, they prevent the hiring manager from getting ahead. While eliminating them is not easy, not trying is foolhardy.

10 Classic Hiring Manager Interviewing and Recruiting Blunders

1) Many managers are unable, or unwilling, to attract and hire people who are stronger than themselves. The best people want to work for leaders who can help them grow and develop. Hiring managers can minimize this problem by openly discussing the issue, and then making sure their candidates meet some of the manager’s best current and former team members. (67% agree)

2) Conservative managers demand an arbitrary set of skills and experiences before even seeing candidates. Skills don’t predict performance. The best people accomplish more with less. That’s why they’re the best. Using performance-based job descriptions to define the work, rather than traditional skills-infested job descriptions, can help avoid this blunder. (89% agree)

3) Most technical hiring managers overvalue technical brilliance. Getting stuff done on time and on budget, with limited direction and limited resources, is often far more important than being technically smart. Hiring managers need to look at all of their “brilliant” hires to see if there is a tendency to hire people who over think, but under deliver. (80% agree)

4) Many senior hiring managers over trust their intuition or their gut. To justify this, they point out the great people they’ve hired, but never consider the better people they didn’t hire as part of their hiring mistakes. (69% agree)

5) Most hiring managers give too much credence to people who are assertive, affable, attractive and articulate. These are the “four A seduction factors.” Unless the job fit is right, the cultural fit is right, and the fit with the manager’s style is right, none of these factors predict on-the-job performance. For proof, consider all of the people hired who make great first impressions, but underperform, as part of the blunder pool. (89% agree)

6) Some managers actually say, “I’ll know the person when I see him or her.” This is a cop-out. It means they don’t know what they're looking for. Since great people want to know what they’ll be working on before taking the job, hiring managers who don’t define the job ahead of time won’t be seeing or hiring any great people. (63% agree)

7) Too many managers naively think they can charm or oversell a hot prospect. Hyperbole and BS is a recipe for overpaying for underperformance. Good recruiting is about getting a candidate who is not looking, or has multiple opportunities, to see the job as a career move, not a compensation one. This can’t happen unless the hiring manager has clarified expectations upfront and has conducted an in-depth Performance-based Interview. (55% agree)

8) Many managers have a tendency to hire people who are competent, but lack motivation or need too much direction. This happens when the emphasis of the interview is on skills and competency rather than motivation to do the actual work required. Despite the fact that clarifying expectations up-front has been shown to be the primary source of job satisfaction and self-motivation, most managers fight the obvious. If you know anyone who was surprised or disappointed by the work they had been assigned when first hired, you've experienced the problem first hand. (84% agree)

9) Managers rarely consider their personality or management style when selecting team members. For the new hire, the hiring manager’s style represents more of the company culture than any other factor. Managerial fit is rarely considered during the interview, yet it’s one of the prime contributors to underperformance. (80% agree)

10) They ignore or misjudge “soft skills.” Soft skills should be considered everything that’s non-technical. This includes getting work done on time, persevering, overcoming setbacks, organizing and prioritizing work, influencing others, taking the initiative, being committed, and coaching others, to name just a few. People don’t underperform due to lack of technical skills, they underperform due to a lack of soft skills. (82% agree)

Hiring great people on a consistent basis requires great recruiters and fully-engaged hiring managers. Hiring great people who are also highly motivated to do the work needed to be done requires much more. It starts by avoiding these classic blunders.

__________________________________________

Lou Adler (@LouA) is the CEO of The Adler Group, a full-service talent acquisition consulting firm. His latest book, The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired (Workbench, 2013), covers the Performance-based Interviewing process described in this article in more depth. For instant hiring advice join Lou's LinkedIn group and follow his Wisdom About Work series on Facebook.