How to manage Recruitment Error

What is recruitment Error?

Recruitment of a “misfit” candidate for a position is considered as a recruitment error. Most times, this error is identified when the employee assumes duty. In most cases, the HR manager is held responsible for the recruitment error and their job may be on line in some extreme cases.

Types of recruitment error?

Technical-Error: This form of error includes employing a candidate who may have all the qualifications and no practical experience. In some cases, the employees may even perform very well during interviews. They may be eloquent and appear very vast, but they do not have in-depth practical experience.

Non-Technical error: This is an error which goes beyond technical ability. Some candidates can be very good technically, but they do not fit into the person that is qualified judging from team-spirit, interpersonal relations, communications skills, professionalism, Emotional imbalance, etc. The candidate may possess academic qualifications and requisite experience, but may not be fit in terms of these non-technical considerations. Some candidates who have been hired on the ground of technical abilities often become big problems. There should be a balance.

Over-pricing error: Some errors occur by over-pricing a candidate at entry point. The employer may engage the employee based on urgent need and the perception given by the candidate. In some cases, the candidates don’t deliver value when over-priced. I do consider that some candidates lie about their previous pay to get higher pay, that may be reason for over-pricing atimes. Also, hiring from diaspora may constitute recruitment error.

Under-pricing error: Atimes, a very good candidate may be under-priced. This is an error that comes when the candidate appears desperate and the company takes advantages of that. The major consideration here is how to manage the motivation of such candidate. This case can lead to high attrition rate.

Deployment Error: I have seen deployment error in a case where a law graduate was deployed into marketing. There is nothing that stops a lawyer from becoming a marketer, but it is a matter of interest. The interest of the candidates must be ascertained before deployment. This is key to talent management. Talent management involves plugging a candidate into appropriate function.

Are HR Managers are to be blamed for recruitment error?

Yes, they should be blamed and these are the reasons:

       i.           HR Managers should have the technical ability to ascertain a candidate who is not qualified for a role and be able to advise management against wrong hire.

     ii.           HR managers should be able to ask critical questions about a candidate during interview. Technical questions should be asked by the line manager or someone who is very vast in the field where a candidate is being considered for. Non-technical questions that deals with attitudes, dispositions, intelligence quotient, team-spirit, communications and ambition should be asked by the HR Manager.

   iii.           HR Managers should be able to see how a candidate can turn out after assumption of duty

   iv.           HR can rely on some findings from previous employers such as level of morals, honesty, professionalism and integrity. This will enable you know if the candidate is an “error” or not.

     v.           HR Managers must take extra steps to psychologically ascertain the state of mind and performance level of a candidate.

No, You cannot blame the HR Manager because:

       i.           The Line managers often impose candidates of choice on the HR…even when the HR Manager knows that the candidate is a misfit. However, when the chips are down, the HR Officer will be blamed for the failure of the candidate to perform.

     ii.           The company does not consider the position of the HR Manager to be necessary when negotiating pay with employees.

   iii.           The HR manager’s advice may not be acceptable to the line manager or the management

   iv.           For strategic hires, the management often downplay on the role of the HR manager; hence erroneous may be possible

     v.           The candidate may come through recommendation of the top management or the board; hence the HR Manager may have little or no say. This is different from line manager imposing candidates on the HR Manager.

Causes of Wrong Hire

       i.           Wrong perception leading to wrong recommendations during interview. Some candidates will read for the interview and pass, but cannot perform in the real sense of it. However, in hiring drivers or related roles (which requires actual demonstration), it is difficult to hide.

     ii.           Wrong panel of interviewers: Atimes having the wrong set of people in the panel can be very disastrous for interviewing a candidate. The candidate may be smarter than all those on the panel. In fact, in some cases, bringing in people without proper “mix” may lead to interview error and subsequent wrong hire. For instance having 2 lawyers and 1 accountant in hiring another accountant may be erroneous.

   iii.           Wrong CV selection: Atimes we get too concentrated on selections without applying needed discretion. A candidate may not have required academic qualifications, but by virtue of where the employee works, you can be sure that he or she is made up of good stuff. Filtering CVs may be the beginning of the error.

   iv.           Using generic competences: Each role has its competences. Using generic competence level to assess candidates may be very erroneous. Design competences for each candidate and also ensure that such candidate have appropriate score to earn him or her a place in the organization.

Other causes includes:

       i.           Poor corporate standards

     ii.           Lack of proper evaluation system during interview

   iii.           Unplanned hire

   iv.           Wrong criteria build ups

Impacts of Wrong Hire

       i.           Poor productivity: The employed candidate may be less productive in terms of delivery and meeting work standard. Where this exists, the candidate will become redundant and may lose taste for the work environment. In so many cases, the candidate will become a torn in the company’s flesh.

     ii.           Lack of value creation: the reason why you employ candidate is to solve problems, but some employs turn out to become problems to be solved. In this case, the employee creates more problems than solve anyone. There is no value creation and the company is just maintaining the staff for nothing.

   iii.           High attrition rate: Employees who are engaged erroneously don’t last in the company except for few. The attrition rate is so high that the company may suffer collapse or lack of human capacity. This often occur for candidates who are underpaid.

   iv.           Regulatory sanctions: Hiring a candidate who is not approved by a regulator can lead to sanction. This is possible where the regulators have set out standard to be followed, but the company choose to do otherwise.

     v.           Loss of competitive edge: A leader in the industry may often find it extremely important to maintain a edge; however, if there is a wrong hire into a strategic position, it may reduce the competitive edge and make the company lose market share.

   vi.           Financial Loss: Payment of salaries and other benefits to a less productive candidate is considered as a loss. Where the company becomes aware of this, the redundancy policy may be applied.

 vii.           Loss of motivation by other employees: Where it becomes glaring that an employee who was over-priced becomes less productive or lack proper grasp on the job, the other employees may become disgruntled and even lose motivations. This is a very dangerous one because the internal reputation of the company has been smeared already.

How to manage erroneous hire

Most times, recruitment errors are discovered after the employee has assumed duty (during probation). In this case, we term it as medicine after death. How can we deal with the situation as HR Manager? Let’s assume you get an email from your MD which reads thus”

Dear Glory,

I have noticed that Banji, the Marketing Manager recently employed has not performed up to expectations. Kindly advise on what to do before the close of business today.

MD.

I will response to manage the erroneous hire by responding to the MD as follows:

Dear Sir,

Thank you for your observation. We have been reviewing the situation surrounding his recruitment and we accept responsibilities for some lapses. However, we advise that Banji’s case should be handled as follows:

His probationary period should be extended with a warning letter on his under-performance. According to the policy, he should be placed on 3 months extended probation.

Perhaps if the option above fails, he should be deployed to other department where his ability may be valuable. Perhaps these option is not achievable, he will be advised to resign due to non-performance.

Glory

In addition to the above,

If the employee was over-priced, his or her pay can be cut down appropriately.

If the employee was under-priced he may be given promotion on confirmation to retain the employee. If that does not sync with the company’s policy, he may be given pay rise.

If the employee is technically sound, but without moral or professional clout, he may be given warning, given training or eased out as the case may be.

If the employee is not technically sound, adopt Glory’s response above.

I will welcome questions and answers at this point.