Hiring employees? Here are 4 hiring practices you should stop using

TommyCarey Level X³

July 29, 2018, 9:20 am

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Hiring employees? Here are 4 hiring practices you should stop using

When you're at the point when you are able to hire employees, you need to know what you shouldn't be doing when bringing on someone to your team. Sure, there are plenty of tested methods to vet a potential employee, but they could be outdated and not actually work anymore, and that's why I'm writing this discussion!

If you're just hiring anyone that comes through your door, you're not going to have the best team, and that's likely why you have a set system to bring people in. You can't just cold email someone, you can't focus on what they've studied in the past, you can't use a script to ask questions, and you must not use your gut to employ people at your business. Below I'll cover those more in detail.

Cold emailing potential employees
When you're looking for a potential employee, you're likely going to think that you should be cold emailing them, but I'm here to tell you that you should not do this. Cold emailing use to work in the past, but not anymore because no one wants to get a ton of emails from someone they don't know. Your cold email will either land in the spam box or it will get deleted right away by the person when they simply read your title.

Focusing on a persons GPA
One of the biggest things that annoy me is when a company will only hire someone that has a bachelors degree. It actually doesn't matter what type of degree they have, they just need one in order to meet a requirement, and by doing this the company is cutting out a ton of smart prospects who likely have 10x the experience for the position you're trying to fill.

I actually filled out a bunch of applications to see if I could get a nice job, with great benefits, and all I had to do was SEO and talk to customers who were already on board and explain what we were doing to their websites and why. Now, I have over 15 years of experience in the SEO and marketing field, but I don't have a degree because I started doing all of this while I was graduating high school. Do you think I know what I'm doing more than a kid right out of college with a degree in his backpack? YUP! But it doesn't matter because he has that little piece of paper and I don't lol.

Stop hiring people simply because they have a degree. You'd be amazed at how much talent is out there that doesn't have the degrees you require for your position, so give people a chance.

Sticking to the script when asking questions
This is one of the most annoying things when it comes to hiring someone, because no one is the same, so a script won't work on every individual. You want people from all over, with different points of view, and if you're using a script you'll just get the same answers. This means you're just going to be hiring duplicates of the same type of personality, points of view, and everything else. You won't have people looking at a project from different angles, and that means you will have a one track mind that doesn't branch out.

Having a "Gut Feeling" about someone
People are deceiving, so you can't really use your gut feeling to hire them, because you don't know if someone does great in interviews and does a horrible job after they're hired. You don't know if someone bombs interviews and can actually do the jobs of 10 different people in the same time frame of a single person. So, stop using a gut feeling and test people out before you write them off.

In conclusion
Hiring people for positions within companies has become robotic and unattached. I say this because there's always a set criteria to scare people off from applying to a position, and that's sad. Companies are cutting out plenty of amazing talent that could drive their companies to be even better, but these people don't have access simply because they don't do well in interviews or they don't have a degree.

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Thanks!

Tommy Carey

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Martinsx1

Exactly! Yes, acquiring degree isn't everything. It's true that getting a degree is good but sometimes people get that degree with actually acquiring the needed skills and expertise in the field. So, what am I trying to say? Don't just look at the degree certificate but also look at the potential that such individual possess.

6 years ago

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fishbate

Having a degree is a great support on the persons knowledge and skills. But there are jobs that uses low theoretical methods on work. Some jobs rely on skills and experience because of quality and productivity.

6 years ago

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RhealaineS

I also believe that. Educational attainment may be an asset but this should not be the sole basis. From what I've heard from a seminar, companies should focus on hiring people with the right sets of attitude. Because skills can be learned and acquired through training.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

On the contrary, offline business here are still using the standard of hiring employees with a college diploma. But that is only for big companies with offices because factories and other business that employ laborers do not require a college degree. I work in a bank and I sometimes handle the final screening of applicants for vacancies to our department. I have to admit that applicants with no degree are automatically rejected.

6 years ago

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jaymish2

I agree. Most companies complain that it is hard to get talent, but the problem is how they go about doing this. Most companies focus on GPA and this is not always a true ability of the persons performance or possibilities. I like companies that make the interview process two to three months. You can never tell much about a person by how they answer questions. The most important thing is the persons attitude and personality. The rest they can learn.

6 years ago

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ballyhara

Oh this is so true! I was annoyed by the way an ex-boss used to hire people. He just wanted people with thousand of certifications, degrees, and diplomas, because according to him that meant that person was guaranteed. I mean, what about experience? You can have hundreds of papers and documents, and that doesn't mean you know how to deal with team work and public. I would rather hire people who are able to do the job that the company needs, not a lot of diplomas to hang on a wall.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I completely agree with all your points specially the "gut feel". As per my experience, quite a few of my gut feel hirees didn't measure up to my expectations. While some of those I've hired which I call borderline decisions have been very successful in their jobs.

6 years ago

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fishbate

Yeah, it doesn't work that way. Feelings are not logical but only a perception, you need people that are qualified by their skills and characteristics not by the way you feel and see about them.

6 years ago

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fishbate

"Sticking to the script when asking questions" I definitely agree to this, i always see potential employees as people with different personalities. If you ask the same questions for different persons, you might miss out characteristics and skills that a person have just because your questions doesn't allow them to say something about it.

6 years ago

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NesMarcos

I strongly agree with this. There are a lot of applicants who didn't have a bachelors degree and are possibly better than applicants who have. Those applicants who didn't have are willing to push through their limits more and want to prove something not just to their employees but also for themselves. In this case, they tend to be more hardworking, trustworthy and more studious and very eager to learn new things.

6 years ago

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lei08pineda

You said it well. Having a degree is only one of the fundamentals. There is more to people than having a degree. I agree that there is a lot of people with talent, skills and abilities to do the right job even they doesn't have a degree.

6 years ago

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NesMarcos

I also agree with what's stating on "Sticking to the script when asking questions." Many companies have a robotic type of interviewing which really gives an annoying feedback from their interviewees and also for the interviewers, too. Come to think like you are the interviewer and you ask the same question continuously to over 10 interviewees? Sounds annoying, isn't it? Having different interview questions based on the interviewee's resume and background can give a better idea for the interviewer if the applicant is the right choice for the position. If the applicant is knowledgeable and expressive enough with the job posted, things will workout smoothly.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

Focusing on educational attainment is a thing of the past. Nowadays it's best to look at the skill set and experience which to me are the most important factors in hiring a qualified marketing manager. This can easily be assessed in an in-depth situational and reactional verbal interview and written exam.

6 years ago

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fishbate

Yup, its still the overall character of the person that's important. Although there are jobs that are really more of a degree base, its the skills and experience that makes the diffidence between two degree holders with the same educational attainment.

6 years ago

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cmoneyspinner

I do not like those detached robots because they don't like me. LOL.

Just kidding.

You're speaking the view point of the person doing the hiring.
I'm speaking from the viewpoint of being the employee who might get hired.

Cold emailing potential employees
~ I'm thinking: (???) Where did they get my eMail? Is this a real job offer?

Focusing on a persons GPA
~ GPA is a useful performance measure but If I were an employer I wouldn't FOCUS on it!

Stop hiring people simply because they have a degree.
~ Amen to that! Many self-made millionaires don't have degrees.

Sticking to the script when asking questions.
~ Script is just to get the interview started and move it along. (We don't want to create those Craig Ferguson "moments of awkward silence". LOL.)

Having a "Gut Feeling" about someone
~ “... test people out before you write them off.” Couldn't have said it any better.

6 years ago

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amelia88

So much truth to these points! I’ve been in organizations before when management would hire solely based on a potential employees academic record, and it was a recipe for disaster! Just because someone performs well on tests doesn’t necessarily mean that they are going to be a great employee.

6 years ago

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fishbate

I have the same experience, i even found it out on the field. Most degree holders specially the fresh ones are in the dark when they entered the corporate world. The company also needs to invest in training and seminars for these employees to become more productive and efficient.

6 years ago

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amelia88

Absolutely - the importance of ongoing training and education, not just when an employee starts with a company, is crucial. I feel like a lot of companies assume people will just learn on the fly, which does happen - but ensuring that staff have the necessary skills and knowledge with training is huge.

6 years ago

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treecko142

Yeah, some companies just focus on grades during college, which in most cases don't even reflect how well the applicant will really do in actual work. It certainly is still a good metric, but you shouldn't base everything off that particular metric since there are a lot of factors regarding grades and someone who has mediocre grades doesn't mean that he will be worse at the job.

6 years ago

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ballyhara

Exactly. I've had very annoying co-workers, that according to their resumes, grades, and diplomas, are perfect workers, but eventually it turns out they don't know how to handle a stressful environment, or they don't know about punctuality, or just have a messy mind that interferes with their work. Honestly, I don't know how, but selectioning personal has to be more objective than subjective soon.

6 years ago

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mark8625

I used to have the power to hire people when I was working international. During the actual interview I would make sure that everything was in proper. I asked so many technical questions and I did not relay in the resume because for me resume is just a guidelines about their general informations and job histories. I need to ask something outside their resume for me to be able to determine if they are really good candidate and fit for the position. Eye to eye contact must be observed because in the eyes you will see if they are not telling lies. Remember,eyes is the window of our souls.

6 years ago

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Kakashi2020

I do agree that basing your hirong decisions on a person's resume and or academics is a thing of the past. It's best to do a lengthy in-depth interview with some written component to gauge the applicant correctly.

6 years ago

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Corzhens

A few years back, it was my job to interview the applicants to our department. And although I have a guideline for the questions that I would ask the applicant, I always try to drift with the conversation. When I feel that some personal questions needed to be asked then I ask it in a nice way. With gut feeling, I agree that you cannot trust your gut feeling with just the first impression because it can backfire on you. We had the experience of hiring employees who were so good in the interview but so bad in their performance.

6 years ago

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treecko142

You can't really blame your gut feeling when an applicant has a good resume and was also very good in the interview. At that point, the person was clearly one of the top choices and you can't really predict a bad performance from them.

6 years ago

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Chinet23

These practices are rampant in recruitment and hiring procedures especially if mediocre hiring staff are the ones delegated to the job. I once had an interview wherein the interviewer really sounded robotic and insincere as one example. You can really tell she's just working from scripts or that she's getting bored of the routines. I definitely agree you cannot overcome these, you won't hire the most suited for the job.

6 years ago

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ajahcuizon

It is true that when you are hiring an employee, you should not just stick to one question all the time. You might also want to know their wants and hobbies. You may not know, they might be doing something that you didn't know could give a lot of help in your industry. You should also refrain from hiring employees on which seems like to be robotic and unattached, find someone who could be attached and inlove with the job you are currently hiring for and not just someone who needs money. They might leave your company or office after a few weeks or months. Also, remember that a bachelor's degree is just a bonus, a person could still be productive and successful even without it. As long as he is dedicated, he'll work it out giving out his best.

6 years ago

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anchoreztin

I have a degree that I worked hard for and it is kinda sad something positive will be used as a discrimimation factor in hiring. I have a degree but that doesn't mean I am better than those who don't have. I hope employees would give every applicant an equal chance to be hires before writing them off the list.

6 years ago

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Gilgamesh

There are some things that we do that impacts us in a bad way which is not good especially in business. The things that you have elaborated is some of them, this topic is a broad one so we must analyze ut for ourselves to understand the situation. So we can make an approprite action.

6 years ago

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jayjaydimson

If you want to hire an employee, you should know their skills and capabilities for your company, because if you won't look on their skills, they will might be the reasons of the destruction of your company because they can give a negative effect on your company.

6 years ago

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SEOClerks

Hiring employees? Here are 4 hiring practices you should stop using

Hiring employees? Here are 4 hiring practices you should stop using

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