Yesterday, we talked about the scrutiny, vetting and due diligence we give to a capital budget item like an expensive machine, yet the approach to hiring is less formal, often missing pieces of due diligence. This casual approach is the beginning of a process that spells mismatch, underperformance, compromise and grief.
In a comment yesterday from Michael Cardus, he ends with this statement. “As people we can pass judgment on a machines value, a dis-comfort comes from judging a persons value.”
And yet that is the task in the hiring process, to render a managerial judgment about a person’s potential value to the organization. Why is this so uncomfortable?
Here are the top five mistakes managers make in the hiring process.
- Manager misses important information during the interview.
- Manager misinterprets responses.
- Manager allows bias and stereotypes to influence the process.
- Manager makes the decision too quickly.
- Manager loses control of the interview.
Time Span and Hiring Talent is the next Subject Area in Working Leadership Online. We have a couple of scholarships left for that series (starts next Monday, Oct 4), but we are going to close those out today. If you would like one, please reply to Ask Tom.
Tom.
One area that is not mentioned although I am sure you will include in some way – is the manager allowing fear and concern for their own position to sneek in.
I was talking with a friend of mine who is a program director at a camp. She said “…i am interviewing people for begining counselor positions who are more qualified than me.”
Listening to her saying this I could hear the concern for her own job. the though of, if i hire someone smarter than me i may lose my job to the person I hired, or even worse that person I hired may get a promotion and become MY BOSS!
YIKES.
As the job market is pushing over qualified people to find work at a rate that they would not have accepted 3 years ago, managers have to work on their self-esteem to learn how to get their egos out of the way.