A new start-up could succeed immensely through the employees hired to work there, and a business could flop and keel over as a result of the staff you have on ground. People are always quick to blame bad and unworthy employees as the cause of the problems a company is facing, but many employers fail to blame themselves for employing bad and unworthy staffs. There is no smoke without fire, and there is no way a bad worker can find his way into your business or employ unless you hired him.
Poor hiring decisions could be fatal. The following are therefore mistakes you must never make when hiring new workers for your business or organization:
Failure to perform background checks – Almost all job candidates submit a list of referees which we end up not checking; and we also fail at checking references that are provided in their CVs or resumes.
Many job candidates present falsified academic credentials, and many others supply false job experiences; our failure to check out these references or perform any form of background checks on preferred candidates can lead to hiring a toxic staff that will undermine the commercial integrity of our businesses.
Hiring based on physical infatuation – Do not ever hire an employee based on appealing physical features, or any persuasive glibness. In fact, many employers hire attractive female workers with the ulterior motives of dating them, and the actual act of dating an employee undermines your integrity and could compromise the value of your organization.
You must also not hire attractive females because of their potential to market products and bring in revenues – if they become turncoats and insubordinate you won’t be able to handle them again because of their performance in generating revenues.
Hiring an unqualified relative – We often get trapped into hiring unqualified personnel because they are either friends or blood relations. This will end up being counter-productive because they may develop the wrong attitudes by reason of their closeness to management, plus the fact that they may not be adequately qualified for the task.
Not doing on-the-job tests – We often take the words of many preferred candidates for granted without checking it out or holding it out against the light. And this costs us a lot. If a preferred candidate claims she can type 160 words per minute, give her a computer to prove it; if a candidate says he is a qualified editor, give him an error-ridden manuscript to edit; and if a candidate claims he can sell 200 units of products in one week, place him on one-week trial before confirming his appointment. Failure to do this would often be costly to the organization.
Seeking candidates with cognate experience – The problem with many organizations is that they are looking for the ideal and perfect candidate – who needs no further training or supervision to do his job.
Every new employee needs some orientation on how to do his work to suit the company’s goals and objectives, and how to fit into the company’s culture. Failure to train or re-train new employees but believing they are experienced enough bring a dismal failure in the organizational system and structure.
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