Top Hiring Mistakes: 10 Crucial Errors to Avoid When Building Your Team

Finding a new team member to join your ranks can be an exciting time for any organization. Yet, it's a process fraught with potential pitfalls that, if overlooked, can lead to less-than-ideal outcomes. I've hired hundreds of people and have learned these lessons from my own successes and failures when expanding my team.  Whether it’s a rush to fill a vacancy, overlooking key skills or failing to measure cultural fit, leaders frequently trip up when adding to their teams. Let's take a closer look at some of these common hiring mistakes, ensuring that you're equipped to sidestep them when adding your next team member. 

“Hiring people is an art, not a science, and resumes can't tell you whether someone will fit into a company's culture.” (Howard Schultz, Founder of Starbucks)

1. Making The Decision By Yourself: As good as you may be in hiring people, you aren't as good by yourself as you are with a team. Always pull in additional team members who are discerning and have proven themselves effective in interviews. I believe well-structured group interviews double the odds that you'll make a good decision.

2. Not Considering Alignment With Your Values: You don't hire staff and then train them on your values. You hire staff who already align with and embody your values.  The hiring process needs to include questions and exercises to insure that the people you add to your team have a deep understanding and will live out your values from day one.

3. Poor Role Definition: A well defined and comprehensive job description is a pre-requisite for attracting the right talent. It can be a big mistake not to properly define the role you're hiring for. This takes time, but if you aren't clear on what the person will do, you won't attract the right people and you won't make a good decision on hiring. 

4. Slow Decision-Making: Inaction can often be perceived as indecision or lack of focus. If you've made up your mind about a candidate, don't delay the hiring process. The best candidates have other options and won't be able to wait. If it takes you six months to make a decision, the only people who will wait that long are often those who can't get another job. 

When I worked with an executive search firm and placed hundreds of candidates with churches and organizations around the country, there were too many times when the best person for the role pulled out and said, "If it is taking them this long to make a decision, I don't think I'm going to be the best fit for them."

5. Hiring Too Quickly: On the contrary, hasty decisions can do more harm than good. This often happens when the hiring manager (the person to whom the new staff member will report) is driving the decision. They want the job filled quickly because as long as the position is vacant--it is causing them a lot of extra work. This can result in a rushed decision which costs thousands of dollars and months of headaches.

"Hiring mistakes cost a lot. Our analytics revealed that when an employee is not a good fit, the cost to the organization can reach up to six times the bad hire's annual salary." (Mark Murphy, CEO of Leadership IQ)

6. Not Talking to References: Churches are notorious for not talking to references. This is especially true when we know the candidate left a tough situation. We take their word for everything that happened and don't reach out for a conversation to get more insight or context. Even if it doesn't change our mind about the hiring, it will help us make sure we have that person in a good place to heal and lead. 

7. Ignoring Gut Instinct: Data and assessments are important, but so is your gut instinct. A candidate may look great on paper, but if something feels off, it's likely worth exploring further.

"Trusting your gut in hiring is absolutely necessary because the cost of ignoring it could be tremendous in the long run. While qualifications and experience do count, instincts often help spot the essential soft skills which can't be written down on paper."  (Kevin Kruse, CEO of LEADx)

8. Hiring Doers Rather Than Leaders: I've worked on staff at a church with as few as 5 staff and as many as 495 staff. Whether your team is large or small, I believe in just about every case you should be hiring leaders and not doers. I know if I find a great doer, I'll get 40 or 45 hours of work done each week. But if I find a great leader, he or she will find and lead many teams of doers and we will see the capacity and strength of the organization multiply. Even when you need a specialist, hire one who thinks like a leader and will build teams for the tasks.

9. Not Stalking Before Speaking: You have this huge hiring advantage at your fingertips called social media. Most candidates will have a historical trail of self-disclosed information about their life that will give you a glimpse into their character, values, family life, chemistry fit and more. When you hear of a potential candidate, stalk them on social media before you ever reach out for a conversation. 

A report from the University of Evansville found that more and more employers are turning to the Internet to screen applicants. The study determined that employers were able to determine with a “surprising level of accuracy” personality traits and indicators that could predict future job performance.

10. Not Looking Inside Before You Hire Externally: Many times we are conviced we need someone from outside to take us to “the next level.” But hiring someone you don't know and who hasn't experienced your values and mission at a deep level is adding a level of risk that may not be necessary. People from within are those you promote, or in a church-context, those who are already volunteering in significant roles. You know their character, passion, competency, and how well they already embody your values. Unless you need disruption and wholesale change--look inside before you ever hire externally.

Building the right team isn't a simple task; it's an art form infused with strategic thinking, understanding of people, and anticipation of future needs at your organization. Consider each of these potential pitfalls and learn from them, as each mistake you sidestep brings you one step closer to putting together a formidable team.