If you want to know what are some biggest recruitment mistakes, you’ll love this article.

As an entrepreneur or recruiter, do you ensure that candidates feel comfortable with the recruitment process? As a candidate, are you aware that the nature of the recruitment process determines the level of the company you are applying to? The following 7 recruiter mistakes will change your view on every interview.

Two recent studies on candidate experience have been carried out. The survey involved 3021 candidates and 554 persons engaged in recruitment in companies. The aim of these surveys was to check the opinions and impressions of candidates from the entire recruitment process.

Interestingly, the opinions of the companies were completely different from those of the candidates… Well, 73% of companies believe that they care about relations with candidates, while as many as 68% of candidates say that the companies do not care about them. Decide for yourself who you believe more.

We are not going to look for the truth in this article (after all, everyone has their own truth), but we are going to do something more constructive. The topic is extremely important, both for one side and for the other. I am therefore presenting you with 7 mistakes that companies make during the recruitment process.

For entrepreneurs it may be an opportunity to change their habits by 180 degrees, and for candidates – a way to recognize the company at what level they are dealing with. Let’s do it:

7 Biggest Recruitment Mistakes And How To Avoid Them

1. Lack of information about the status of recruitment

Only 45% of companies declare that they always send a confirmation of the candidate’s application to the company. In other cases, the candidate has no idea if his application has been received, or if it has been lost somewhere in the network or has been sent to spam.

25% of candidates declare that they have been informed of the rejection of their candidature. All the rest are waiting, biting their nails all day long, hoping that the phone will ring soon.

Applying for a job is a process that involves a lot of emotions, most often less pleasant ones. Lack of information about the recruitment status is an inhumane play. As a recruiter, put yourself in the position of an uninformed candidate and make sure that the next time he knows about each stage of the process.

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2. Too much attention to the content of the CV

A CV is a paper that has very limited and incomplete content about the candidate. Education and experience are not the only factors to be taken into account in the recruitment process.

What also counts is who he is and what is the person who is applying for a job. Skills and experience are something that can be acquired in a short period of time – while personality is something that changes over the years. If you find someone who has a great enthusiasm for work, a great willingness to learn, infects everyone around with positive energy and has a creative initiative – close your eyes to some gaps in the CV, they will be quickly made up for.

During my last recruitment, I hired a person for an important position without seeing his or her CV. All I needed was the result of my assignment and two meetings that showed me that I was dealing with an exceptional person. In retrospect, I know that this was one of the best decisions in the history of my recruitment process.

If you want to get to know the candidate from a slightly different, more interesting side than just the purely professional one, learn to ask good, thought-provoking questions.

3. Too few meetings

A large number of companies make a decision after one meeting with the candidate. These companies forget that during the first meeting the candidate is usually stressed out and prepared to pronounce formulas from books such as “100 most popular questions to candidates during the recruitment process”.

Meet the candidates you are considering twice or even three times. Ask them a few non-standard questions, get to know them from this more private side (e.g. “What would happen if you were to be delighted with your work?”, or “What is the most obstructive about your work?) Often, the second or third meeting can completely change the impression you got the first time (both for better and worse).

Also pay attention to the atmosphere of the meetings. Your attention to detail and comfort of the candidate has a great impact on both his or her mood and the opinion about your company. The key to success in this area is a good place for recruitment and a suitable recruiter. She should be polite, open, full of curiosity, smiling and inquisitive.

4. Lack of idea to test the candidate’s skills

In psychology, the halo effect is a tendency to attribute personality traits to a person on the basis of a positive or negative first impression.

Usually, after the first meeting (and even after the first minute of the meeting!) I have already formed an opinion about the candidate. Many times this opinion changed completely after I checked the recruitment task proposed later.

After the first series of meetings, propose a task to the selected candidates to test their skills.

During my last recruitment I asked 4 candidates to prepare a 1-day project for an event to take place at the beginning of January. Their task was to prepare an idea for the event, its short description, valuation of the organization costs and planned income, as well as a framework plan for the organization of the event.

The results of such a task were an invaluable help to me in evaluating the actual skills of the candidates, which I would never read from my CV.

5. Lack of information about the reasons of unemployment

Companies do not do this because they do not want to make the candidate uncomfortable (or simply do not want to). However, as a recruiter you need to know that this is invaluable information for the candidate. If he did not get a job, he will keep looking. So why should he make the same mistakes that made you not choose him?

Whatever the reason for rejecting a candidate was, knowing the reason lack of employment may be the key to remedying his weaknesses.

Always provide information about why you have not decided to cooperate in a particular case. 77% of candidates believe that the employer should inform the candidate why he did not get a job.

SEE ALSO: How To Build a Successful Career: Winning Career Path In 8 Steps

6. Not asking candidates about their impressions from the recruitment process

Feedback will also be useful for recruiters. The more user-friendly the recruitment process is, the more effective it will be. Stress on the other side will make it very difficult for you to make a decision, because a candidate who is tense and uncomfortable is not himself.

During one of the recruitments that I had the opportunity to conduct about a year ago, I invited two of my employees (male) to interviews. Imagine a woman trying to get a job and answering three guys’ questions during the recruitment process… I didn’t realize how stressful it could be for the other side until I asked them about their recruitment impressions.

According to these candidate experience surveys, 64% of companies ask candidates or new employees about their impressions of the recruitment process.

7. Forgetting about a candidate after recruitment

69% of companies only retain the CVs of candidates in their database (doing nothing more than storing these data), and 21% inform previous candidates of further recruitments.

A candidate who was not suitable for one job may be ideally suited for another job. It is worthwhile to start the recruitment process with those you have already seen. All the more so if you have any notes from this meeting.

It is very likely that a person who has already expressed an interest in your company will express this interest again. Unless you have made 6 previous mistakes…

Be aware of these mistakes and expect good treatment from your potential employer. If he will repeatedly make the mistakes described above, don’t hesitate to tell him honestly. And if he doesn’t speak up at all after the recruitment, I have a great idea – just send him a link to this article.

Entrepreneur and recruiter – treat your candidates as you would like them to treat you. Show that you respect their efforts and that you represent a workplace that is worth being a part of.

I hope that no matter which side of your desk you are on, you will see your next interview from a slightly different, broader perspective.

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Thank you for reading this article about recruitment mistakes and I really hope that you take action my advice. I wish you good luck and I hope its contents have been a good help to you.