I’ve worked with hiring leaders across a bunch of different industries, and my experience shows that people are making the same mistakes over and over again.
These are simple mistakes with even simpler fixes, but they can have a huge impact on the way that you hire and whether your company is able to attract top talent. If you don’t take steps to address these issues, you’re artificially limiting your talent pool and setting yourself up for failure.
In today’s article, I’m going to take a look at a few of these fatal assumptions, along with my top tips on how you can address them. And so without further ado, let’s get started.
Assuming that contracting jobs are bad
This is the single biggest assumption that I see derailing people’s hiring campaigns. A lot of hiring leaders assume that people who’ve had temporary or contract jobs aren’t any good and that other employers don’t want them.
What we need to remember is that COVID-19 and our current economy mean that a lot of people have been laid off or forced to accept alternative working arrangements. Some people take on temporary or contract jobs purely because they have families to feed and they need to take the first opportunity that comes their way.
The problem is that once you get into a contract job, it’s hard to get back out of it, precisely because of the fatal assumption that we’re talking about here. Hiring managers look at their resume and think, “Oh, they had a good job and now they’re a contractor, therefore nobody wants them.”
I recently talked to a CFO who said that one guy was thanking her for hiring them as a temp and believing in them. They’re now a director with a handful of people reporting to them in a SaaS company.
Putting too much faith in titles
Job titles come about in a variety of different ways, and they’re not always a description of what the person’s role is or what their capabilities are. Every company is different.
For example, some companies call their people financial analysts or financial managers, even though they’re really accountants. If you’re hiring a new accountant, you could easily think “these are all finance managers and not accountants”.
That’s why you need to read between the lines when it comes to people’s resumes. Don’t just look at their titles and the levels of their titles, because that can be misleading. The same person could be a Vice President of Sales at one company and a Sales Manager at another.
Assuming that managers don’t want to be individual contributors
Another big mistake I see is that people assume that if someone’s led a team, they have no interest in being an individual contributor.
We need to remember that people are often looking for growth and a cultural fit. Some people also find that they don’t enjoy management, or they think they’re better suited and can make more of an impact as an individual contributor.
The opposite can be true, too. Women in particular tend to hold themselves back, assuming that you’re more likely to hire them as an individual contributor to begin with and to progress them to a leadership role once their children are a little older.
Assuming that people without an online presence aren’t tech savvy
In this day and age, hiring managers often expect people to be active on social networks, especially sites like Twitter and LinkedIn. They’ll assume that if people don’t have an online presence, they’re either not technically savvy or they’re not motivated in their job.
My counter argument is that maybe they just have different priorities. Being active on LinkedIn is no reflection of whether they’re good at their job or not. I know a ton of people who don’t use LinkedIn and are great at their jobs. They just choose to spend their time on self-improvement and carrying out their duties instead of trying to build their brand on LinkedIn.
Looking for people who’ve done the exact job they’re hiring for
A lot of people are looking to hire people who’ve done exactly what they need their new hire to do, but here’s the thing. Great people don’t want to do the same thing over and over again.
True, we all like a little consistency, but we also want to be challenged and to learn new skills. I’ve heard it said that you’re not growing unless you’re uncomfortable. I say, look at whether they’ve carried out other projects from scratch, but don’t obsess too much about whether they’ve done exactly what you’re looking for.
Discounting people from different-sized companies
It’s a well-known stereotype that if you work for a large company, it’s hard to make the transition to a smaller one. I agree with this to an extent, but there are always exceptions to the rule.
Small companies are usually scrappy and don’t want everything to be laid out for them. People seem to think that at bigger companies, people have everything done for them by their team and they don’t have to show any individual initiative.
A lot of the time, it comes down to personality. Is the person you’re hiring the type of person that will dig in and get involved, or do they just want to be a leader? And what kind of person do you need at your company? Don’t just dismiss them outright because they’re used to working for a company of a different size.
Conclusion
These are just a few of the fatal assumptions that I come across time and time again when working with hiring leaders, but I’m sure there are plenty more. And so now it’s time to hand over to you so that you can share the fatal assumptions that you’ve come across, either by making them yourself or by seeing other people make them.
As always, I’d love to keep the discussion going, so be sure to let me know your thoughts in the comments. You can also follow me on your favourite social networking sites for more. I’ll see you soon for another article!
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