Canadian employers know: it’s a tough labour market out there. When attracting, hiring and retaining qualified talent feels like pulling teeth, it’s time to take a hard, critical look at your hiring process.
What can be improved? What can be eliminated altogether?
Sometimes, hiring the good old-fashioned way does more harm than good. The labour market is changing, fast. Job seekers have a lot of leverage in the current climate and employers need to adapt if they’re going to be successful.
Without further ado, here are 10 bad hiring practices that you should avoid:
1. Not providing insight into the employee experience
In today’s labour market, employers have to promote jobs like marketers and sell them like salespeople.
The pandemic caused a shift in mindset among workers. No longer do employees want a standard 9 to 5 where they can clock in and clock out and keep their professional life separate from their personal life.
People want jobs that have meaning and provide opportunities to learn, grow and enrich their lives. Workers want jobs with a positive employee experience.
Think about what your company can offer new hire prospects in terms of company culture, values and perks. These are the types of things you should highlight in all your job advertisements!
In other words, flip the standard “Why do you want to work here?” interview question around and ask yourself, “Why should people want to work here?” What makes your company stand out? Do you offer free breakfast and coffee in the office in the morning? Share it! Does your team socialize during happy hour every other Friday? That’s something worth sharing, too! Is your organization involved in non-profit or charitable projects? Definitely include that detail in your job listing.
The employee experience matters. Make sure your hiring process flaunts a good one!
2. Not including a salary range in the job description
It’s always best practice to include a salary range in your job descriptions. Why? Without one, you’ll probably receive applications from both underqualified and overqualified applicants.
Getting underqualified applicants doesn’t do you any good. You’ll spend valuable resources meeting them and subsequently then screening them out.
Receiving overqualified applicants isn’t helpful either. You’ll spend more time interviewing them, only for them to drop out of the hiring process when they discover that the compensation on the table doesn’t meet their needs.
Not to mention, job seekers are much more likely to scroll past your online job ad if there aren’t any compensation details. Completing applications is tedious and takes a lot of time. Many people won’t bother putting in the effort if their future pay is a question mark.
Given how challenging the market is right now, employers can’t afford to waste time or miss out on potential applicants. Although it may go against what your organization has done in the past, seriously consider including a salary range or hourly wage in your job description.
You can find more information about publishing detailed job descriptions in our article, How to Recruit Qualified Candidates.
3. Ignoring internal applicants
Generally, most employers would agree that it’s easier to hire for entry-level and junior positions that don’t call for years of work experience.
That’s why ignoring internal applicants is a bad hiring practice that’s out of touch with the current reality of the market. By dismissing potential internal promotions, you’re essentially throwing away the opportunity to fill a skilled position and open a junior position.
Upskilling and reskilling your workforce is not just a trend or buzzword. It’s a cost-saving solution to the labour crisis in Canada. As an employer, publish all your job ads internally as well as externally. If there’s interest from within your workforce, consider upskilling and promoting those individuals into the desired role. It will be a lot easier to fill the position they leave behind.
Studies have shown that the cost of upskilling is far less than the cost of external hiring. You can learn more about the facts and numbers in our in-depth article, The Canadian Labour Market: The Future is Upskilled.
4. Ignoring previous applicants
Did you hire someone six months ago? Don’t forget about the shortlist of candidates you had at the final stage of the hiring process. Who knows but those candidates who were your #2 and #3 picks then may still be looking for a job (or be willing to leave their current job for a better offer)!
Many people are willing to leave their position for better pay and benefits. With that in mind, keep close track of all the candidates you interact with during your hiring processes organization-wide. Maybe someone who isn’t the right fit for one department could slide in perfectly in another. Train your hiring personnel to interview candidates with a broad understanding of all the current and future openings at your department.
If someone doesn’t get the job this time around, ask them if they’d be open to you contacting them in the future. Even if they’re not interested in a role six months later, they might be able to refer you to someone who is.
Your network is an important tool. Make sure you’re adding people to it regularly!
5. Mandating in-person interviews
It’s a virtual world out there. As much as many employers may personally prefer conducting in-person interviews, the truth is that asking someone to come into the office on a weekday is an outdated practice.
For starters, everyone knows that the COVID-19 pandemic made in-person appointments a safety risk. But it’s not only the health concern that makes the in-person interview old school. It’s the fact that you’re limiting your reach.
Qualified job candidates are a hot commodity and passive candidates already have full-time gigs on the go. If you demand that someone commute to an interview during work hours, they might turn down the interview altogether.
Be as flexible as you can with your interview format and time. Offer both video interviews and phone interviews. Offer 12 pm (lunchtime) interviews and 5 pm (after work hours) interviews. The goal should be to make it as easy as possible for the job candidate to connect with you. That way, they’ll be more likely to attend the interview and you’ll be one step closer to a new hire.
6. Ghosting candidates
Failing to respond to a candidate is unacceptable hiring etiquette—but unfortunately, it happens a lot. In the busy corporate world, it can be easier to forget about an unqualified candidate’s follow-up email than to respond with a “no.”
Etiquette aside, though, it really is in your best interest to take the time to let someone know they didn’t get the job. Why? People talk. The candidate that you ghosted may very well spread the word (or worse, write a negative online review) saying that your company is unresponsive and unreliable. Too many negative reports like those and you could turn your brand into a “need-not-apply” among job seekers.
In summary, spending the time it takes to write a brief-but-polite rejection email is the right thing to do, plus, it can prevent damage to your brand’s reputation.
If you really need to, consider drafting template emails ahead of time so that when your schedule fills up, it’s even easier to update those candidates.
What’s more, remember bad practice #4 on this list: ignoring previous applicants. If you play it right, these candidates could potentially be a future talent pool for you. Always reply and always follow up!
7. Not using social media
Is your business on social media? Why not? Why limit your reach? Millions and millions of people are on social media every day. You’ll cast a much wider net if you post your job ads on Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
Often, people who aren’t even looking for jobs will share these kinds of posts with their networks or tag individuals who they know are looking for a job. There are even dedicated social groups for job seekers where these kinds of social posts are sought out.
Your odds of reaching more active and passive candidates skyrocket when you use popular social media platforms in addition to traditional online job boards.
Learning how to use these forms of media may take some getting used to, but you’ll find the time you invest has a big pay-off.
8. Making the interview process too long
Time is valuable. Unless it’s a high-level position, 3 interviews and a couple of skill-testing exercises is too much to ask of job seekers. If you demand too much time from your candidates, you risk losing them altogether.
Remember that your candidates are likely working a full-time job and balancing multiple interview processes at the same time they’re going through your hiring process.
Streamline your hiring strategy so that there are no redundancies or inefficiencies from point A to B.
For example, instead of having 3 interviews, first with an HR representative, then with a mid-tier manager and third with the top manager, consider grouping interviews together so that the HR rep and the mid-tier manager co-host an interview.
Or, if you can’t group interviews together, at least make sure that interview notes are shared between interviewers. That way, candidates won’t get asked the same questions three times in a row.
Going one step further, communicate clear timelines with your candidates. At the end of the first interview, tell them when they can expect a response. Candidates that are left hanging one, two or even three weeks with no word from a hiring manager will move on to the next opportunity. It’s better for everyone if you can provide a follow-up timeline.
9. Conducting one-sided interviews
The “hot-seat” interview style is a thing of the past. Don’t treat candidates like they need the job you’re offering. We’re in a candidate-driven labour market, and, most likely, they’ve got options. Interviews should always be two-way conversations where the interviewee has the chance to ask questions about work culture, hours, benefits and more.
In a lot of ways, the job candidate is interviewing you as an employer just as much as you’re interviewing them. Be aware that the way you speak about the job and the organization will influence how the candidate perceives the opportunity.
Create space for a respectful two-way exchange in every interview.
10. Making the application process too long
A user-friendly application process is a key to attracting lots of submissions. Active job seekers don’t want to spend 3-5 hours on a single job application.
A great example of an outdated practice is the manual entry of resumes. Many corporate job applications force the user to enter all the details of their resume one by one instead of simply asking them to upload a PDF or Word document. Why make the candidate re-enter all the names and dates of their degrees, work experiences and certifications? It’s a glaring waste of time and it will certainly impact your submission results.
Re-evaluate your online application process from the end user’s perspective. Are there one too many essay-like response questions? Take them out or reduce the minimum word count. The simpler you can make the application process, the better.
Remember, you can always get more detailed information later on in the hiring process.
Make hiring easier with Adecco
How many outdated recruiting practices is your company still using in 2022? It’s time to flip the switch and adapt to the changes that are happening Canada-wide. If you’d like support with your organization’s staffing needs, Adecco is standing by.
We’re North America’s largest recruitment solutions and HR consulting services company, using cutting-edge data and our network of 50+ branches to source top talent. Contact us today!