Common Mistakes Entrepreneurs Make When Hiring New Employees

Many solopreneurs get to the point where they can no longer manage their workload on their own. They can then make the exciting decision to hire employees and watch their businesses blossom. While many business owners do experience great success after hiring employees to help, others end up with a great deal of stress. When you’ve never hired employees before, you’re at risk of making some of these common mistakes:

Not Performing a Background Check

Many well-established businesses rely on companies like Triton Canada to perform background checks. Background checks can help you verify the information outlined in resumes and identify any potential red flags or risky attributes.

When you’ve never hired any employees before, it’s only natural that you want to skip this step and take your potential new employees at face value. However, this can be risky. If anything in that background check could impact your business’s operations or reputation, you might not know about it until it’s too late.

Not Checking References

Applicants can sound brilliant on paper. They can have all the skills and qualifications you’re looking for. They can even present a list of desirable qualities like time management and communication. In essence, they tick all the right boxes. You might even be further impressed when you meet them in person.

However, anyone can say and do the right things if it means they’ll land a new job they desperately want. Not every job applicant is entirely honest. In fact, over half of Americans have admitted to lying on their resume at least once.

You might not catch every applicant in a lie, but ringing their references and performing a few fact-checking exercises might help you be sure you’re about to hire the right person. Ring past employers and education providers at a minimum.

Not Offering a Competitive Package

Many parts of the world are currently experiencing a skills shortage. This means skilled workers are in hot demand, and some businesses struggle to fill vacancies. When you’ve never hired an employee before, you might not realize just how competitive your offerings have to be to stand out to job seekers. Failure to provide those competitive offerings might mean receiving fewer applications than anticipated.

Before you list a job advertisement, take the time to research what your competition is offering. When you know what employee expectations are, you can be better positioned to meet them. Stand out from the crowd by offering:

• A competitive salary
• Health insurance
• Paid time off
• Retirement benefits
• Wellness benefits

The more perks you can offer a prospective new employee, the higher your chances of securing quality talent to drive your business to success.

Not Advertising In the Right Places

There are so many different places to advertise jobs that it can be overwhelming to know where to begin. You might also experience more traction on some websites than others. If you have a niche job that not just anyone could fill, post it on a website dedicated to job hunters in your industry.

You might also experience luck finding suitable applicants for more general jobs on the most popular job seeker sites in your country. If you’re unsure where to start, research the top-used job seeker sites. Indeed, Glassdoor, and Monster are among the best in the United States.

Not Including the Right Information in Your Job Ad

Job seekers can be less likely to apply for jobs when they don’t have all the facts. They want to know what the role involves, how much they’ll be paid to do the job, where it is, and how many hours they’ll be required to work.

Include this information near the top of your job advertisement to potentially hire the most qualified employees. You can then include more facts further down the ad that the truly interested applicants will read. If you’re unsure how to create an effective job ad, check out advertisements by your competition. You can also contact recruiters who can handle the entire job ad process for you.

Not Performing a Phone Interview

Traditional steps to hire a new employee involve publishing a job advertisement and meeting potential applicants for in-person interviews. However, you might be able to speed up the hiring process by performing pre-interview phone calls.

Take 10 minutes out of your day to speak to potential new employees on the phone. Learn more about them, ask questions, and provide them with an opening for them to ask you questions. This phone call can help you narrow your list of people you want to interview in person.

Making the Interviewing Process Too Complicated

Given that it’s your first time hiring a new employee, you might base your hiring techniques on information you’ve read online. However, this can result in complicated interviewing processes that deter rather than attract applicants.

Due to some businesses requiring applicants to be involved in multiple interviews and calls, the average time-to-hire rate hit 44 days in the first quarter of 2023. Simplify and speed up your hiring process, and you might see more eager applicants.

Most new business owners make mistakes. You’ll likely be no different. However, when you know the most common hiring mistakes, you can be in an excellent position to avoid them.

Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash