Ways of avoiding consistently poor hiring decisions

Regular readers of the blog of recruitment experts Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) will know just how damaging it can be to make the wrong hiring decision. In today's competitive business environment, a weak link in your organisation can have wide-ranging consequences, from poor quality work and negative workplace morale to the loss of established and valued clients.

In times like these, when resources are more limited than ever, companies need to be particularly careful when recruiting staff. Weak employees are a strain on human resource departments, requiring more training and performance evaluations. These can be costly and may not even bring the desired results from the employee.

When an employee’s poor performance and need for continual reprimand begins to have a detrimental effect on the company, that employee inevitably has to be replaced. And all too often, a bad hire is not a one-off event, but a symptom of a wider, poorly researched staff recruitment strategy that places too much emphasis on short-term requirements.

For such time-pressed and cash-strapped recruiters, simple steps are therefore necessary to ensure that they begin to recruit successfully once more. Both short-term and long-term workplace planning is vital, for example, encompassing succession planning, hiring forecasts and the development of candidate pools, to make staff recruitment easier in future.

If you are to hire a quality candidate rather than a weak one, then you will need to use your specialist industry knowledge to inform your strategy. Furthermore, a reputable recruitment agency like Webrecruit can provide such services as CV database searching, applicant response management, screening and interviewing options and online skills testing, efficiently weeding out less desirable candidates so that you can quickly hire those of the best quality.

You can also minimise your chances of a poor hiring decision by including passive candidates in your search. These are the candidates who tend to be happy in their present roles, but who may be experiencing a lack of challenge or opportunity for growth, making them more receptive to another company's approach. Nonetheless, active candidates should not be excluded, given the many quality candidates who can arise from such processes as business closures and downsizing.

With a poor hire potentially costing several times that employee's salary, it is vital to make the right hire time and time again. Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) can help you to achieve this, with its extensive services that include - but are not restricted to - job board recruitment advertising, personal candidate management and talent pool creation and management options.

Editor’s Note: Webrecruit (http://www.webrecruit.co.uk) are represented by the search engine advertising and digital marketing specialists Jumping Spider Media. Email: info@jumpingspidermedia.co.uk or call: +44 (0)20 3070 1959 / +34 952 783 637.