As things start to open back up, many managers are in a position where they need to fill multiple jobs quickly. The recruiting process can be timely and for some there just isn’t enough time in the day. When filling position within your office, you want to make sure you are able to find great candidates to join your team. Below are the top 3 recruiting pitfalls and how to avoid them.

Rushing the Process

When hiring for a position, there is usually a deadline to battle against. If it is an urgent hire, it may be easy to think that rushing the hiring process by skipping a few steps or just taking the first person that meets all the requirements will do. However, this may cause you to hire the wrong person, putting you in even more of a bind in the long run. If you want quality workers that will elevate your team and not just a warm body to fill a job you will need to put a little time into your search.

Instead of rushing the process, take some time to determine exactly what you are looking for in a candidate. What is the skill level they must meet? What personality traits will best fit in with your team? How much experience is required to feel fully confident that they will do an exceptional job? Taking a little extra time at the beginning to figure out exactly what you want will help quicken your process without having to skip steps or hire the first person you see.

Vague Job Descriptions

The main point of a job description is to communicate to potential candidates exactly what is required for the position. Using vague terms and descriptions can be confusing or misleading to candidates, which in return, will likely cause you more work when filtering out the right candidates for the available position.

Instead of using vague terminology, be very specific about what you are looking for in a potential candidate. Feature key responsibilities, daily duties, required certifications and years of experience. The job description serves as your very first filtering system when recruiting potential candidates for an open position. The more detailed you are, the more effective the filtering system will be. If a job description is vague, you are likely going to get a lot of unqualified candidates applying.

Putting Your Eggs in One Basket

Everyone has done it. They interview the perfect candidate, everything looks great! They completely stop interviewing or considering others because they are so excited about the one they have found. They call to offer this perfect candidate the position only to find out that they have already accepted a position elsewhere. Now what?

When considering candidates for a position, always make room for a backup plan. You may have found the perfect candidate, but if they choose to go in another direction you need to have a few other options, so you don’t have to start over from scratch. Have a starting lineup of candidates that you would like to hire so if candidate #1 does not work out, you can immediately offer the position to candidate #2 without having to waste extra time re-interviewing.

Interviewing and hiring for positions can be a grueling task when you are already overwhelmed with other management duties. As you start the process, avoiding these pitfalls will help you in choosing a great candidate to join your team without having to restart the process over and over again.