Common Hiring Mistakes To Avoid When Recruiting Tech Talent

The great news is that your company is growing and you’re looking to expand your headcount as a result. Even better, you are aware that the hiring market is tough, and you are taking the proactive step to understand the errors other employers make.

In this blog, I discuss some of the most common hiring mistakes I’ve witnessed happen time after time when recruiting tech talent and how you can avoid making them.

Common hiring mistakes: Refusing to use recruitment agents

This may sound biased, and you’re allowed to take this with a pinch of salt – but recruitment consultants like me know what we are doing and are the best people to trust with your next hire. We have seen and heard it all and can help you avoid making these mistakes.

Here at VIQU, we’re vertical market IT specialists, meaning that we understand the current market conditions for recruiting tech talent. We have our finger on the pulse, know what other companies are offering, and can advise how you should adapt your expectations accordingly.

We can support you on every aspect of the process – everything from whether you need a permanent or contract resource for the skills you require, to the interview questions you could ask and salary/rate negotiations.

We ask the questions you might forget and can support with processes you might not have knowledge of internally – such as technical assessments, reference checks, IR35 status determinations, and right to work confirmations.

IT recruitment specialists like VIQU can take the stress out of the hiring process, handling as many or as few aspects as you desire, meaning that you have complete control without the workload.

Failing to involve the right people

You have written a job spec, advertised the role, looked through CVs, and secured candidates for interview – but have you consulted the candidate’s potential manager?

On many occasions, hiring talent is tasked to areas of the business, where the employee has no knowledge of what they are trying to recruit. It may seem obvious, but always ensure you talk to the manager of the team the candidate would be going into. This happens more often than you think, and it can lead to a breakdown in the hiring process.

One occasion that springs to mind is where a company failed to test a candidate’s competencies. The candidate they were about to choose didn’t have certain skills required for the job role. Instead, the hiring manager was more focused on company and cultural fit. Whilst this is important, checking competencies is a must. Without getting the right people involved, certain important pieces of information can be left out and create a bad recruitment process.

If it’s a specific project you’re hiring someone for, get the project manager on the hiring panel, or if it’s a job within your tech team, get the manager or the head of the department involved. You can’t rely on a company hiring manager or HR specialist alone to be able to identify the right person.

Taking CVs at face value

Failing to check competencies can derail the procedure and make it into a bad recruitment process. Unfortunately, not every candidate tells the whole truth, and a quick skills assessment or asking competency-based questions in the interview can show that the candidate has the relevant experience.

Everyone wants to sell themselves well in interviews, so make sure to do your due diligence in order that these claims can be proven.

Overselling or underselling the role

When recruiting tech talent, ask yourself these questions:

• Does the salary match the market value for the level of responsibility you are expecting?
• Have you promised benefits you can’t deliver?
• Do you have flexible working options or are you willing to offer them?
• Is the way you have sold your company and the role a real reflection of what their workload and responsibilities will be like?
• Were you honest about what they can achieve at the company in terms of career aspirations and training?

The hiring process can be long, and you don’t want to have to repeat it 3 months later because you didn’t provide an accurate reality of the pressures of the job and the employee has left. Furthermore, you don’t want to miss out on top talent by not mentioning the benefits you can provide. In this candidate driven market, companies are increasingly aware of the need to sell themselves in order to get the top talent.

Ignoring the warning signs

One of the biggest and most common hiring mistakes you can make is ignoring the warning signs. Here are some frequent red flags to keep in your mind when going through the hiring process:

• Turning up late
• Irregularities in the CV
• Refusing to turn the camera on (if it’s a video interview)
• Contradictions between their CV and what they say in the interview
• Inability to explain their experiences or demonstrate the skills they say they have

These red flags shouldn’t be ignored. Ask the candidate if you have any straightforward concerns, it may be something they can answer. However, if you get a gut feeling something is wrong, trust it.

Rushing to hire

It’s understandable – for whatever reason, you might be looking for someone to fill a role as soon as possible.

However, rushing to hire can make all the common hiring mistakes we’ve been discussing more likely, as you might cut corners or make concessions you later regret. If you need someone immediately, consider whether a contractor or permanent employee would fit the role best. If you decide you need someone permanently, take on a contractor to cover the interim period, while you get the hiring process for your future permanent employee right.

Overall, there is a multitude of common hiring mistakes that companies regularly make. From ignoring the warning signs to underselling the role, there are many times within the hiring process when you can fall down. However, if you take your time, do it properly and keep all these elements in mind, you will be able to avoid them and make a great hire!

Do you have holes in your hiring process? Do you need some support with your next IT hire? Please click here to get in touch, or find out more about the areas of IT we specialise in here.