Signs That Your Staffing Process is Out of Sync

Or… maybe it’s not quite that bad, but you still feel like no matter what you do, no matter who you hire, you just can’t seem to get people that you need to make your day go smoothly.

Most likely, that means that your Interviewing & Hiring processes are out of sync…

Depending on how big your company is, as few as one bad employee (I’m going to call him Steve) can cost you thousands… loose you valuable clients… slow down everyone around them… and in general make coming to work a misery for you and everyone around them.

So here’s three signs you can look for to tell if your interview/hire process is letting you hire Steve…

#1 – Do you find that you are constantly hearing complaints about the Steve from multiple people?

These complaints might be coming directly to you as formal complaints, but they might also just be the type of “general unrest” complaints that you hear in passing or in every day conversation with your team. Maybe it’s just the tone of voice everyone seems to use when they talk about Steve or projects they are working on with Steve.

Maybe Steve looked good on paper, and knew how to interact with one person well in the interview, but I bet Steve didn’t just “become” horrible when he started working for you. If his references would have been called prior to hiring him, you probably could have avoided hiring him. If he’s working closely with a team of people, you could have also brought in one or two of them in the interview to meet him and participate in the decision to hire him.

#2 – Do you feel like Steve is taking way too long to learn how to do the job he was hired for?

When you brought Steve on, you were looking for him to have some prior knowledge that would make him a good fit for this job, but it’s been forever and he still doesn’t seem to be catching on. Everything takes him too long to do, or he doesn’t do it right and someone else has to come behind him and fix it.

During the initial interview, Steve should have been assessed in a couple of key ways. The interviewer should have determined if Steve is able to learn quickly and keep up with demand. His work history should have also been checked to confirm the type of job he was doing that gave him experience. In some cases, the interview/hiring process should also include Steve’s ability being demonstrated in Task-Oriented interview session. You should also make sure that you are interviewer knows what the job requirements are – including experience, ability AND personality.

#3 – Steve always seems to be anywhere except for where you need him to be and doing everything except what you need him to do!

Maybe he’s constantly walking away to make a call. Maybe he’s always goofing off on social media when you walk up to his desk. Or even worse, maybe he just seems to “float” around the office and socialize with everyone and distract them from doing their jobs too.

This is another one of those traits that should have been exposed in the interview. Maybe the interviewer didn’t make a note of the fact that he couldn’t take his eyes off the bubble screen saver on the computer in the room during the interview. (I’ve actually had this happen… I had to snap my fingers in front of his face to get his attention so we could finish!) Because Steve looked good on his resume, and had all the requirements of the job, he was hired.

If all of this seems all too familiar to you, then you probably need to take a look at what you can do to improve your interviewing & hiring process. Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered… check out our free ebook that will teach you the basic things you need to do for every interview.