Common hiring mistakes you should avoid

Whether you're looking to fill a position quickly or are willing to overlook a couple red flags in favor of giving someone the benefit of the doubt, it is easy to make hiring mistakes.

1. Overlooking attitude or cultural fit in favour of skills
You can hire attitude but train skills, negativity is toxic and can destroy a small company, it's not worth taking the risk, a hard-working optimist will get up to speed with new skills quickly.

2. Hiring someone because you're desperate
As your company grows there are always going to be holes to fill, you're better off being patient and employing the right person rather than hiring someone because you need to.

3. Disregarding red flags during an interview and probation period
Sometimes you can be so fond of their personality and what someone could bring to your company that you ignore what they are not going to bring. Always be vigilant and recognise any potential red flags.

4. Allowing a manager to recruit too many friends
If a manager recruits friends, they could leave and then their friends may follow, it may seem unlikely but could easily happen. Evaluate how a new hire will affect the fragility of the team before making a decision.

5. Paying too much for shiny credentials
Be wary of anyone requesting a higher than industry standard salary. Call their references and research them carefully to ensure their overhead is balanced by their performance.

6. Hiring for the short-term rather than the long-term
Sometimes it's hard to slow down and take time to identify what kind of position you need to fill. But it's always worth going through the proper hiring procedure.

7. Not talking with enough references
Beck Bamberger of Bam Communications said: "We have a rather insane interview process, which includes having every candidate submit eight references. If you don't have at least eight people that can say outstanding stuff about you then you're probably not the calibre of team member we require."

8. Not listening to your gut feeling
Sometimes your inexplicable entrepreneurial intuition is trying to guide you down the right path so make sure to take a moment to see how you really feel about the candidate.

9. Rushing the process
'Slow to hire, quick to fire' is a great mentality. You should always interview your potential candidates multiple times and remember to get feedback from your colleagues too, they might have spotted a highlight or red flag that you haven't picked up on yourself.