Tips to Use to Avoid Making Bad Hires

Tips to Use to Avoid Making Bad Hires

Hiring a bad fit isn’t just annoying, it can cost you a lot of time and money.  Recruiters don’t make the final decision when making a new hire but play a key role in the hiring journey to get there.

Today’s round-table discussion will cover ways to avoid making a bad hire.

Listen in on what our panelists have to say.

This event is part of the “Let’s Talk Recruiting” series where a panel of recruiting practitioners get together online and have a conversation on a variety of topics related to corporate recruiting.


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Our Panelists…

Name & LinkedIn Profile Group Title Company

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We asked our attendees, “What is one tip you recommend recruiters should do to help a company avoid making a bad hire?”

Here are their answers:


Chat Messages from the Session…

10:03:18 >> From  Sean Rehder : Feel free to add any comments or questions here in the Chat area.

Make sure as an attendee, if you message something in the Chat area that you select “All Panelists and Attendees.” 

The default is just to Panelists but I want everyone to see the messages coming through.

10:09:40 >> From  Katelyn Dehm : For those of us who are new to the HR field, do you recommend any particular templates for scorecards? I am on SHRM, but was curious how you developed them internally.

10:13:31 >> From  Catherine Hansen : @All, do you as recruiter hold a debrief/reveal with the hiring team to review the collective scorecard/results?   Or is it only done with hiring manager?

10:13:55 >> From  Matt Liptak : we would do a round table usually at the end

10:16:09 >> From  Dang Hua : Anybody use Predictive Index in the selection process?

10:17:27 >> From  Daniella McDonald : @Dang, yes. In my last role we used PI.

10:18:01 >> From  Daniella McDonald : With the scorecards, are there specific questions you provide to hiring managers to ask about each of the criteria candidates are being evaluated on?

10:18:11 >> From  Dang Hua : High Level, what are your thoughts?

10:20:32 >> From  Catherine Hansen : @Cara, do you debrief for each candidate going through the process, or wait until all candidates in a round have completed the process?

10:21:07 >> From  Jessica Marotta : Do you debrief candidates against each other or the job?

10:21:11 >> From  Daniella McDonald : @Dang It’s a great tool to use as part of the process, along with resumes, screening questions. It provides insight into someone’s behavioral characteristics and how that might affect their performance. Or how a manager can manage that employee, communicate with them. What type of work might be best for the employee.

10:22:13 >> From  Matt Liptak : we debrief on candidates skill sets and interviews as compared to the role

10:22:37 >> From  Dang Hua : @Daniella Thank you for your insight!

10:24:32 >> From  Catherine Hansen : @All, excellent idea re requirement of scorecards/feedback completed before debrief.    How realistic is it that hiring panel is completing these in a timely manner?   HUGE issue at my company…..

10:27:03 >> From  Daniella McDonald : no problem @dang

10:27:35 >> From  Matt Englund   to   All panelists : I like to review the requirements for the role before diving into a debrief session to ensure everyone is aligned on what we’re looking for

10:29:07 >> From  Catherine Hansen : Agree, references etc is separate from debrief / interview feedback, and only hiring manager sees them.

10:29:27 >> From  Daniella McDonald : With the scorecards, are there specific questions you provide to hiring managers to ask about each of the criteria candidates are being evaluated on?

10:29:46 >> From  Catherine Hansen : What are anonymous reference checking tools – are they just looking to verify name, title, dates of employment?    Sounds a bit creepy……

10:30:20 >> From  Erika Klics : Today we use a company called SkillSurvey and we’re exploring a tool called Searchlight

10:30:37 >> From  Matt Liptak : second skill survey, what we use as well

10:31:01 >> From  Matt Liptak : it ranks the references and keeps them private

10:32:47 >> From  DeLaina Piowaty : We don’t do reference checks.  Candidates only give positive references. Its a waste of time.

10:33:06 >> From  David Marr   to   All panelists : Most of the companies I have worked at in the last 10 years don’t do Reference Checks, and within the last 5 years No background Checks or Drug Tests

10:33:11 >> From  Matt Liptak : with the automated checking tools, we have actually seen the opposite

10:33:18 >> From  Erika Klics : +1

10:33:26 >> From  Catherine Hansen : I would have been fired at my last (tech giant) job for checking references at beginning of stage.  Also backdoor reference checks are grounds for firing

10:33:27 >> From  Matt Liptak : candidates sign off on liability for their references

10:33:47 >> From  Matt Liptak : and we have not hired due to poor references from these tools

10:34:11 >> From  Kara Wilson : We also use a tool (Checkster) and have seen some surprising candid references. Even more impactful, we have seen some instances of fraud that the tool caught, which was even more telling than the references would be.

10:34:26 >> From  John Przybylek : Formal references don’t provide value.  To Glenn’s point, we can always track down someone who knew a candidate at a specific site, and has some anecdotes about said candidate’s performance, etc.

10:34:39 >> From  Maureen Daly   to   All panelists : would do at final stage and before offer

10:34:46 >> From  Jessica Marotta : We moved away from reference checking a few years back. as they did not add value. 

10:35:09 >> From  Jessica Marotta : *for Forrester

10:37:08 >> From  Catherine Hansen : Contacting people outside of those references given formally by candidate seems like an invasion of  privacy.   I think every working professional will have a detractor/non supporter in their career at some point

10:40:46 >> From  Cara Schaeffer : Many times, we check with our reception team to see how their interaction was with the candidate when they checked in for their interview.

10:45:48 >> From  Jessica Marotta : I love that! Aren’t going to hold onto the baggage from the interview.

10:53:26 >> From  John Przybylek : We dissect exit interview feedback to identify root cause of the separation.

10:54:05 >> From  Catherine Hansen : +1

10:57:23 >> From  Jessica Marotta : +1 Sean

10:57:37 >> From  Sandra Maldonado : This was an informative workshop with tools and ideas that can add value.

10:57:40 >> From  Catherine Hansen : Thank you panelists!

10:58:07 >> From  Kimberly Dymond Balogh   to   All panelists : This has been great information!  Thank you panel

10:59:58 >> From  John Przybylek : Thanks guys

11:00:11 >> From  Maureen Daly   to   All panelists : thanks everyone


Some of the attendees…

Name & LinkedIn Profile Group Title Company

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