Common mistakes in talent attraction and how to learn from them

No one is perfect. We all make mistakes. Even the most experienced employers make mistakes during the hiring process. 2023 research revealed 83% of Australian small business owners and leaders admit to having made costly mistakes.

How people manage mistakes is innate. According to NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming), the human brain is designed to focus 80% on avoiding pain and 20% on achieving pleasure. This suggests that people naturally try to avoid mistakes to avoid the pain of the consequences. 

How people manage mistakes also links to childhood experiences. According to Cambridge research, a child who communicates a lot and makes a few mistakes is much more likely to develop confidence and skills than a child who communicates very little because they’re afraid to make mistakes.

Making a mistake can seem like the worst thing in the world at the time. In reality, learning from mistakes can provide a valuable life lesson and help you develop personally and professionally.

Why mistakes are good for professional growth

Mistakes act as a tool to enhance both personal and professional growth. Here are a few reasons why you should learn to love your mistakes.

Mistakes provide valuable learning opportunities

As American industrialist Henry Ford said, ‘The only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.’

Mistakes provide unique opportunities to learn from real-world experiences. They help you learn faster and more efficiently, like on-the-job training! If you are directly involved in making a mistake, you are more likely to be driven to make a positive change as a result.

By acknowledging what went wrong, you can identify areas that need improvement and gain insights into how to refine your future hiring strategies.

Mistakes lead to growth

Your mindset plays a significant role in how you view your mistakes and, more importantly, how you react to them. According to MindTools, if you have a growth mindset, you are more likely to treat mistakes as an opportunity to improve. This means you are less likely to repeat errors than when your mindset is fixed on the belief that you can’t improve.

Mistakes provide room for innovation

Encouraging a culture that welcomes mistakes means that your team will be more likely to feel comfortable proposing new ideas and taking calculated risks. This can lead to better ways of attracting top talent.

Mistakes improve decision-making

When you recognise your mistakes, you can become more conscious of potential pitfalls. This heightened awareness enables you to make more informed and precise decisions in the future. 

Mistakes build team resilience

Mistakes can be disheartening, but embracing them cultivates resilience among your talent team and your organisation as a whole. Overcoming challenges can make your team stronger, more adaptable and more determined to succeed.

Common hiring mistakes

To better understand how to learn from mistakes, it can be helpful to identify some of the most common mistakes made in the hiring process. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, ‘Learn from the mistakes of others. You can’t live long enough to make them all yourself.’

Here are a few mistakes you can learn from!

Not starting the process with a needs analysis

‘Not starting with a needs analysis is a common mistake I’ve seen over the years,’ says Heart Talent founder Cynthia Harris. 

‘You need to work out what the purpose of the role is, what has changed since the last time you recruited and what you need this role/person to deliver in the future. Then you need to engage with key stakeholders, be honest about key challenges and be clear about what success will look like.

Recruitment is not an administrative process or a transaction. It’s the start of an important relationship. Grabbing a few lines from the job description to create a job ad just won’t cut it.

Overlooking someone’s culture add

People’s skills and experience are crucial, but overlooking the importance of culture-add could mean you miss out on the benefits of diversity in the team including greater creativity, innovation, productivity and engagement as well as retention. Ask yourself, how can this person add to our team culture?

Rushing the process

Pressure to fill a job position quickly can result in hasty decision-making. Rushing through interviews and skipping background checks might lead you to hire someone who is not right for the role. 

Making assumptions

‘Making assumptions about anything is a bad way to approach the hiring process,’ explains Cynthia. ‘This is a human process. We’re dealing with real people with real thoughts and feelings. Things change. Always confirm everything.’

Neglecting the candidate experience

Candidate experience is one of the cornerstones of your employer brand. It matters. Treating people poorly during the hiring process can harm your reputation. A negative experience can drive away potential talent and may lead to a smaller talent pool in the long run. It could also have adverse repercussions for the employee experience if the person hired carries pessimistic feelings with them born from the hiring process.

Avoiding salary transparency

Include the salary or at least a salary bracket to provide a better understanding of the role you are advertising. This helps you set expectations from the start and shows that you are a fair, honest workplace. ‘You simply have to be transparent about the salary of a job,’ says Cynthia. ‘If you’re not, it’s a waste of everyone’s time and doesn’t send a positive message about your organisation.’

Job ads that include salary information get up to 7 times more applicants. 

A post and pray approach

‘Unfortunately, many hiring teams are still posting an ad on a job board and crossing their fingers,’ says Cynthia. ‘In most cases, the job ad reads like a shopping list cut and pasted from a job description and is all about the employer, rather than the audience they are trying to reach. This approach will still get you applications, but it won’t attract top talent.’

How to learn from mistakes made in the hiring process

A study by the Society for Human Resource Management reported that the cost of a bad hire can range from tens of thousands of dollars to as much as five times the position’s annual salary.  

If you actively learn from hiring mistakes, you are more likely to see improvements in your ability to attract the best talent.

Here are a few ways to come back from a mistake.

Review your work after each hire

After each hiring process, conduct a thorough review of the decisions made and the outcomes. Look for patterns in successful hires, and identify areas where improvements can be made.

Ask for feedback from applicants

Reach out to the people who applied for the job, especially those who were not successful. Ask for feedback on their experience to gain insights into what areas need improvement. 

Invest in training and development

Provide ongoing training and development for your talent specialists to ensure they stay up to date with best practices, industry trends and bias reduction techniques.

Use the technology available

There are great tracking systems and data analytics to help you make informed decisions in the hiring process. Data-driven hiring can help you identify top-performing talent and improve the overall process.

Wrapping up

Embracing mistakes is a vital part of a successful hiring process. By acknowledging and learning from common errors, you can build a more efficient and effective recruitment strategy. With a mindset of continuous learning, your organisation can attract and retain top talent, setting the stage for long-term success. 

Learn to love your mistakes and embrace your failures!

For more insights, visit the Heart Talent blog.