Real Life Hiring Mistakes

What Mistakes Have WE Made As A Company When it Comes To Hiring That Have Cost Us?

Not questioning motives enough

We had a guy come to us who seemed like an ABSOLUTE KILLER when it came to sales and marketing. He hunted the hiring manager down on Instagram and sent him a DM. He interviewed like a champ. He answered all the questions right, etc. In his past, he helped start-ups, he owned a personal training company before moving to TN that made over $10k/month, he was an "influencer” who made good money online, etc.

What we didn’t do is question his motives enough for WHY he wanted to be here. He had good answers like “I love dogs”, “I’m burnt out on the personal training business”, “I want to help build something”, etc. and all those answers are valid. They all made sense to the hiring manager at the time, but they didn’t make sense to some of the other people on the team.

No one on the team brought it up though and so the hiring manager pulled the trigger, we trained him and it went south quick. The guy absolutely sucked and lost us A ton of money. He missed ~50K of sales in 6 weeks.

What we should have done better here:

-Checked references

-Called former employers

-Dug into his WHY

Lessons:

-If it is too good to be true, it probably is

-If it’s sketchy or questionable, QUESTION IT

Not doing background checks or calling former employers — AKA Not Following Hiring Protocol

We hired a guy one time who sucked at his job. We found out quickly. He turned out to be a drug addict and overall, just wasn’t a great employee.

We interviewed him and he was really cool. He interviewed well. He was respectable, looked good, etc. Work history was okay too.

He turned out to be a drug addict, he didn’t answer his phone, didn’t take instruction well, etc.

What we should have done better here:

-Called his former employers

-Done a background check

Lessons:

-Follow the hiring protocol. It’s laid out the way it is for a reason.

Not Testing People’s Ability Before Hiring

We used to do a “Ride Day” where people came with a DP/EP/GK and see the job. They would observe, get a feel for the position, see if they like it, see if they could see themselves doing it, etc. That’s fine and it worked well for a while, but we didn’t get to see people in their element when they are the one doing the thing. We didn’t see how well they implemented, how well they took feedback, etc.

So we switched to a Try Out. They get to see the job at some point, but they have to DO the job in front of us. If they are a Dog Pro, we have them train a dog in front of us after we showed them what to do. If they are an EP, we have them use the sheet and pitch us. If they are a GK, we have them do the script to us, etc.

If we don’t test peoples ability, their ability to implement feedback, their ability to think on the fly, their ability to make decisions, etc. we may end up with someone who rocks… BUT they can’t do the job. It is IMPERATIVE to test people. To make them TRY OUT or AUDITION for the job they seek. If we don’t we may end up having to let someone go shortly after hiring them which isn’t good for US or THEM.

Not Following Your “Gut” or Intuition

Our hiring manager one time didn’t follow his gut when hiring a sales guy. The guy we hired had accolades and was a great sales rep at the thing he was selling. He was AWFUL at selling dog training. Upon reflection, our hiring manager KNEW to not hire this gentleman. His gut told him not to.

He did it anyway and the guy turned out to be bad at his job, called into work on a day he was supposed to fulfill an obligation to a network partner and got us in a hiccup with a partner.

It was a bad situation, but this caused us some problems because we missed a lot of sales during the short tenure of this gentleman.

What we should have done better here:

-Listened to gut feeling and not gone against a gut feeling to hire someone when the Hiring Manager knew it wasn’t the right decison

Lessons:

-Trust your gut or intuition when hiring

Not being willing to say no after a third interview because they already spent this much time with us

If you’re the empathetic type, this one is hard. But one mistake we’ve seen rookie/more empathetic hiring managers make is not being willing to say NO because someone made it so far in the process.

By the time a try out is over, they may have 4-6 hours invested into interviewing with us.

If you “feel bad” because they spent this much time with us and we’re saying NO, you probably shouldn’t be hiring. This attitude has resulted in a handful of mediocre hires oover the years and always end up costing us money and time.

No matter how far or deep someone is into the application and interview process, we can never feel bad for saying no to them if they aren’t a good fit. Period.

Not being willing to say no is a good way to end up with mediocre hires and disappointed team. If we make a bad hire and have to let them go because they can’t live up to the culture here or don’t do a god job, that is not only bad for us, but it’s bad for them. We need to make sure we’re willing to say NO, no matter how far they are into the process with us they are.

Having a lazy interviewer or hiring manager who just “Wants to get hiring over with so we can move on”

Having someone in charge of screening and calling applicants who isn’t okay with it taking a long time to hire shouldn’t be hiring. We’ve had a hiring manager before who just wanted to get it over with and was only willing to do one round of applicants and the results are about as bad as you’d expect.

Hiring can take a LONG time. That’s why it is SO important to get the RIGHT one on the team. No matter how long it takes. If we have someone over hiring who is not okay with it taking a long time, we’re gonna end up at the end of the Try Out process and have a handful of people to pick from. All of whom may not work well, but the person making the decision only has those people to choose from and has to pick the one who is the least worst.

So we want someone doing hiring and screening who is okay with screening and doing calls until the RIGHT ones are in the pipeline.

Hiring Quickly Because We Need To Fill A Void

There is pressure sometimes to make a call and make a decision because we have clients waiting, we have sales to make, leads stacking up, etc. BUT we can’t rush a decision because we are lacking team.

Being pressured by workload into making a decision is a BAD way to make a decision. Folding to that pressure is a great way to make a bad or mediocre hire.

No matter the workload, no matter the circumstances, don’t make a bad call because there’s a void on the team that needs to be filled. Seriously. It isn’t worth it.

Only sending 2 people to try Out’s

Picking between two people is almost as bad as picking just one person. If we’re hiring we need to send a minimum of 4-5 people through to Try Out’s to actually pick from. With the risk of the 4-5 people sent through may not be the right ones. Which means we may have to take longer and extend the hiring process.

We need to send more people to Try Out’s and have a handful of people to choose from. Two people is NOT enough to make a decision from.