9 Hiring Myths That You Shouldn’t Believe

Are you currently hiring new employees? Before you do anything else, let us debunk a few common hiring myths. If you believe these common misconceptions about the hiring process, it may result in you making a bad hire – and you certainly don’t want that.

An image of the myth of a pot of gold at the end of the rainbow

If you want to recruit and hire the best candidates, stay up-to-date on the hiring industry to discover what works and what doesn’t work. When you open your eyes to what’s really going on, it can definitely be a game changer.

The following hiring myths have more in common with dragons, mermaids, unicorns, or leprechauns with pots of gold than with hiring reality. Do you believe any of these hiring myths?

  1. The Best Job Candidates Will Find You – Without actively recruiting and promoting your employer brand, the best job candidates won’t find you. You need to target them in the right places.
  2. Technology Does All The Recruiting For You – Technology is great, but it’s not the only thing. Personalizing the experience and having positive interactions with job seekers is a key component to recruiting top talent.
  3. The Perfect Employee Really Does Exist – It’s not about finding the perfect candidate. It’s about finding the right person for the job. If you’re holding out for the candidate you dream about, you’re going to be waiting a very long time.
  4. Only Recruit When You Have An Open Position – Even when your company has zero job openings, you still need to be actively recruiting people to add to your talent pool. Recruiting is an ongoing process. Always network, build your online presence, and promote your employer brand. It will pay off when you do need to hire.
  5. Eliminate Any Candidate Without Relevant Experience – Just because a candidate lacks specific experience isn’t a reason to discard their application. Consider hiring for personality over skill.
  6. Interviews Will Tell You Everything You Need To Know – While the interview is very revealing, it won’t tell you everything you need to know about a candidate. Bad candidates can interview great and great candidates can interview poorly. It’s a hit or miss part of the hiring process that requires you to dig deeper.
  7. Job Hoppers Are Not Worth Hiring – Everyone wants to hire a loyal new employee. When a job hopper has multiple employers in their recent history, it can make them look bad – but maybe that job candidate is just trying to find the right fit. Learn more about hiring job hoppers on JobMonkey.
  8. Reference Checks Are A Waste Of Time – Wrong. Reference checks are an incredibly valuable hiring tool. Always check multiple references to verify that a job candidate is the right person for the job. You’ll be amazed at what you can learn from other professionals.
  9. Passive Candidates Aren’t Interested In Your Job Openings – Passive candidates are actually one of the best people to target for your job openings. With the right tactics you can expand your target audience to include more qualified and experienced candidates.

Does this change your perspective on hiring at all? Make some small tweaks to how you view the hiring process. It can have positive results in the success of your company.

We constantly scour the web for great hiring advice and we’ve definitely noticed that there is lots of conflicting advice out there. It’s up to you to sort through it all and determine what applies to you and what doesn’t. Now go out there and hire the best person for the job.

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