The Dumbest Mistakes Employers Make When Hiring

Everyone makes a mistake at least once. We're human.

But you'd think employers would stop making THESE mistakes. (These are all things that have happened to me, or to someone I know well.)

If you can't seem to find (or keep) the best people for the job, it's probably time to do away with:

Ignoring applications for weeks or even months. One employer contacted me several months after I'd applied, saying they were only just getting around to interviews. I'd taken a different job in the interim so I wouldn't starve to death. They aggressively demanded that I come in on the one day and at the one time when my current job legally required me to be present. Speaking of which...

Being completely inflexible about interview dates and times. This one astounds me. The perfect candidate might have to be in a mandatory meeting when you want to see them, or they might have to pick up their kids from school, or they might be defending their thesis, or they might have jury duty... and you'll cut them from the candidate list because they can't be in your office at the exact moment you want to see them? Really? One company waited until I'd driven for 45 minutes to get to a group interview, announced that they would only consider applicants who could come to a follow-up interview at a specific time two days later, and rudely threw me out when I explained that it was too late for me to change my schedule at my current job. And they kept emailing me after this. I'm not sure what they were trying to accomplish by doing that. On the subject of bewildering behavior...

Being late to the interview, failing to inform the candidate, and expecting them to put their day on hold for you. One interviewer was driving back from a vacation, left late, and kept me waiting for THREE HOURS. I didn't have to be at my current job that day, thankfully. If you expect candidates to be on time (or early), it's only fair to be on time yourself. Which reminds me...

Scheduling an interview and then forgetting about it. Yes, there are interviewers who do this. I went to an interview an hour from my house, only to discover that the person who was supposed to interview me had taken a personal day instead, and hadn't told anyone else I was coming. The person who did (begrudgingly) interview me worked in a different department, clearly had no idea what the position entailed, and didn't even glance at my resume. One week later, I had a nearly identical experience with a different company.

Not being honest with candidates. Who hasn't been recruited with promises of opportunity for advancement? It must be the most tired trope in the history of job hunting. Yes, the lower-level jobs need to be filled, but if you've promised to put someone in a higher role down the line and don't do it (or take too long), they are going to look for an employer who will, and you'll have to start the hiring process all over again. Ditto for promising health insurance that never materializes.

This can also have the unintended effect of irritating your customers. Longtime employees know their preferences, and if your customers have to "train" a replacement employee in a few months or even a few years, they probably won't like it. I've seen this happen with my newer co-workers. In fact, after I quit that job several customers approached me in public and told me "the new girl just isn't as good as you." Which brings me to...

Not listening to your employees. Some jobs—food service, retail—tend to have higher turnover than others. But some employers in those sectors have employees who stay for years, or even decades. Why? In my experience, if you take good care of your employees, they're more likely to stay put for longer. That means listening to their feedback and addressing their concerns.

Walt Disney made a point of talking to Cast Members at Disneyland, regardless of their role. He didn't always agree with them, but he sought out and considered their feedback.

Not dealing with a problematic employee. I had a manager who had a handful of favorites and treated everyone else like garbage—including me, because I wasn't afraid of her. When I gave notice, ten of my former coworkers quit over the next two weeks. Upper management knew about her behavior, but did nothing about it until they realized sales had fallen by several million dollars under her "leadership." People like this contribute significantly to turnover. It might make more sense, in the long run, to replace the problem employee.

Having a double standard on two weeks' notice. I have encountered employers who demanded that candidates be able to start immediately—yet, on the application, asked if candidates had ever left a job without working off two weeks' notice. Really?

Having a double standard on anything else. "You can't have any errors on your resume or job application," the experts all shriek. And yet, multiple recruiters/interviewers have sent me sloppy, typo-filled emails, as if autocorrect didn't exist. It doesn't exactly make the company look good.

One recruiter for a bank refused to interview me and was inexcusably nasty. In fact, he practically shoved me aside to talk to a male applicant who did not have relevant experience, did not bring a resume, and was wearing a smelly, stained t-shirt.

It just so happens that I had an account at that particular bank. They permanently lost my business that day.

Expectations are just not realistic. When I still worked in retail, one store called me about a management role. When I came in for the interview, the interviewer hinted very strongly that they wanted someone even younger than I was—ideally 22 to 23 years old. Most people with retail management experience are older than 23. That particular store location continued to post the exact same job listing for months, during a recession. Gee, I wonder why.

I also encountered a recurring job listing for a clothing factory receptionist... who had to be a perfect size 6 and a specific height, so she could double as a fit model. I understand wanting to save some time and money by hiring a candidate who can do two different things, but the perfect receptionist is not necessarily going to be fit-model size. And very few people are the exact same size all over. That ad ran for months (again, during a recession). God only knows who was answering the phones while their HR department searched in vain for a human mannequin willing to take a low-paying receptionist job.

The economy is booming, and applicants have more choices than usual. Keep these points in mind if you want the right people to choose your company.