I’ve given a talk to several hiring managers at the importance of mistake free hiring. Not once has anyone taken this seriously. They say it is impossible. They say the study of human behavior is an imperfect science. They say there will always be mistakes.

I say that is nonsense! Of course mistake free hiring is possible and it happens every day. The question is, how do you define a mistake in a hiring process?

Now you’re thinking that there is probably a catch here right? No, no, that’s not how this works. A mistake to me is making a wrong decision based on bad information or carelessness. So how can you reduce these two things in order to make mistake free decisions?

1. Don’t make big decisions based on things you can’t independently verify. That means you have to ask the right questions that you can verify through past employers or you don’t consider it. So if someone said they were the top salesperson in their district for three years, you should be able to get information to confirm that.
2. Stop using your gut so much. Yes, I believe your gut can get you in to trouble. Whenever someone interviews good and gets you excited about the position, you want to act immediately and make rash decisions. Bad idea.
3. Use a set of criteria that is job related. I don’t know how employers hire without weighing what is important to them and what is not. It seems super critical to the way you run your business and interview your future employees.
4. Don’t forget the small things. Background checks get glossed over for superstar candidates. Reference checks are never followed up on. And then you find out you could have avoided the pain if only you went through the process the same way every time and avoid the carelessness that comes with not executing on the little things.

What other ways do you use to try to avoid mistakes within your hiring process?