Five hiring mistakes growing businesses keep making
When a hire goes wrong, the post-mortem usually blames the candidate. In our experience the damage is done much earlier, before anyone ever applied. These are the five mistakes we see most, and what to do instead.
1. Writing the ad before defining the role
Most job ads are written in an afternoon by copying the last one. But if you cannot state what this person must achieve in their first year, no ad can attract the right people. Start with a proper role brief: the outcomes, the must-have capabilities, the salary band, and who they answer to. Everything downstream gets easier.
2. Pricing the role on hope
Advertising $70k for a role the market pays $85k does not save you $15k. It costs you six weeks of silence, then a restart. Benchmark the salary against current market data before the ad goes live, and decide up front whether you want to pay median or above it.
3. Treating the screening pile as the job
A decent ad on Seek can pull 80 to 200 applications. The owners we meet are scrolling them at 10pm, skimming, losing track, and quietly ghosting good people. Screening is a process: consistent criteria, a shortlist scored against the brief, and an answer for every applicant. If you do not have the hours, this is the single best stage to outsource.
4. Interviewing on vibes
Unstructured interviews feel great and predict almost nothing. Ask every candidate the same core questions, tied to the outcomes in your brief, and score them straight after each conversation. Keep the coffee chat, but do not let it be the whole assessment.
5. Winning the offer, losing the start
The riskiest fortnight in recruitment is between "yes" and day one. Counter-offers, cold feet and slow paperwork kill more hires than bad interviews do. Move fast on the written offer, stay in touch weekly, and have their first week planned before they arrive.
The pattern behind all five
None of these mistakes come from a lack of intelligence. They come from a lack of time and repetition; most managers hire a few times a year at most. That is exactly the gap an hourly talent partner fills: the process and the reps, without the percentage fee. If one of the five is biting you right now, book a free hiring chat and we will point you at the fix, whether or not you engage us.
Marque Talent runs recruitment by the hour. Never a percentage.
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