Are You Hiring in the Dark? 5 Reasons You're Passing Over Your Best Candidate
You’ve done it all by the book and it's worked for you before. You've written a detailed job description, screened a mountain of CVs, and conducted a series of interviews. You’ve even made an offer. But you've just got that nagging feeling about it! Are you hiring a good candidate, and missing a great one?
It’s a silent epidemic in the world of recruitment we believe. Employers often construe their process is airtight, yet they consistently fail to select the person who would have truly excelled in the role. The costs can be immense: wasted recruitment budgets, lost productivity, and the ripple effect a poor or mediocre hire has on your teams morale.
The problem isn't because of a lack of good candidates in most instances. The problem often relates to a flawed selection process that systematically filters them out.
Here are the five most common reasons you’re not selecting the best candidate for your role, and how to fix them.
1. The "Halo Effect" of the Polished Interviewer
The Problem: You meet a candidate who is charismatic, confident, and answers every behavioural question with a perfect STAR (Situation, Task, Action, Result) story. They interview quite brilliantly. However, being good at interviews is a skill in itself, not necessarily a correlate for being good at the job. You risk hiring a professional interviewee who may lack the deep technical skills, humility, or collaborative spirit you truly need.
The Fix:
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Incorporate Skills-Based Assessments: Move beyond theory. For a marketing role, have them draft a campaign brief. For a developer, a live (but fair) coding exercise on a real-world problem. For a customer service rep, a role-play scenario. This tests their ability, not just their storytelling.
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Involve the Team: Have the candidate meet with future peers. They can often spot a cultural misfit or a skills gap that a manager might miss in a formal setting. The more people involved the more chance you pick up on this.
2. The Tyranny of the "Perfect" CV
The Problem: Your Applicant Tracking System (ATS) ,your hiring team or your choosen recruiters are sent away ruthlessly filter on keywords or skills: "Ivy League education," "10 years in SaaS," "Managed a team of 15." What this does is create a homogenous shortlist of candidates who look identical on paper. However this means, you’re dangerously eliminating diamonds in the rough—the self-taught coder, the career-changer with transferable skills, or the candidate from a non-traditional background who could bring a fresh perspective and pick up those essential skills in no time!
The Fix:
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Focus on Competencies, Not Credentials: Rewrite your job descriptions and screening criteria around core competencies. Instead of "5 years in X software," ask for "proven ability to automate complex workflows." This opens the door to a wider, more diverse talent pool.
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Implement Blind Screening: Why not seek to remove names, universities, and sometimes even years of experience from CVs for the initial screening round. Force the focus onto skills and achievements alone.
3. Unconscious Bias is Shaping Your Decisions
The Problem: We are naturally drawn to people who are like us—they went to the same school, support the same team, or share similar hobbies. This "affinity bias" means you might be favouring a candidate you have a natural rapport with, overlooking someone who is more qualified but different. Other biases, like confirmation bias, lead you to seek out information that supports your initial (and often quick) judgement of a candidate.
The Fix:
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Standardise Your Interviews: Use a structured interview process where every candidate is asked the same set of core questions. This creates a fair playing field and makes comparisons objective, not emotional.
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Use a Scorecard: Develop a simple scoring matrix for interviews based on the key competencies for the role. After each interview, score the candidate independently before discussing as a team. This data-driven approach minimises the influence of gut feeling and groupthink. Our blog articles make frequent references to scorecards.
4. You're Selling, Not Selecting
The Problem: In a competitive talent market, it's easy to slip into sales mode. You spend the entire interview selling the company vision, the perks, and the growth opportunities. While this is important, if you’re doing all the talking, you’re not gathering critical data on the candidate. You end the char or call feeling great, but with very little evidence of whether the candidate can actually do the job.
The Fix:
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Adopt an 80/20 Rule: Aim for the candidate to speak for 80% of the interview. Your role is to ask insightful questions and listen actively. Prepare probing follow-ups like, "What was your specific contribution in that project?" or "What would you do differently now?"
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Look for Curiosity: The best candidates will want to interview you. "Why should I come to you", is the great candidates stance. The great candidates come prepared with thoughtful questions about challenges, team dynamics, and success metrics. A lack of deep questions can be a major red flag.
5. The Process is Too Slow and Cumbersome
The Problem: You found a superb candidate. But your process involves four interviews, a task, and a two-week wait for committee approval. In that time, your top candidate—who is likely interviewing elsewhere—has accepted another offer. A slow process signals indecision, bureaucracy, and a lack of respect for the candidate's time. The best talent doesn’t wait around.
The Fix:
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Streamline and Accelerate: Map your hiring process and ruthlessly eliminate unnecessary steps. Can two interviews be consolidated? Can decisions be made faster? Empower your hiring managers to move swiftly.
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Communicate Transparently: Keep candidates warm. Be clear about your timeline and stick to it. A great candidate who feels valued and informed is far more likely to stay engaged.
The Bottom Line
Hiring is one of the most critical investments you will make. By moving away from gut feelings and outdated CV-screening, and towards a structured, competency-based, and empathetic process, you don’t just fill a role—you secure the talent that will drive your business forward.
It’s time to stop hiring in the dark. Shine a light on your process, and you’ll be amazed at the quality of candidate you discover.
How Can We Help?
We have placed and filled over 100,000 temp and permanent assignments over the last 30+ years so have a vast knowledge and range of techniques, ideas, and platforms that could help you. Why not call us on 0113 367 2880 have a conversation with one of our team. Alternatively, drop us an email here.
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