You may think you know how to interview. You may think you’re a good judge of talent, or that you can always trust your gut. But if all of these were true, and if you were always able to assess whether a candidate had the right skills and personality—well, you wouldn’t have to hire very often, would you?

Candidates don’t always work out. Turnover might be high. And a bad hire is costly in terms of time and money. So how can you create a more successful hiring team? Avoid these three common mistakes:

1) Not putting time and effort into your interview process.

First things first: team members who are doing the interviewing should be trained and prepared. They need to create objectives for each position before ever meeting candidates. They need to put together a plan and develop criteria for assessing each one. And they need to do the preliminary work of at least reading each candidate’s resume, if not further research, before the interview so they can prepare specific questions.

2) Only looking at superficial criteria.

Experts tell job seekers to smile, look interviewers in the eye, offer a firm handshake and act confident. And we’ve all fallen for it, haven’t we? That type of candidate often gets the job offer over the other candidates who don’t do such a great job with the superficial. Possibly because after that positive first impression occurs, the rest of the interview will consist of softball-type questions in a more relaxed environment. People want to confirm that this candidate is as great as they thought. So, ensure that your interviewers are assessing criteria that truly matter to job effectiveness.

3) Not asking for true feedback.

When you send a great candidate on to the hiring manager, it’s frustrating to hear feedback like “I didn’t have a good feeling about him” or “I just didn’t think she was right.” You need to ask why and dig a little deeper for more specific feedback that will help you refine the search and find the right candidate.

Hiring is one of the most important—and expensive—facets of your company. The cost of a bad hire is more than financial. It can harm your productivity, worker morale and more. But by ensuring that every member of your hiring team has the training and communication skills to do their job well, you’ll see more successful hiring efforts.

With more than 15 years in the business, the Staffers team has conducted hundreds of interviews, so we know our stuff! And we know how to ask the questions that will solve your hiring problems. Call us any time.