Common Hiring Mistakes Recruiters Make (And How to Avoid Them)

A lot of people say, “recruitment is like herding cats”. That’s a disappointing viewpoint.

It’s actually much, much harder.

At least cats don’t have their auntie conveniently hit by a blimp three minutes before their scheduled interview. 

But it’s not just rogue candidates that make the recruitment process difficult. In fact, much of the blame lies at the feet of the mistakes recruiters make.

Doesn’t matter if you’re internal or agency. We’re all human. We make mistakes.

These mistakes – be they actions, decisions, or behaviours – keep popping up. 

And they actually drive away top candidates.

More than half of candidates will drop out if they face one of the biggest recruiter mistakes – poor communication (number 2 in our list).

Imagine that. Over 50% of your herded cats lost. Reputation damaged. Time and recruitment costs wasted. 

Preventably.

That’s what this article is for. Prevention.

It’ll help you identify the biggest recruitment mistakes, show you how to avoid them, and give you the info you need to fix them.

Table of Contents

• Why Poor Hiring Practices Cost Companies Top Talent
• Common Hiring Mistakes Recruiters Make
• Mistake 1 – Overreliance on résumés over skills
• Mistake 2 – Ignoring the candidate experience
• Mistake 3 – Overlooking passive candidates
• Mistake 4 – Conducting generic or unstructured interviews
• Mistake 5 – Rushing or dawdling
• Mistake 6 – Weak offers
• Mistake 7 – Poor onboarding
• How to Improve the Hiring Process
• Conclusion 
  

Why Poor Hiring Practices Cost Companies Top Talent

If you look at the main reasons candidates exit the hiring funnel, you’ll see things like:

• No response after applying (58%)
• Having to repeat information already on a CV (57%)
• Lengthy application process (47%)
• Having to switch between websites/logins (40%)
• Unclear job descriptions (33%)
• Not knowing how long the process will take (30%)
  

Of those things, how many do you think either the individual recruiter, or at least the recruitment function, has control over?

It’s most of them, right?

If a recruiter writes a boring job advert or oversees a dusty old application platform, candidates may not even apply in the first place. That’s a mistake on the recruiter’s part.

But even if an applicant does get hired, mistakes in the recruitment process can still materialise as costs. More than half of us have left a job because we were mis-sold the role by recruiters. And then you’re back at square one, recruiting again.

On the flipside, recruiting mistakes can also result in hiring the “wrong” candidate. What leads to bad hires, you ask? Things like hiring biases or a poor understanding of what the role actually requires or entails can result in low quality of hire. Which, again, has associated costs and means that the real top talent has been missed.

But what are the most common recruitment mistakes?

Here’s what we’ve found. 

Common Hiring Mistakes Recruiters Make

Mistake 1 – Overreliance on résumés over skills

The first thing recruiters see of most candidates is their CV, and there can be a tendency to only take this at face value.

But you have to consider that many candidates aren’t experts at CV writing.

They’re experts at software development, or data engineering, or whatever it is they actually do.

There could be a wealth of useful, relevant skills a candidate has that aren’t immediately visible on a CV.

And vice versa, even if they are there in black and white on the résumé, does that guarantee that skill exists? Not necessarily, and especially so now that almost half of candidates have used AI to write their CVs.

All this can lead to progressing unsuitable candidates, meaning wasted time and effort, or missing out on potential stars.

Fix: 

Rather than taking skills on CVs as gospel, carry out skills-based assessments ahead of any interview decisions.

Admittedly, this is time-consuming. If you’re in a rush, or time’s just too precious, get in touch with Remote Crew – there you’ll find a network of over 10,000 candidates pre-vetted for skills.

If it does get to interview stage, make sure they’re structured to measure skills (which we’ll touch more on in Mistake 4).

Mistake 2 – Ignoring the candidate experience

There’s a term, coined by recruitment advertising expert Mitch Sullivan, called ‘Institutional Corporate Arrogance’. It describes the recruiters who think they’re doing the world a favour by having a job vacancy. Like everyone’s going to be falling over themselves to apply without you having to put any effort into making it appealing or easy. 

“Boring job adverts? Extensive, convoluted applications? Little feedback and poor communication? Who cares – we’ve got a vacancy, and you’re GAGGING to come and work for us. You’ll put up with anything!”

But, as we know, that’s simply not the case. There’s thousands of job vacancies out there, particularly with the growth of remote work. And as we learned earlier, if an application process is too long or complica

ted, candidates are more than happy to abandon it.

Ignoring the candidate’s self-interest, their application experience, can cause a heavily leaky recruitment funnel.

Fix:

Put yourself in the candidate’s shoes. Write job ads they’d want to read. Implement or invest in smooth application software. Schedule (or even automate) prompt, regular feedback.

You don’t need to assume what candidates feel. If you gather their feedback, you can identify their pain points and improve their experience.

Mistake 3 – Overlooking passive candidates

If you ask most hiring managers to imagine their ideal candidate, and then whether or not they have a job right now, the answer will usually be “yes”.

But the logical follow-up question would be: why would they leave that job to join this one?

And if you’re not answering that question, you’re failing to attract that entire group of candidates whom, purportedly, you want the most.

They’re often called “passive” candidates – those who aren’t actively looking for a new job, but would move for the right opportunity.

Of course, there’s lots of people in jobs who are actively looking for a new role – maybe they’re relocating, or just disgruntled where they are. But there’s a good proportion (no solid figures, but most recruiters put it somewhere between 25-50%) of the talent pool who are passive.

They’re not looking at job sites. They might not have an up-to-date CV. They’re certainly not filling in application forms.

That is, unless you give them a reason to.

The problem is: most recruiters aren’t giving them that reason. They’re not putting job ads where passive candidates can see them, and even if they do, there’s nothing there worth reading.

Fix:

Tweaking your recruitment marketing to:

1. Ensure the messaging is attractive to passive (as well as active) candidates
2. Put it in places where passive candidates might see it
   

Gives you the best chance of appealing to an otherwise inaccessible talent pool.

On top of this, developing a talent network of passive candidates who are aware of who you are, and may be interested in working for you should their circumstances change, puts you in a good position to capitalise on your passive market.

Mistake 4 – Conducting generic or unstructured interviews

Interviews are one of the leakiest portions of the hiring funnel.

Often this is due to them having too little communication or feedback, or being too slow-moving (which we’ll touch on later).

However, the interviews themselves can put candidates off and cause them to leave voluntarily, or even result in a poor hire, leading to greater attrition.

This usually comes from “winging” interviews. Or, occasionally, just doing what you think interviews are supposed to look like.

For example, will a candidate giving a stock, rehearsed answer to you asking “what’s your greatest weakness” really tell you whether they can do the job well or not? 

“Oo I’m just a perfectionist”. Well, great, so was everyone else – that’s 5 minutes wasted.

It boils down to not having clear objectives and a standardised structure. 

That’s not to say that interviews should be so rigid that they can’t be fluid or flexible, but if you don’t have a clear idea of what you’re trying to measure or assess, you won’t know when you’ve found what you’re looking for (or you might miss a big red flag).

Fix:

Fairly self-explanatory, but when it does get to interview stage, be sure to structure them in a way that quantifies skills (including soft skills). The links there provide greater detail than we can fit in here.

Mistake 5 – Rushing or dawdling

When recruiting, time is of the essence. Time-to-hire is one of your most valuable metrics.

And yet, the process moving too slowly is one of candidates’ biggest pet peeves. It can result either in voluntary dropouts through frustration, or simply mean candidates get snapped up by a faster-moving enterprise.

Of course, it’s rare that this is due to a single recruiter dragging their heels, twiddling their thumbs, and simply not wanting to go any faster. It’s more likely a process issue – a disconnect between the availability of decision makers, hiring managers and recruiters, or that certain administrative actions take too long to materialise.

On the other hand, many recruiting teams are aware of this problem. Trying to fix it is great, but they can overcompensate. Alternatively, they might just feel they’re too busy to do go through a thorough hiring procedure. 

Either way, this results in rushed recruitment processes, cutting corners to try to offer quickly.

Needless to say, this can result in poorer quality of hire, since proper assessment is necessarily sacrificed for speed.

Fix:

You have to balance speed with proper evaluation.

Look at your hiring process. Where are the time sinks and bottlenecks?

You need structured interviews to assess suitability, but do you really need two or more? Could you not get the requisite decision makers involved sooner?

Everyone within your organisation should be pulling in the same direction regarding recruitment. It shouldn’t be something getting in the way of your “real” job that gets put off. Align your processes, and agree timescale for recruitment admin, like CV reviews and interview feedback.

Again, though, if you're concerned about moving too slowly, letting Remote Crew carry out the first stages of assessment can cut your time to hire significantly, with no drop in assessment quality.

Mistake 6 – Weak offers

When did you last check the market rate salary for the role you’re hiring for?

If the answer is “never”, you’re onto a hiding.

If the answer is “Just before we offer”, you could still do better.

You’ll likely have seen how many businesses advertise vacancies with no salary, or “competitive salary”, which is essentially meaningless.

While that frustrates many candidates enough to not bother applying, thereby costing you talent, the ones that do are typically eager to know fairly quickly what they’re likely to be offered.

If you get to the offer stage, and the salary is significantly lower than they’re expecting, they’re likely to be offended, and you’ve wasted everyone’s time.

Bear in mind, of course, that an offer at or around market rate may not be enough for a candidate to change jobs.

Of course, paying far above the market rate could be a draw and could secure you more accepted offers, but you run the risk of straining your budget.

Fix:

You need to establish what the market rate for the role and its responsibilities are as part of your needs analysis when you’re first sussing out the vacancy. Remote Crew offer a free Hiring Playbook that can help you at this stage. 

Establish what the market rates are (as well as a likely job title if you haven’t got one yet, as these are commonly linked in a candidate’s mind), as well as what you can afford to pay for the role. The more attractive you can make the salary, the better, provided you have the funds.

Ideally, you’ll advertise the salary, or a salary range, and be transparent about it throughout. This isn’t always feasible, so if you can’t, be sure to be open about why you can’t.

Just as importantly, confirm the salary expectations of your applicants. If they don’t align, don’t force someone down the funnel and cross your fingers. 

Nor should you assume figures are set in stone – expectations may change as understanding of the role and its responsibilities change (and the candidate’s level of skill becomes apparent). Make sure you’re checking and updating each other throughout the process. 

If you know you’re offering what they want, there’ll be fewer nasty surprises come the official job offer.

Mistake 7 – Poor onboarding

The best candidate in the world will need some onboarding.

Even contractors, whom you don’t need to have feel like they’re “part of the family”, need some onboarding.

Almost 1 in 5 employees who leave a job in the first 90 days do so specifically because of poor onboarding.

Poor onboarding also leads to reduced engagement, which in turn negatively impacts overall performance.

And yet, it’s overlooked in many businesses. Almost a third of employees have a day or less of onboarding, with about 1 in 14 having none whatsoever.

While onboarding isn’t necessarily a recruiter’s direct responsibility, it’s still part of the hiring process. As we mentioned, everyone needs to be pulling in the same direction.

Fix:

It’s easy to say “do onboarding”. But what does that mean?

What does good onboarding look like?

It should start before your employee does. Pre-start, it’s about communication – setting clear expectations, giving your new starter the context they need to do their job well, and helping them build real relationships early. You can drip-feed it so it doesn’t feel like an info avalanche. 

The best onboarding programmes focus on momentum: clear goals, regular check-ins, and small early wins that help new hires feel competent and connected. 

Above all, treat onboarding as a process rather than a checkbox “event”. Be there for the starter. Give them what you’d have liked to know when you joined.

How to Improve the Hiring Process

Looking for a tl;dr?

We’ve got you.

You can fix your hiring mistakes by:

• Doing thorough skills assessments
• Making the application process attractive and easy
• Wooing passive candidates through proper recruitment marketing and networking
• Quantifying technical and soft skills at interview
• Eliminating or reducing hiring bottlenecks and delays, without rushing the process
• Understanding market rate salaries as well as candidate expectations
• Having a thorough, empathetic onboarding process
  

Conclusion

So as daunting as these mistakes seem, the problems are fixable.

In fact, the number of candidates who declined an offer due to poor recruitment experience – which more often than not indicates mistakes made by recruiters – reduced by around 50% in 2024 compared to previous years.

But it’s no good just asking yourself, “What is the most common mistake organisations make with recruiting?” and then trying to fix that.

What’s important is having the self-awareness to identify (and admit) the mistakes that you might make. We all do it – we’re only human. And then having the courage to fix them.

We believe in you – but if you do need a little extra help, don’t be shy, Remote Crew can plug a lot of the gaps recruitment mistakes create.