If you really want to screw up your life (and your living) you need to avoid the following:

 5 worst hiring mistakes:

1.  Hiring a family member.  This is almost always a recipe for disaster.  In the best case scenario, you will have a trusted employee- but trust does not guarantee success.  As an employer, you are hiring someone for results, period. If you hire a family member you must treat your family no different than any other employee- and that means holding them accountable and firing them if need be.  How would it feel to fire your brother in law?

2.  Not checking references.  This might seem obvious but you should do all of the due diligence that an attorney might perform in a deposition, and then some.   Under the sub-heading of “trust, but verify” it is your duty to find out everything (that is legal) that you can about a new employee.  Do what ever you can legally to find out everything there is to know about a person prior to hiring.  Never limit yourself to calling only the references that were provided. 

3.  Hiring too fast or too slow. In all walks of life timing is everything.  You never want to rush into a hiring decision and be pressured into making an important hiring decision.  Conversely, “time kills all deals” and by dragging your feet in making a decision you run the risk of losing a star employee.  So what is the answer: trust your instincts, it’s better to slow down and make an informed decision.  Never, ever hire while you are under undue pressure.

4.  Not asking “why” enough times on an interview.  “Why” are you looking for a new job?  “Why” have you made the career decisions that you have made? Why, why why????  You have every right as an employer to be crystal clear about the decisions that a candidate has made, prior to hiring.  If you are not 100% clear on certain issues about a candidate and if the answers just do not ad up, pause.  Ask “why”?  Does this person make rational decisions?  Would you have made the same decisions?

5.  Chasing a candidate.  Never chase a candidate beyond your reasonable effort. Chasing a candidate plays itself out in various scenarios including: playing cat and mouse games with an applicant, leaving messages (by phone or email) that are not returned, if interviews are being postponed, being non-responsive to rational requests, etc. If you are working way too hard to hire someone, than chances are that you are wasting your time.  If someone really wants to come to work for you, than they would rationally do almost everything they need to in order to be successfully hired.

I am Bernie Reifkind, CEO and founder of Premier Search, Inc.

I can be reached at 1(800) 801-1400 or email at ceo@psihealth.com