Series: HR Strategy Mastery
Headline: Your Recruitment is Failing… Long Before You Post the Job.
“Why is it so hard to find good talent?” “Candidates today want high salaries but lack the actual skills.” “We hire them, and they quit within 3 months.”
If you are a CEO, founder, or HR manager, uttering these words… As a senior consultant, let me give you a “tough love” reality check:
The problem usually isn’t the talent market. It’s the lack of clarity within your own organisation.
📍 80% of Hiring Failures Happen “Before” the First Interview
Most organisations suffer from “recruitment by reflex.” A seat becomes vacant, and the immediate reaction is to copy and paste an old Job Description (JD) or steal one from a competitor and hit “Post.”
This is a recipe for disaster. Here’s why:
- The “Wishlist” JD: You ask for a “superhero” who handles everything from high-level strategy to filing papers—at an entry-level salary. Top talent won’t apply because they see a “disorganised mess” from a mile away.
- Hiring by Impulse: You hire out of desperation because the team is drowning. When you “lower the bar” just to fill a seat, you aren’t hiring help—you’re hiring a future liability.
- The Alignment Gap: HR looks for “keywords,” but the hiring manager looks for “vibe.” When the two aren’t aligned, you waste weeks interviewing candidates who never stood a chance.
💡 Strategic Insight: Recruitment is an Investment, Not an Expense
In business, we talk about ROI. In HR, we must speak of the cost of a bad hire. Research shows a bad hire can cost an organisation 15 to 20 times the employee’s monthly salary when you factor in lost productivity, training time, recruitment fees, and—worst of all—the damage to team morale.
✅ 3 Practical Actions to Weaponise Your Recruitment
Stop the “Hire-Quit-Repeat” cycle with these three shifts:
1️⃣ . Define “Success Outcomes,” Not “Tasks” Stop writing: “Must have 5 years of experience.” Start writing: “In the first 6 months, you will successfully build our lead generation pipeline from scratch.” This attracts result-oriented professionals, not just “clock-watchers.”
2️⃣ The 15-Minute Alignment Call: HR and the hiring manager must agree on three things before posting:
- The Must-haves (Non-negotiable skills)
- The Nice-to-haves (Bonus skills)
- The deal-breakers (traits that lead to immediate rejection). If you aren’t aligned here, don’t spend a dime on job boards.
3️⃣ Experience over Checklist: Stop looking for prestigious logos on a resume. Use behavioural interviewing or a small practical assignment. Seeing how someone thinks through a problem is a better predictor of success than where they went to school.
🚀 Real-World Insight
I once consulted for an SME that went through three “sales managers” in one year. None survived. The problem? The JD asked for a “Strategic Planner,” but the owner actually wanted a “Street Fighter” who would knock on doors daily.
The strategic hires felt misled and quit. The owner felt they were “lazy” and fired them. The Verdict: The talent wasn’t the problem; the mismatched expectations were.
📌 Key Takeaways for Leaders:
- Slow Down to Speed Up: Spending time on a precise JD saves months of useless interviewing.
- Recruitment is marketing: your job post is a product. If it looks unprofessional, you will only attract low-tier candidates.
- Hire for Attitude, Train for Skill: Skills can be taught. Work ethic and “culture fit” are nearly impossible to change.
Food for Thought: If you had to hire someone to replace YOU today, what would that job post look like? And does it actually match what you do every day?
Check your JDs. Maybe the reason the “Stars” aren’t applying is that your “Map” is leading them to the wrong destination.
