The Fear of Messing Up Hires

And my reluctant inclusion of ‘imposter syndrome’

I may have gotten it all wrong. The slowdown of hiring process may not be from corporate dysfunction. But something more basic on an individual level: the fear of messing up a hire.

I’ll back up. My colleagues and I had a discussion about the difference between 2021-2022 and 2024. The tldr:

👉The FOMO market of 2021-2022: companies had a fear of missing out on hires. Everyone was getting gobbled up. Sales reps, technology peeps, recruiters, you name it. Multiple offers, competitive offers, shortened interview processes, salary inflation, etc.

It was a fast market. If companies didn’t move quickly and aggressively, they couldn’t meet their hiring plans.

In hindsight, a lot of those hires didn’t work out. It was a mix of reasons. Some of it was companies being too optimistic with unsustainable headcount, making hires they didn’t need. Some was people landing roles they weren’t qualified to do. And some was because of hire junior & train strategies. Even the best L&D programs don’t have a 100% success rate.

👉The FOMU market of 2023-2024: companies have a fear of messing up hires. Longer interview processes, more steps, delayed decisions, changing requirements, etc.

It’s a slow market. Companies are not only making sure they’re making the right hire, but that they even need the hire to begin with. Training isn’t the emphasis, everyone wants someone who can plug & play on day 1. 

It’s been my take that organizational dysfunction is the main reason why hiring breaks down. Lots of people in different roles with different priorities. All of whom underestimate the complexity of the process. And in some orgs, there are no strong leaders driving for process improvement.

But maybe it’s much simpler than that. One of my colleagues (who came from an internal role) brought up one of the biggest issues his old org used to see: processes were tightened to the point that hiring managers questioned their ability to make good decisions. Full blow organizational imposter syndrome, so bad they had to address it firm wide.

The org was so focused on the process of making great decisions, everyone got the yips and doubted they could do it. (Or that they’d be criticized for making a mistake.)

Not gonna lie: I buy it. If you’re a hiring manager who just made a few FOMO hires, had to lay off people due to economics outside your control (which no one likes doing), and now you’re given a limited budget and told ‘don’t f*ck this one up’…self doubt absolutely comes into play. It will  take you forever to get anything done, not just hiring.

That said, my initial hypothesis is still correct. This is a ‘yes, and’ not an about-face 😂

Give yourself (and others!) permission to make mistakes. They’re gonna happen anyway.

James Hornick

Partner at Hirewell. #3 Ranked Sarcastic Commenter on LinkedIn.