Bad hires sap time, training resources, and psychic energy, says Susan M. Heathfield, blogging on About.com. Here are her top “rookie” mistakes (often made by experienced pros as well).

1. Failure to Prescreen Candidates
Prescreening applicants is a must, Heathfi eld says. A half-hour phone call saves hours of your time and other interviewers’ time, not to mention the expense of arranging travel, etc. Your screening call might, for example, reveal that a candidate’s salary expectations are way out of your range, or that the candidate’s background isn’t really a match for your needs. Always prescreen, Heathfi eld says.

2. Failure to Prepare Candidates
Brief your candidates on your company, the details of the position, the background and titles of other interviewers, and anything else that will let other interviewers concentrate their time on the important issues—determining the candidate’s skills and fi t for your company.

3. Failure to Prepare Other Interviewers
Don’t let interviewing be a casual process. Plan ahead. Who is responsible for which types of questions? Who will cover what aspect of the candidate’s credentials? How will you collect responses? Plan for success in employee selection, says Heathfi eld. We’ll add a rookie mistake of our own here. Many hiring managers are so eager to start recruiting that they don’t nail down exactly what they are looking for. You can go through the motions of selection— posting, interviewing, and so on—but when you don’t know what you are looking for, almost anyone fi ts the bill.

4. Relying Solely on the Interview to Evaluate a Candidate
The interview is a lot of talk, says Heathfi eld. By some estimates, it’s only slightly better than chance at picking the best candidate. Plus, the candidate, wanting a job offer, is trying to tell you what you want to hear. Heathfi eld recommends using several methods for evaluating candidates. For example, at one publishing company, the normal pattern was interviews and then, for the best interviewees, a writing and editing assessment. What the company soon learned was that the interview was relatively unimportant—no matter how great the interview, if the candidate couldn’t perform on the writing/ editing assessment, there was no interest. So the company switched the two procedures—fi rst the assessment, then the interview.

5. Do Nothing but Talk in the Interview
Do something more than talk during the interview, Heathfi eld recommends. Walk the candidate around the facility. Ask how he or she would handle some part of the job. Have them do something. As long as the tasks are related to the job, you will gain valuable information.

6. Evaluate Personality, Not Skills and Experience
It’s nice to hire someone you like, says Heathfi eld, but it’s more important to hire the strongest, smartest, and best candidates. People tend to hire people similar to themselves, but that will kill your organization over time, she says. You need diverse people with diverse personalities.
-by Susan M. Heathfield for HR Daily Advisor