From the employer's perspective, doing your own recruiting makes a lot of sense. Who knows your business better than you or the kind of candidate you're looking for?

In reality, though, most employers don't have a lot of training in recruitment. They tend to go by instinct or past experiences. That leaves them vulnerable to prejudices and blind spots that can result in a missed opportunity or a bad hire.

In my firm, I frequently advise clients against narrowing their search criteria too quickly. The following are the misjudgments and misconceptions I come across most often, along with my recommendations for a better approach.

1. Focusing on experience only

While there's no denying the value of experience, it takes more than experience to make a good employee. I understand employers often have an urgent need for a new employee to become productive as soon as possible.

But if that new employee keeps erratic hours, fails to meet deadlines, can only partially fulfill their duties, or creates friction among your staff, you and your firm will suffer.

My recommendation: Assess a candidate's overall qualities, skills and strengths. Assuming you are hiring for the long term, experience may be less important than the candidate's potential to grow into an ideal employee.

2. Overemphasizing a title

In the best of all possible worlds, a title would be a reliable indicator of a candidate's ability, experience and level of authority. Regrettably, that is not the case. Title inflation is a common occurrence in nearly all industries.

If you believe, for example, that only someone with the title "design director" can fulfill the role of design director, then you may likely hire someone who is less qualified than another candidate who lacks that title.

My recommendation: Judge a candidate's experience level by their actual experience and ability. Don't focus on the title; focus on the duties the title represents. Verify and test the candidate against those.

3. Being industry-centric

It may seem counterintuitive, but sometimes your best candidate may not currently be working in your industry or your discipline. Many important and valuable skills cut across industries and positions — for instance, facility with certain kinds of software or knowledge of business operations.

My recommendation: Evaluate candidates based on the skills they have acquired, regardless of where or how they have acquired them. It might be easier for one candidate to get up to speed on the architecture and design industry than for another to become a competent office manager or CAD operator. Which has more value for your firm?

4. Assuming money is most important

Sure, most candidates are going to try to negotiate for a higher salary or better compensation package, especially if the position involves a move to a bigger or more successful firm, greater responsibility and/or longer working hours. That doesn't mean the only thing that matters to them is how much they will earn.

Numerous surveys have shown people change jobs or request promotions because they are seeking overall professional growth, recognition and acknowledgement of their professional achievements and/or a better quality of life — such as more work/life balance, better working conditions or greater job satisfaction.

My recommendation: Discuss with candidates their reasons for seeking a change in employment, and really listen to what they tell you. If you're not able to fulfill a candidate's aspirational goals, chances are he/she won't stay with your firm for long.

5. Creating a compensation gap

Industry conditions are always changing. Right now, demand for top talent is high, and those individuals, naturally, are asking for higher salaries and better benefits. That can cause a lot of bad feeling among your staff, especially those most loyal who may have received small or no salary or benefits increases during the lean years.

You can't control market forces, but you can keep them in check by not letting the gap between current and incoming staff widen too much.

My recommendation: Take care of your current employees first. Review and adjust compensation for current employees if possible and as appropriate, and communicate openly and clearly about the firm's policies regarding setting compensation and rewards. Explore other forms of compensation or rewards with the candidate aside from salary and benefits, preferably based on performance, that will narrow initial compensation disparities.

It's easy for busy employers who have little time to devote to recruitment to focus on the firm's immediate, most pressing needs. In doing so, they lose the overall perspective of what makes a candidate a good hire for the long term. Moreover, they may neglect the needs and feelings of their current staff, thereby sowing the seeds of an organizational problem they will have to manage later on.

While ultimately the final decision should be theirs, getting guidance and a neutral perspective along the way can help ensure a better outcome for all concerned.