The Real Cost Of Hiring The Wrong Person

Nothing can spoil a good thing the way a person can. It’s true. People can make the best situations better, but they can also make bad situations worse. They are the cornerstone of your organization. And today, it is more difficult than ever to find the right ones for your organization. 

So how important are people?  The short answer: very important. The right ones can get customers to pay more for the experience of doing business with you. Most customers arrive to do business with you with an almost unrealistic expectation, and that can turn a difficult situation into a complete disaster. However, the best people can make even the most miserable experience seem enjoyable, and those are the people you most desperately want to work with. Unfortunately, the best people are hard to find – mostly.

Just as how a highly qualified employee can make the darkest situation bright, the opposite can happen with a less qualified employee, and it often does. The Society of Human Resource Managers found that poor hiring can have a negative impact in 5 major areas, resulting in the following:

• 41% loss of productivity of the department
• 40% lost time to recruit and train the replacement
• 37% lost cost to recruit and train the replacement
• 36% employee morale negatively affected
• 22% negative impact on client engagement

It is often costs that are affected. A bad hire costs you time and money. In addition, morale can be damaged dramatically. It is like the old analogy of one bad apple spoiling the whole barrel. Bad hires have a way of infesting an entire organization, and that bad morale hits the customer right between the eyes. Once again, it is all about costs and this can cost you a lot.

And it isn’t just deep, hard to fill positions that a bad hire impact. High-churn positions can be greatly impacted by a bad hire as well. So, let’s take that apple idea further. If you have one bad apple in the apple juice, the whole batch would be ruined. That is why companies use detailed QA for everything but employees.

How do you QA your own hiring processes?  Well, honestly it isn’t always easy but there are a couple of ways to know when your process is going to hit the brick wall at full speed, and they include:

• Need to fill the job quickly (unrealistic expectations)
• Insufficient talent pool (many inexperienced people applying)
• Incorrect evaluation process (didn’t check references, previous jobs, went on gut feeling, etc.)
• Just made a mistake (hey we are all human)

The Bottom Line:

The impact of a bad hire is not always fully understood, but it has a very powerful effect on the business. According to The Society of Human Resources Management and a Harris Interactive poll, the cost of a bad hire can be up to $50,000. Avoiding this brings more money to the table for retaining talent, growing the organization, and creating a better environment.

Don’t have a clue how to turn this problem around?  Good thing you are here because AMG Talent Acquisition Specialists are the experts on getting you in front of the right hires, in the right places to ensure that you look like the superstar HR. Want to know how? Give us a call today to find out more about how we can help make that bad hire a thing of the past.