Hire in Haste, Repent at Leisure!
It’s every business owner’s worst nightmare. That wonderfully promising new hire has turned out to be a square peg in a round hole.
The decision impacts on a lot of aspects of your business but in purely financial terms, the hit feels even harder. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) in the US reveals the average cost of replacing an employee on fixed wages as six to nine months’ salary. The cost can be twice the salary in certain cases – especially for high-earning or executive level staff.
No business can afford the time, energy and investment in a wrong hiring decision.
The costly ripple effect of bad hires
Your business takes a hit at every level when a new hire is not what was expected.
1. Rehiring. All that time spent on rehiring a better candidate! Think advertising, interviewing time invested by you and others.
2. Onboarding. Introductions have to be done all over again, just when you thought you had it nailed.
3. Training. All that lengthy and expensive training has to be repeated for your replacement hire.
4. Lost productivity. The turmoil will lead some workers to disengage, others to waste time covering the lost hire’s workload.
5. Poor morale. Workplace harmony is disrupted. Workers can lose trust and loyalty. Others get frustrated at taking on extra training and cover duties.
6. Customer impact. Customers face longer interactions, less skilled staff and likely mistakes as your second new hire beds in.
Get it right the first time
It sounds obvious, doesn’t it? Choose the right candidate straight up and avoid this world of pain but it is sometimes easier said than done.
Selecting the right hire for your role requires you to understand the hiring process at multiple levels. You have to know what to look for in your hire, how to structure the hiring process and what candidates are really looking for.
1. Research the role. Make sure you know your key performance objectives.
2. Read your resumes thoroughly - don't just skim through them - look for well organised and presented CVs.
3. Sort style from substance. Place solid skills and experience over surface dazzle.
4. Analyse your applicants. Match specific role requirements to applicant attributes. Establish what are essential requirements or not negotiable skills and what are nice to have.
5. Be open and honest. Know what you want and ask direct questions to find it (remembering no discriminating questions).
6. Match the candidate to your culture and values
Reach out if you need help
Many business owners have far too much on their plate to spend the necessary time becoming a recruitment specialist. We can help you as your inhouse HR support to save your time and help you in your selection of the right candidate.
We specialise in HR consulting solutions for small and medium sized business. Our essential checklist can help take the headache out of challenging hire decisions and put you firmly in the driving seat.
Contact us to find out how our HR consultants can help you avoid those bad hiring decisions.
