The Cost of A Bad Hire

Picture this: You are desperate to buy a house. You’ve searched the market for months on end, with no luck. Your estate agents tells you that no properties fitting your requirements and budget are likely to become available. So, in a moment of sheer hopefulness, you settle for a property that meets some of your criteria.

However, once you move in you realise you’ve made a terrible mistake. The boiler is rumbling, the roof is leaking and the garage door won’t lock. What do you do? You feel trapped: You have made a huge financial investment in the property and it doesn’t seem like there is a viable way of backing out. How do you fix the situation?

This exact scenario is entirely relevant when it comes to looking at making the right hire, particularly at executive level. Settling for the wrong person – or making a bad hire – can cost your company time and money, not to mention unsettle your existing workforce. That is why finding the right fit the first time around (even if you have to wait a little longer than you had hoped) is so important.

A toxic work environment trickles down from the top, so a hire that doesn’t pull their weight can leave other employees burnt out. Bad behaviours seep in. Employees who are normally dependable and positive can end up wanting to leave.

I read an article on Forbes that puts it succinctly, saying that making a bad hire often has “an exceptionally high price to pay. You'll never wish you waited longer to fire someone like that. In many ways, a bad hire's effect on company culture echoes beyond the employee's tenure. Poor performers lower the bar for other employees, and bad habits spread like a virus.”

So, how do you avoid making a bad hire in the first place? As recruiters, we take various approaches to ensure that we find you the right person for the job, in terms of both skills set and attitude. We’ll get to know your business - what keeps your office ticking over; what a typical day to day looks like – so that when we put a candidate forward for a role, it’s because we believe they will blend in seamlessly and truly add value.

We also get to know the candidate in terms of their previous experience, long term goals and the type of working environment they thrive in so that we can create a perfect match. Both the business and the candidate should be heading in the same direction and be able to compliment each other’s wants and needs. This way, you can avoid any ‘red flag’ situations further along the line, such as the risk of losing existing members of staff.

If you would like to speak to me about recruiting excellent leaders or executives who will encourage your business to thrive, don’t hesitate to get in touch. Click here to see my details and I can discuss with you, confidentially, the many high calibre candidates I am currently in touch with.