EOS Leaders, Are You Prepared for the Hiring Challenges of 2025?

EOS leaders know that the right people in the right seats are the foundation of organizational success. But what happens when your hiring process is built on shaky ground?

Do you know how much bad hires really cost you?

Most leaders underestimate this, chalking it up to a one-off mistake. But the reality is sobering: A bad hire costs 3-4x their annual salary, according to the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). Add in lost productivity, morale damage, and potential cultural erosion, and it’s clear—hiring mistakes aren’t just expensive; they’re existential threats.

Let me share a real case study that highlights what’s at stake:

• 1,700 applicants (a flood of candidates!)
• 314 phone screens (time-consuming but necessary)
• 207 interviews (66% moved past screening—quite high!)
• 94 offers
• 67 accepts (71% acceptance rate—low for this volume)
• 11 still employed today (84% churn!)

The cost? A staggering $454,000 in interviewing time, employee churn, and lost revenue. That’s $8,107 per person for hires who didn’t stick around.

This is what happens when you don’t have a strong hiring process and your employees are untrained in interviewing people to discover if they are grounded in your company's unique core values.

Now, let’s talk about 2025.

The market is shifting, and with it, the hiring landscape is about to get even harder to navigate. On paper, things look promising—more candidates are expected to flood the job market, giving you a larger pool to choose from. But here’s the twist: more options don’t mean better hires.

The Hidden Issue in EOS-Run Businesses

Many visionary and integrator-led businesses operate with incredible focus and clarity—on paper. You’ve mastered the EOS tools, documented your Core Values, and perfected your Accountability Chart. But are your hiring practices aligned with the same rigor?

Here’s where most teams falter:

• Screening for skills instead of behaviors.
• Overlooking core value alignment.
• Relying on gut instinct rather than evidence.

The numbers above aren’t an outlier—they’re a warning. Without a refined process, you’re spending precious resources on candidates who look good on paper but aren’t built to thrive in your unique business environment.

Hiring Challenges Are About to Escalate

The 2025 hiring landscape is shaping up to be one of the most difficult in years. Economic uncertainty is driving a flood of job seekers into the market, creating an illusion of abundance. But more candidates don’t equal better hires.

Why?

• Desperation clouds the market, making it harder to distinguish high performers from bad actors.
• Untrained interviewers make quick decisions based on “gut feel,” leading to costly mistakes.
• Increased competition and urgency make the hiring process transactional.

According to Adam Grant , organizational psychologist and author of Think Again: “The best predictor of success isn’t experience—it’s mindset. And the best way to measure mindset is through the stories people tell about their actions.”

How many of your interviewers are trained to uncover these stories effectively?

What This Means for EOS Leaders

When you run on EOS, you know the power of process and alignment. Yet, many EOS businesses focus on “filling seats” rather than ensuring the right person occupies them.

The case study above illustrates what happens when:

1. Core Values are sidelined. If you’re not actively prioritizing values alignment, you’re hiring for turnover. GWC is critical here as they really have to "want it"!
2. Behavioral evidence is ignored. Skills are easy to measure; behavior isn’t. But behavior drives results. Past performance is a key indicator of future performance.
3. Interviewers lack training. Without the tools to dig deeper, most interviewers lean on likability—resulting in hope-based hiring.

This isn’t just inefficient; it’s a risk to your Vision, Traction?, and Healthy teams.

The Cost of Inaction

Let’s put this into EOS terms:

• When you hire the wrong person, it doesn’t just hurt their seat—it disrupts the Accountability Chart.
• Your quarterly rocks get harder to achieve when turnover derails momentum.
• Traction? slows because you’re backfilling roles instead of moving forward.

The data is clear: Companies are spending 20-40% more on hiring mistakes than they did just a few years ago. If you don’t invest in fixing your process, expect bad hire costs to balloon further in 2025.

The Solution: Build Interviewing Practice Grounded in Core Values Alignment

Your hiring process should reflect the same discipline as your EOS tools. This means:

1. Train your people to be great at interviewing. Uncovering the truth about how the person naturally operates in their work environment.
2. Focus on evidence-based decisions. Teach your team to dig deeper into candidate stories to uncover the “how” and “why” behind their success. Decisions must be defensible!

Why This Matters Now

As EOS leaders, your job is to ensure the right people are in the right seats. But without a structured, values-driven hiring process, you’re gambling with your future.

Take a moment to consider:

• How much are you spending on hiring mistakes today?
• How will your budget hold up when hiring costs rise in 2025?
• Are your people prepared to interview effectively—or are they winging it?

If you’re not confident in your answers, let’s fix this together. The process is your competitive advantage. Let’s ensure it’s ready for the challenges ahead.

As Patrick Lencioni , author of The Advantage, said: “The cost of hiring someone who doesn’t fit the culture is far greater than the cost of hiring someone without the skills.”

#EOS #CoreValues #RightPeopleRightSeats #HiringStrategy #Leadership #HireOS #RickGirard