The real cost of hiring the wrong person!

It goes without saying that no business owner wants to hire the wrong person for a job in their company.

Making the wrong decision and hiring someone who turns out be the wrong person can be draining on funds, energy and morale. And then, of course, there is the small detail of having to replace them at some point too.

It costs time and effort and can cost a business in some other ways too. Sometimes an employer will find themselves looking for ways to reassign the appointed employee. You may work really hard to fit him or her into the organisation in some way rather than admit that you made a mistake.

Rather than quickly letting the staff member go, you may feel you owe it to him to spend time and money on training. You may introduce ongoing performance reviews. Eventually, he or she may become an adequate employee for your business. There is also a chance that they won't though.

Either way, they're a drain on resources and here's how:

Productivity costs 

All the while you and maybe even your managers are spending time trying to train and retrain the new staff member they aren't doing their job.

It may be that they are trying to manage personality conflicts between the new hire and existing staff, again not doing their job.

All that time spent on the new hire will drain productivity. Supervisors spend around 17% of their time - which is about one day per week - managing poorly performing employees. This has a massive impact on their own productivity.

Financial costs

You're paying a salary to someone who may not be performing to your expectations or the requirements of your business. You could also be paying for extra training. If you end up having to let the employee go, you may be responsible for severance pay. And then, of course, there are the costs you'll incur to conduct another employee search and hire another replacement.

Employee morale costs

As you are concentrating your time and money trying to correct your mistake of hiring the wrong guy, it can have an impact on the rest of your staff. They may become dissatisfied or disengaged.

It’s difficult to stay motivated and well-intentioned when one team member requires so much attention or manages to bring the whole team down. Making a bad hiring decision affects the morale of the whole team.

In many cases, bad hires do not get along with other employees, which can cause additional problems for the cohesiveness of your team.

Reputation costs

In today’s world of transparency, job seekers are connected to information 24/7. This means they can easily find out what is and isn’t working at your company. 

Based on reviews from employees themselves it is easily determined a mistake has been made. If you have a bad hire in the mix, you should watch your reputation closely. Make sure this individual isn’t causing a bad experience for the rest of your team and harming your reputation.

Rather than losing all the time and money associated with making a bad hire there is a different way. The next time you need to recruit, take your time and ensure you’re getting the right person. The other option is to hire someone to do it for you.

A recruitment specialist is less likely to make a bad decision. Whilst not infallible someone with many years experience of finding and placing suitable candidates is more likely to get it right.

The cost is certainly less than employing the wrong person and the process will be a lot less stressful for you!

www.annefarrellyrecruitment.com.au