Hiring is undoubtedly one of the most important elements of a successful business. A company can only be as solid as the team who props it up, so ensuring you bring only the crème de la crème of employees on board is essential to your business’ growth and longevity.
That being said, filling important roles with top talent is much easier said than done, and unfortunately, the cost of hiring someone who doesn’t pan out isn’t cheap. In fact, it can be downright detrimental to many areas of your business.
There is quite a bit at stake when you bring a new hire on board. From the time dedicated to the hiring process to the financial allocations, bringing someone onto your team is an in-depth multi-step procedure.
A study highlighting the consequences of bad hires, conducted by Career Builder in 2016, sampled answers from more than 2,300 hiring and HR professionals. These hiring professionals represented diverse industries and various company sizes, but despite the differences in their professional backgrounds, the majority experienced similar negative impacts after a bad hire.
The average financial loss for those who dealt with a bad hire the previous year was around $17,000. Obviously, this number will vary based on company size, but the point is clear; there is almost always a financial downside when a hire doesn’t work out. Where does this downside come from? Let’s take a look at some potential factors:
Aside from direct monetary disadvantages, time and productivity can also be lost when dealing with a poor hiring choice, which affects the bottom line as well.
The axiom that time is money is professed by nearly every professional in the business world. Hiring isn’t, or at least shouldn’t be, a quick, instant process that is rushed through because you need an extra hand with your growing business in a pinch. The time it takes to advertise and recruit for a position, sift through resumes, interview candidates, check references and backgrounds, negotiate the hiring deal, and provide adequate training is significant. If the hire is struggling and you take the time to provide extra training opportunities, that is even more time lost. If it becomes clear that you simply can’t make it work with a new employee, then you have to let them go and begin at Point A all over again.
When a new hire isn’t a team player and doesn’t get along well with their coworkers, that creates tension and naturally ruins morale. Similarly, if the candidate shows up late, calls in sick frequently, or is just generally apathetic toward their responsibilities, this puts an unfair burden on the other employees to pick up the slack. This scenario can lead toward a poor work environment, and if the situation gets bad enough, solid employees may begin to feel resentful and start looking for new jobs. When the workplace suffers, productivity and quality also weaken, meaning you may even start to let down clients.
As you can see, the stakes are quite high when filling a top position. Because there is so much riding on the success of the hire, it may seem strange that so many businesses experience flops. In the same study mentioned above, 75% of the hiring professionals stated they’ve filled positions with applicants who weren’t good fits. To better understand, it helps to look at some of the main reasons why this occurs:
No matter how fast a role needs to be filled, there’s never a valid reason to forgo proper vetting and hiring practices. Ensuring that you get the right person for the job the first time can help prevent serious problems that drain both your money and your time. The main issue with this is that recruiting, interviewing, and hiring the right candidate can be immensely laborious and takes a great amount of skill and attention to detail, especially if there is a shortage of qualified job seekers in your niche.
This is where an executive search firm can help. Executive recruiters are trained to see the hiring process from a bird’s eye view. It’s not just about bringing a qualified job seeker into the mix; it’s also about finding someone who will blend effortlessly into your company’s culture and will stick around long-term.
Executive recruiters take the burden of hiring off of your plate so that you don’t have to add another responsibility to your list. A solid company will have a high candidate-retention rate, and ideally, the recruiters will also know your industry extensively and have a pool of qualified job seekers already on hand so that the process is fast, thorough, and effective.
S.R. Clarke Consulting Services, Inc. is one of the premier construction search firms operating today. With over 41 years of experience and over 9,500 successful placements, we know how to help you find the top talent necessary to grow your business and reinforce your brand.
Contact us today to discover how we can work together to meet all of your hiring needs.
Leave a Reply