Most common reason? Hasty recruiting
Hiring the right person to fill a position can be a difficult decision to make — 69 per cent of employers in the United States have been adversely affected by a bad hire this year, with 41 per cent of those estimating the cost to be more than $25,000.
Twenty-four per cent said a bad hire cost them more than $50,000, found a survey of 2,494 hiring managers and human resource professionals by CareerBuilder.
“Whether it’s a negative attitude, lack of follow-through or other concern(s), the impact of a bad hire is significant,” said Rosemary Haefner, vice-president of human resources at CareerBuilder. “Not only can it create productivity and morale issues, it can also affect the bottom line.”
The price of a bad hire adds up in a variety ways. The most common are:
•less productivity (39 per cent)
•lost time to recruit and train another worker (39 per cent)
•the cost to recruit and train another worker (35 per cent)
•employee morale negatively affected (33 per cent)
•a negative impact on clients (19 per cent)
•fewer sales (11 per cent)
•legal issues (nine per cent)
When classifying what makes someone a bad hire, there are several behavioural and performance-related issues, found the survey:
•Employee didn’t produce the proper quality of work (67 per cent).
•Employee didn’t work well with other employees (60 per cent).
•Employee had a negative attitude (59 per cent).
•Employee had immediate attendance problems (54 per cent).
•Customers complained about the employee (44 per cent).
•Employee didn’t meet deadlines (44 per cent).
One-in-four employers (26 per cent) stated they weren’t sure why they made a bad hire and said sometimes you just make a mistake. Other common reason associated with a bad hire are:
•needing to fill the job quickly (43 per cent)
•insufficient talent intelligence (22 per cent)
•sourcing techniques need to be adjusted per open position (13 per cent)
•fewer recruiters due to the recession, making it difficult to go through applications (10 per cent)
•not checking references (nine per cent)
•lack of strong employment brand (eight per cent).
