When was your last nightmare hire? As an employee, I watched a candidate go through an intensive hiring process consisting of written tests, physical tests, and several interviews. There were several qualified candidates to choose from. This employee didn’t have impressive test scores and did not stand out in the interviews. He was hired by the boss against the recommendation of the employees directly involved in the hiring process.
The employee was personable and well liked amongst the staff from the beginning, but it quickly became evident he was not suited for this career. Management was reluctant to cut their losses because of how much money was spent in the training and development of him. More time and money was spent on retraining in an attempt to salvage the hire.
The nightmare continued for almost a year with other employees working harder due to his incompetence which led to contempt for this employee. The employee ultimately resigned which left us shorthanded, and the process started all over again…
The leading factor to a failed hire, aside from performance issues, is poor skill set match to the job. This employee showed poor performance in his work, but this was due to a lack in the skill set necessary to perform the job. Several employees had voiced concerns about his abilities to perform the job, but these concerns were disregarded by the boss.
A common mistake made is choosing based on an instinctual “gut feeling” or because a candidate was “liked” but was later determined to be inefficient at the position. The boss had his own interview with this employee, disregarded the red flags, and hired the employee on his “gut feeling” the employee would be able to do the job.
The US Labor Dept. estimates the cost of a bad hire at least 30% of the employee’s first year earnings. The cost of this mishire was estimated at $19,500 based on the US Labor Dept statistics. Other organizations put the cost of a mis- hire at five times the employee’s first year earnings.
The cost is also not only measured in dollars but in additional stress and workplace discomfort. Oftentimes good employees will leave due to the lack of response from management to get rid of a bad hire. So now the hiring process must be started again and of course the lost productivity from the missing employee has to be added to the cost. They also seldom add up the cost of lost business. This cost is difficult to measure because we seldom have hard data linked to that bad hire.
Have you had a bad hire and if so have you ever added up the cost? I know a lot of us have the gut feeling that it costs us more than we want to think about. You really do need to add up your actual cost of a bad hire so you have a complete understanding of the real cost. This real cost for you will drive home the need for a quality hiring process. You need to weed out the undesirables from the beginning. You need ‘A’ players and not ‘C’ players.
There’s a great book called Topgrading that does a fantastic job of defining the right hiring process for your business. This is for every level in your company, not just the top positions. I highly recommend it. I’ll give one quick insight from the book. When hiring, on the application, you inform the applicant. Be aware you will be asked to arrange phone conversations with previous employers and managers for us to speak with regarding your performance. At first people tell me “That’s illegal, employers are only allowed to say if they would hire you again or not.” I agree and follow up with “but not if the employee sets up the phone call.” And that’s how that works. Just stating that on the application is enough to chase away the C players and keep them from wasting your time. The ‘A’ players won’t have a problem with it.
Another thing is asking the right interview questions. These are naturally directed towards your particular business but many are general in nature. I would tailor your questions to be very specific including some problem solving questions such as “If such and such happens what would be your response or solution?” These questions let you see inside their mindset and thought process. If their answer is not even close to what you are looking for or in a completely different direction, they may not be the one for your business.
Another way to look at the hiring process is to examine your company culture. First determine if you have one and what it is. Let’s say you’re a tech company and you like the “I have pool tables, bean bag chairs and nap rooms and there’s no real structure” culture. I can tell you I would never get hired there! I like structure and high productivity that’s visible. So a hiring manager should be able to see that from my interview questions I answered and send me on my way. Others however would fit that slot perfectly.
So my company culture looks like this: High energy, high output. Problem solvers. Dedicated and loyal to the cause of our business. Everyone brings as much value as possible to the table, voluntarily. Customer problems are just challenges for us to be great in the eyes of our clients. They love to learn and love to grow.
That’s what I look for in my hires. Those traits are easy to spot and you guessed it, I turn a lot of people away. People have to work with people so you need a harmonious workplace with everyone on the same mission. For me everyone should feel they are a part of something bigger than themselves. It’s like the man whose job was mixing and pouring concrete. Someone stopped and asked him “What are you doing?” He stood up and proudly said “I’m building a skyscraper.” That’s the right mindset I want on my team. That mindset will make me money. That hire will be literally FREE for me to have under my employment.