How to Overcome Hiring Badly

The cost of recruiting, hiring and onboarding a new employee can be expensive—as much as $240,000. Now imagine if that employee doesn’t work out and you have to start all over again.

“The cost of a bad hire is always extensive,” said Arte Nathan, founder of The Arte of Motivation, a human resources advisory service based in Las Vegas. Most companies, he says, don’t know the full cost of the turnover, so they don’t apply the resources upfront to avoid it. “If you make a bad hire, there is a ripple effect among all who work for you, your product and your product quality.”

According to CareerBuilder, 43% of respondents to their latest survey on why companies made bad hires said they did so because they felt they needed to hire someone quickly. This sense of urgency results because the current staff may be overextended, a project may require new talent or a key employee may depart suddenly, leaving a critical hole in the organization. Too often, hiring managers are so anxious to put a body in the vacant chair that they overlook candidates’ flaws and end up hiring someone who really doesn’t meet the needs of the job, CareerBuilder noted.

Hiring better
One of the first strategies all companies should follow for hiring success is to have a standardized interview process. This provides hiring managers and recruiters with tools to formulate good questions and evaluate candidates. Behavioral interviews and peer-to-peer interviews can determine if the candidate would fit well into the company culture. The process is consistent for all candidates who’ve applied for the same job and relies on the same interviewers, who should be trained to look for red flags during the interview and to discuss any concerns with recruiters.

“If you make a bad hire, there is a ripple effect among all who work for you, your product and product quality.”

As part of that process, managers need to get the candidate to relax and open up, then frame their questions carefully so they can ascertain whether an applicant is a good fit for the role and for the organization, says Carol Quinn, CEO of Conyers, Ga.-based Hire Authority.

Also, Brandon Hall Research Group suggests that companies look well beyond hard skills when assessing job candidates. When companies focus too much on the skills and experience in a job description, they can overlook whether an applicant has the potential to lead, for instance, or demonstrates behaviors that are inconsistent with the company’s values.

Overall, strong onboarding processes improve new-hire retention by 82% and productivity by over 70%, according to Brandon Hall. But onboarding shouldn’t be just a one-week orientation. Rather, it should be a year-long program that helps new hires feel acclimated and motivated to perform, says Nathan.

New employees should feel welcomed in their first days, get a tour of the facilities, be introduced to key staff and have their workspace set up with a computer, a phone and business cards. It’s also wise, he suggested, to schedule regular meetings with the new hire—perhaps after 30 days, then 60 days, then 90 days—to discuss how he or she is adjusting.

Copyright 2017 SHRM. This article is excerpted from https://www.shrm.org with permission from SHRM. All rights reserved. The original article was written by Lisa Frey. The full article can be found here.