WHAT MAKES A BAD HIRE BAD?
Generally speaking, bad hires fall into at least one of three categories:
- Poor effectiveness in their role: They cannot produce the needed quality (or quantity) of work, or they lack the skills or credentials they claimed to have during the interview process.
- Poor interpersonal relationships: They cannot get along with their coworkers or have a consistently negative attitude.
- Poor attendance or commitment: They consistently show up for work late or not at all.
When a bad hire demonstrates one or more of these qualities, your team (and your business’s pocketbook) suffer because of it. Let’s take a closer look at all the ways that one bad hiring decision can damage your business:
1. WASTED ONBOARDING EXPENSES
According to a study by the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the average cost to onboard a new hire is around $4,129, and the average amount of time it takes to fill a given position is around 42 days. That’s a lot of time and money being invested in finding and hiring the right fit!
But what if the fit isn’t right? You risk spending thousands in recruitment, training, supplies, and equipment expenses, only to find out that the candidate can’t perform the job. After they’ve been let go, the process starts all over again, and you can only hope that the next hire will be worth the time, effort, and money!
Fortunately, 3rd Degree Screening’s comprehensive pre-employment background checks can take some of the guesswork out of hiring. We’ll check your candidate’s information against a wide range of databases and other resources to confirm that their credentials are legit, and our applicant tracking system (ATS) makes it easy for you to streamline your hiring process. Find the best candidate for the job and don’t worry about wasted onboarding expenses ever again — minimize your risk with pre-employment screenings!
2. HIGHER TURNOVER
If your good employees have to deal with ineffective or negative coworkers, they are much more likely to leave your business for a different opportunity. According to analysis from the Harvard Business Review, up to 80% of employee turnover can be linked in part to problems with coworkers.
Your good hires are directly impacted by your bad hires, and poor performers can cause higher turnover of your best employees. Invest in your team and minimize your turnover rate by making a concentrated effort to carefully screen job candidates.
3. LOWER MORALE
When one employee never shows up or can’t pull their weight at work, the rest of your team can get burned out trying to make up for it. Your best employees are reliable, hard-working, effective, and willing to go above and beyond to get the job done well — that’s what makes them the best. When a poor performer is thrown into the mix, your good employees have to pick up the slack for the sake of the team. This can damage morale throughout the office.
Also, some bad hires are bad because of a poor attitude. Even if a candidate seems effective in their role, if they can’t get along with their team or are consistently negative, then workplace morale will take a hit.
In fact, according to a survey by Robert Half that was cited in Entrepreneur Magazine, executives report that bad hires negatively impact workplace morale up to 95% of the time! Protect your company culture by keeping bad eggs out of the basket.