Is there a cost of hiring an employee who is a misfit? What are the signs, and how much it would cost you if you hire the wrong person?
Are you wondering to determine the cost of hiring an employee who doesn’t suit well to the organization’s culture? Probably yes, that why you are on this blog. Every new hire presents a dynamic opportunity for both the employer and the employee. When the fit is right, your new hire can be a rewarding asset, who can help grow your business and company. On the other hand, a single wrong hire can create irrefutable damage to your business, and also leave you with some unhappy employees. And this can be professionally devastating in the present COVID-10 crisis, where every business attempt to deliver their best to revive the economy!
Read on to discover the signs of a misguided hire, and what you can do to make it right.
You may also want to consult this resource for additional information about the high cost of a bad hire.
Here are 4 signs you have hired the wrong person
In an ideal world, you would easily spot these signs during the hiring process, before the candidate gets on board. Unfortunately, dubious job candidates are known to misrepresent their skills, professional background, and even personal data, in order to win a coveted job. With this, look out for these 4 signs that may be indicative of an inferior hire.
- The disgruntled employee: This is where your new hire constantly finds reasons to be disagreeable. They complain about their shift timings, the distance from home, the kind of work they are expected to do, the process, etc., etc. In some cases, they may do this even if they were made aware of these circumstances during the hiring process.
- The Debbie downer: This type of employee takes pride in finding problems, rather than solutions. They lack creativity and innovation skills and are hence eager to point out why a particular solution will not work! This also indicates a lack of commitment to their work.
- The unskilled hire: This can happen when a job candidate oversells during the interview but does not have the skills, knowledge, or expertise to back it up on the job. They can be costly to the company especially if they are making repeated mistakes. In this case, retraining may help, provided the new employee demonstrates a passion to learn.
- The trigger-happy employee: This is an extension of the first kind, where your temperamental new hire complains about existing employees, peers, seniors, etc. If a new employee is able to turn off several existing employees, this is a testament to a hire gone wrong. In fact, this is the most dangerous kind, as attitude problems are much harder to fix. And worse, they can also be contagious.
4 Negative effects of a bad hire
The cost of hiring an employee is high. If you think a wrong hire is relatively harmless in the long term, think again. Besides the costs associated with the hiring and rehiring process, you also stand to lose the following business elements:
- Disruption in company culture: This is not the right kind of disruption, as one bad apple can quickly undo a company’s culture built over years of sacrifice. In turn, this can negatively impact employee morale and create unhappy or confused employees.
- Loss of productivity: An unskilled employee is likely to be less productive than expected. They may also cause more work for others, thus negatively impacting your overall productivity.
- Loss of quality and credibility: It is not a big jump to move from low productivity to loss of credibility. In fact, this can happen overnight if you are a small business or a startup company.
- Unhappy customers: If your bad hire is in a customer-facing role, you run the risk of displeasing your otherwise loyal customers. This can quickly escalate and bring down your overall brand.
2 Tips to weed out bad hires to secure yourself from the negative cost of hiring an employee
Given the high cost of a bad hire, is there anything you can do to avoid this catastrophe? Yes! Here are 2 time-tested tips to catch them early.
- Do not skip or rush pre-employment screenings: A background check done by a reputed screening company will help you catch inferior candidates early in the hiring process. In-house checks may be less expensive. However, your team may not have the expertise to catch dubious candidates who intentionally misrepresent their background information.
- Cross-check personal and professional references: Shady candidates may provide false or incorrect information to avoid detection. However, you will save your company time and money in the long run, if you insist on authenticating both personal and professional references.
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