What is Mis-Hiring and How to Avoid It
In today’s competitive market, organizations really can’t afford to hire the wrong employees. Hiring the wrong person, or mis-hiring, can cost your company a substantial amount of money. In the book, Topgrading, by Bradford Smart, one of the most dependable surveys was completed. He hypothesized that the cost of a mis-hire was up to 24 times that of their first year of compensation, which took key elements into consideration such as total hiring costs, compensation, time in role, severance costs, morale, disruption, lost opportunity and mistakes. Further, business data consistently shows mis-hiring can cost your company up to 15 times their annual salary.
While it’s hard to quantify exactly how many resources are wasted with a mis-hire, some basic elements of waste include recruiting costs, training costs, unemployment and severance costs and wasted business opportunities. Effects can last years as employee morale can suffer, customer experience declines, culture changes, and the team loses focus.
So, how to do you avoid mis-hiring?
Mis-hires are common and no matter how much you try to avoid them, they do happen. There are definitely things you can do though to reduce mis-hiring and minimize your hiring risks.
1. Look for red flags
Many times you’re in such a rush to get your position filled that you overlook potential red flags in the recruitment or interview processes. Make sure to address those concerns up front, and if you’re not able to resolve them, it may be better to pass on the candidate.
2. Set clear expectations during the interviewing and onboarding process
Make it clear to your new hires what their expectations are over the first few months to the first couple years and hold them accountable. Hold conversations if they are not keeping up with the pace you’ve discussed with them to identify blockers, miscommunications and next steps.
3. Slow down and take the time to do your due diligence on the candidates
While you may be anxious to get your role filled, make sure to do your due diligence. Ask for work samples, check references, conduct background and credentials checks.
4. Learn the skills to interview and hire people effectively
According to Career Builder, 1 in 5 hiring managers say they have never been trained on interviewing. Learn how to interview, what questions to ask and why. Consider asking behavioral based interview questions, which are based on the assumption that past behavior is the best predictor of future behavior.
5. Hire a professional company to help with talent sourcing
Candidate or talent sourcing is when you go out and proactively search for and engage qualified talent to fill your company’s openings. Sourcing techniques differ per position. According to Lever, 52% of job applicants are not qualified, and 47% of companies say that there are very few, if any, qualified applicants for the positions they are trying to fill. Hiring a company such as VSourced can help you find the rights candidates which can dramatically decrease your chances of mis-hiring.
While it may not be easy to predict the quality of hire during your recruiting process, it is important to understand the effects of a mis-hire and what you can do to avoid or reduce mis-hiring.
