What if “the one” turns out to be a mismatch?
Many companies often make the mistake of hiring unqualified candidates, despite already screening them during the hiring process. To give you an exact number, 74% of employers have reported hiring the wrong person for a position. Tony Hsieh, CEO of e-commerce company Zappos, even said that they lose over $100 million from bad hires. Other companies lose an average of more than $14,000 on every bad hire.
Not only do companies fail to get a return from their investment, but they also lose a lot of time that could otherwise be spent on actual productivity. In this blog, we’ll tackle the reasons why companies make bad hires, how they could be prevented, and how a reliable HR partner can help fix workforce oversights.
Why do companies make bad hires
There are several reasons why companies tend to hire unqualified people. For one, they hire a candidate to desperately fill a position because their existing workforce is too overstretched taking on work that isn't part of their job description. In other cases, they need to quickly fulfill a client’s requirement for new talent or replace a key employee that abruptly left.
Employers also tend to prioritize the technical expertise of candidates over their cultural fit and attitude. What they fail to realize is that there needs to be a balance of both: they need employees that meet the technical qualifications for the position they’re filling, and have the social and practical skills needed for them to align with the company and its culture.
Lastly, companies get bad hires when they fail to measure outcomes and performance. It’s easy to spot bad hires in a small business, but not so much in large corporations where employees have to go through different levels of management to deliver outputs and receive a proper evaluation.
Could bad hires be prevented?
The short answer to that is yes. Instead of having to spend more time and resources adjusting to employees that don't actually fit in the company, employers can set up measures to gain quality hires early on.
JotForm founder Aytekin Tank recommended employers to firmly identify the technical and practical skills they’re looking for in an employee. They should then create a job description that details the exact job duties and the experience that employees need to meet. Employers should also look for "signs of civility” in a candidate during the interview process. This means asking the candidate how they handled difficult experiences in the past to gauge if they match your company’s values.
Having a referral program can also help speed up the hiring process while still firmly evaluating candidates for their qualifications.
How Q2 can save the day
Fixing the hiring process is not as easy as it sounds, especially if you lack the knowledge to assess what aspects need to be amended. This is where an HR expert comes into play.
For instance, Q2 HR Solutions has all the resources and expertise to help companies improve their hiring processes, onboard legitimately qualified talents, and save money. Through the Executive Search service, Q2’s hiring experts can help companies build a team composed of competent and trustworthy employees.
With over 20 years of experience in recruitment and headhunting services, Q2 can make sure that you don’t need to look through a giant haystack to find a needle.
Not all employees are perfect, but that doesn’t mean you have to accept every candidate that comes your way. It’s easy to hire the right employee as long as you have your priorities in check and you have reliable partners you can lean on.