A Harsh Reality: The Real Cost of Making a Bad Hire
Most business owners already know making a bad hire can be an expensive mistake. But just how expensive can this misstep get?
Turnover Expenses
The most obvious expense associated with making a bad hire is, of course, turnover. Here, you’ll find seemingly endless costs. How much money did you spend on recruiting? What about training? Uniforms? Mentoring? Benefits? All of these things add up to a very bad investment.
Damaged Reputation
It’s true that every manager or business owner makes a poor hiring decision somewhere down the line. Whether you didn’t feel like waiting for the right person to come along or, for some reason, believed your choice was the right person – only to be proven wrong later – you aren’t a bad manager.
However, if you establish a pattern of making poor hiring decisions, you’ll earn a dangerous reputation as an incompetent business manager. This can damage morale among your staff, discourage qualified applicants, and ultimately harm your brand. You don’t want to be known for your high turnover rate. Instead, be known for your careful and selective hiring process.
Team and Customer Impact
When one employee carries around a negative attitude, under-performs, or otherwise differs from the team mentality, a devastating domino effect can begin. Your other employees will be forced to pick up the slack, covering mistakes and dealing with frustrating work habits that can often lead to resignation. Your hardworking and qualified employees will face a decrease in morale, lower their standards, and resent you for your decision – even after the problem is gone.
Like your team members, hiring a poor worker can have a serious impact on customers. Because bad hires rarely grasp the responsibilities and expectations associated with their job, they lack customer service skills. Since the cost of earning a new customer is far more significant than the cost of keeping a loyal customer, you can’t afford to have bad employees turning people away.
Wasted Time
When you make a new hire, you spend several weeks or months being a coach. You’ll be sucked into a cycle of complaints from team members and customers, all of whom expect your newest employee to be perfect from the get-go. You’ll also be forced to hand out discipline, give corrective feedback, and invest your precious time to guarantee success.
If you’re forced to fire your employee for under-performance, your time was ultimately wasted.
Contact an Experienced Recruiter for Assistance
Looking to hire an experienced employee? At The Patriot Group, we pride ourselves in finding the right worker for your company. Contact our experienced team to learn more!
