The Cost of a Bad Hire, and How to Find the Right Ones

Although it’s not possible to bring the perfect candidate on board every single time, even just one poor hire has the potential to negatively impact your business in multiple ways. A bad hire can make the whole company suffer. Making a poor hiring decision can bring up costs associated with customers and sales lost, projects being held up or left unfinished, negative impacts on your brand’s reputation, and legal fees. All the time spent on recruitment, training, and onboarding for each new hire is also lost.

New Jersey Business Insurance saves you from financial devastation when things get out of hand, but rather than taking chances on your hires, be more discerning during the recruitment process and learn to spot the hires that will bring your company more money, not take it away.

Cost #1: Company Culture

It can be difficult to measure this numerically, but it is undoubtedly an important figure for the health of your business. Hiring someone without the dedication or work ethic to pull their weight as part of a team means everyone else has to pick up their slack. This can create resentment, division in otherwise healthy teams, damage employee relationships, and ruin team spirts needed for collaboration. Staff members taking on the work of underperforming employees may begin to view upper management as incompetent and lose faith in the company.

Attracting and retaining top talent in your business can become difficult with the presence of poor performers. When one member of a team is constantly holding everyone else back, the rest of the team will soon become frustrated and decide that their skills could be better utilized elsewhere. Then, you will need to put time, money, and resources into recruiting for other positions to replace the lost stream of employees.

Cost #2: Customer Experience

A single bad customer service experience can turn into a reputation nightmare in today’s world of online reviews. When customers encounter a negative employee, they aren’t likely to have an experience that you want your company to be known for. Individuals tend to associate the level of service they receive with the overall quality of the business and begin to seek products and services elsewhere to avoid further negative encounters. Word spreads quickly in the digital age, and just one mishandled situation could lead to a great deal of lost future business.

How Can You Find the Right Talent?

Hiring can feel like a high-stakes gamble. Using simple strategies can improve your odds of snagging a top notch hire.

  • Utilize recruitment programs. Recruitment programs hone in on candidates that possess the qualifications you are looking for. When a hiring process is guided by a system which pinpoints the best candidates for every position, your company increases efficiency and attracts the talent necessary to achieve desired growth.
  • Go with your gut. Red flags always mean something.
  • Reference the references. No matter how well you think you know someone, talking to the people he’s worked for in the past yields new insights and clarifies existing ones. References are invaluable free resources that prevent costly mistakes. At the very least, you need to verify that they have the education and experience that they’ve listed on their resume.
  • Add an outsider’s perspective. Bringing in a third party perspective such as a seasoned advisor can help add valuable insight; especially for hiring into a function that may not be in your area of expertise.
  • Test the waters. Structure your interview process so it is representative of the actual scenarios this person would need to succeed in.
  • Set clear expectations. Fire fast if expectations are not met. You could also utilize a probationary period for all new hires.

About Provident Protection Plus

At Provident Protection Plus, we have served the businesses and residents of New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania for more than 65 years. We are a wholly owned subsidiary of Provident Bank, the region’s premier banking institution, and we are prepared to offer you personal, business, employee benefit, and risk management solutions. To learn more about our coverage options, contact our specialists today at (888) 990-0526.