The dire consequences of hiring the wrong candidate

Hiring the wrong person for the job can result in severe financial and time costs, according to Megan Alexander, general manager of Robert Half New Zealand.

Not only do managers have to start the recruitment process from scratch, but companies are also confronted with reduced productivity and potentially miss out on business opportunities.

Alexander added that non-financial setbacks can also include stress to existing staff from the added workload, which can cause significant disruption to a company’s workforce.

“Having an efficient recruitment process with the right checks and balances is essential to make the right hiring decision,” said Alexander.

“A successful hiring manager should be able to assess crucial factors in a candidate’s profile, such as cultural fit, technical abilities, qualifications and references – helping companies hire the right candidate and avoid the costly repercussions of a bad hire.”

Indeed, new independent research commissioned by Robert Half shows the majority (98%) of New Zealand hiring managers have recruited an employee that did not meet expectations, and more than two-thirds (69%) take upwards of two weeks to six months to discover that they have hired the wrong person.

According to the study of 300 hiring managers, 29% typically realise within a fortnight that a new hire is not meeting expectations.

The most common reasons given were a mismatch of skills (49%), the candidate was unable to keep commitments (37%) and underqualified candidates (35%).

When asked what steps they took to address the poor hiring decision, 35% of managers respectively say they terminated the employee contract or partnered with a staffing agency to secure a replacement, whilst almost half (46%) developed a training program to develop the employee’s skills to the desired level.

Moreover, about one in three (34%) worked with the employee on targets and checked in on their performance regularly, while 29% re-started the recruitment process from scratch to secure a replacement.

More than one in four (28%) respectively looked for an internal vacancy the candidate would be better suited for or did not take any action and adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach to see if the employee’s performance would improve.

The top three consequences of a bad hire according to New Zealand employers are increased stress on colleagues (46%), increased workloads for existing team members (43%) and increased stress on managers (37%).

Other cited negative consequences include lost productivity (32%), higher recruitment costs (29%) and low staff morale (27%).