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Writer's pictureJay Thandi

Do you know the true cost of a bad hire?


Bad hires standing under umbrella in the rain

How much does a bad hire cost?


The  Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC) reported that more than a third of companies believe hiring mistakes cost their business nothing. However, a bad hire can severely impact a business; consider within monetary terms a mid-manager level with a salary of £42,000 can cost a business more than £132,000 due to the accumulation of costs associated with the recruitment process, such as training, onboarding, equipment, software licenses, wasted salary and much more.

 

The increase in redundancies over the past year has led to more jobseekers searching for roles, and has led to senior professionals considering positions more junior to mid-level, and an increased competitiveness for both mid-management and senior vacancies.

 

85% of HR decision makers admit their business has made a bad hire, as recruitment has become more challenging over the past year. More than half of the UK employers (52%) surveyed, responded that mismatched candidates were their biggest challenge to recruitment, followed by the time it takes to hire (43%) and expressing other concerns such as applicant volume and the tools and systems they used for recruitment.

 

So what is a bad hire?

 

A bad hire will look different for every business, from being a mild inconvenience to a major disaster. Typically it will be where an employee does not perform their job well or who is not a good fit for the company culture. This can manifest in several ways:

 

  • They have the wrong skills or experience for the job

  • They are not able to meet the expectations of their role

  • They have a negative attitude or do not fit in with the company culture

  • They are frequently late or absent

  • They make a lot of mistakes

  • They are not able to work independently or as part of a team

  • They are disruptive or cause conflict in the workplace

 

 

According to an Indeed study, 75% of UK SME businesses will make 3 unsuitable hire a year.

 


How does a bad hire impact a business?

 

Apart from the financial costs, a bad hire can negatively impact businesses in other ways;

  • Losses from training costs: 53% of businesses stated training as their biggest cost to a bad hire and some businesses offered further training with the hopes that the “bad hire” could become a better fit, however it often perpetuated other issues.

  • Lost productivity: A bad hire will often be less productive than other employees, which can lead to lost revenue for the business.

  • Damage to morale: The wrong candidate can create a negative work environment, which can damage morale and productivity of the team/department. This could result in good staff members leaving.

  • Damage to reputation: A bad hire can damage the company's reputation, making it more difficult to attract and retain customers and employees.

 

How can Solis help you reduce your chances of making a bad hire?

 

Solis is a boutique recruitment consultancy specialising in supporting businesses to hire across their Digital, Marketing and Comms teams across the UK, Europe and Middle East.

 

At Solis we strive to deliver exceptional recruitment experiences to both Clients and Candidates and reducing bad hires can help with this.

 

The way we’re helping businesses to reduce bad hires are:

  • Helping designing recruitment processes that assess candidates on more than purely skills and experiences, but ensuring they align with the company’s values and team culture. Personality and soft skills are as integral to hiring a great, long lasting fit.

  • Driving speed and efficiency, with a strategic methodology to source strong relevant applicants. We can facilitate video introductions as part of the screening and selection process, meaning urgent roles can be addressed more promptly.

  • Increases chances of finding suitable candidates. As experienced Head Hunters, we can adapt our search to ensure businesses are hiring the right talent. We leverage different sourcing methodologies and routes to market to uncover hidden gems, often times finding candidates not actively searching for a new role.

  • Screening and presenting candidates is essential to helping your internal hiring teams understand why we have selected our shortlist. We help take the guess work out of hiring by thoroughly evaluating why candidates would be suitable to the role and company.

  • Managing the recruitment process. We help businesses throughout the hiring lifecycle, from helping to write job descriptions, sourcing & screening, helping with selection and interviews to managing the offering and onboarding process. The final stages have become the most challenging part of recruitment for most employer, which is where we help.


 

Although we can’t promise every hire will work out, but we want to partner with businesses to reduce bad hires, and ensure they have long lasting hire who can add value to the organisation.

 

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