No one is perfect, and we all make mistakes. This is something that is going to happen to all of us, at many points during our life. But the mistakes we make have varying consequences depending on the importance of the choice or the action we take. And when it comes to making a bad choice about hiring an employee, there can often be a lot of unseen costs that people hadn’t really accounted for.

More Than Money

Usually when people look at company operations, the primary measure of failure or success is monetary. And it’s certainly true that when you hire someone and it doesn’t work out, there will be a financial cost associated with this mistake, usually in the range of two to seven times the salary of the person that needs to be replaced, as well whatever additional costs are incurred for recruiting, advertising or any additional expenses you might take on such as relocation.

But beyond this, there can be any number of less tangible—but no less important—factors that can have a serious impact on your operation. If your company is heavily invested in the hiring process, you lose time as you or other staff members take part in the interviewing process. A business will inevitably suffer from the shorthanded nature of missing key personnel, which can result loss of time, and organizational problems for management in the struggle to compensate for the lack.

If a new hire turns out to be a bad hire, there’s also the lost time on the part of other workers who were required to train and orient the new hire, an effort that has now amounted to a loss. Perhaps most important of all, there’s a real effect on employee morale, as someone that was supposed to be a solution to some imminent problems, has now caused even more problems for everyone all around.

This is why it’s important to take staffing and recruiting seriously. Whether it’s an executive search, or a new electrical engineer, it’s vital that you plan your hiring goals, take the appropriate screening measures, and act decisively when a hire with great potential arrives.

Quality, Quantity & The Recruitment DilemmaTalkin’ Bout Your (Work) Generation