Serious consequences of a bad hire

 “One bad apple can spoil the whole bunch”

Wendy Taylor

“When it comes to a bad hire, one wrong person in an organization can cause financial and cultural turmoil in a business. If the bad hire leaves the company, you can’t breathe a sigh of relief; the former employee could give you a bad rating on a career site that harms your future recruiting efforts” (Taylor, 2020).

A Bad Hire is Bad for Business (Taylor, 2020)

A decline in productivity is simply one of the negative impacts of a bad hire. If the new worker doesn’t have the skills to do the job (or do it well), it can spill to the rest of a team. The other members of the team may have to work harder to pick up the slack from the bad hire. They may feel resentful and morale can decline. A bad hire can even drive members of the team to find another job, taking their skills and organizational knowledge away maybe right into the arms of the competition.

A bad hire can also can produce problems in workplace culture. If the bad hire is disruptive, negative, or doesn’t add worth to a team, this disrupts the entire workforce they come in contact with. This can produce cracks in corporate culture; employers must counteract any issues that arise with the team as well as dealing with the worker that isn’t the right fit.

The external harm of a bad hire will include wrecked client relationships. A bad hire will even cause you to lose customers. Reconstruction these relationships is difficult and time-consuming; once trust is broken it’s hard to get back. This will produce hiring the right people imperative because of the damage that an employee representing your business can do.

When a company’s reputation is broken, that can affect your ability to hire new employees. Reputation matters, so if you hire the wrong people, it will create a rift with current and future employees, who may question management’s decision-making abilities and leadership skills.

Last, however certainly not least, is the financial impact of every bad hire. Studies show the value of each bad hire is somewhere between $25,000 to $50,000 per employee. The financial costs encompass recruiting, orientation, background checks, training, etc. Replacing the unhealthy hire tacks on even more costs.

Note that it may take some time to determine that the worker isn’t a fit. What kind of damage will the bad hire do while you’re trying to figure things out? The best defense against a nasty hire is to hire right every time.

The consequences of a poor recruitment and selection (Half, 2022).

A bad hire might be unavoidable; sometimes candidates can have great CVs and interview brilliantly but might not be right fit for the role. But nonetheless, the mistake of poor worker selection procedure will cause serious problems for organizations. These 3 consequences from the Robert Half Management Insights report How to avoid common hiring errors reveal what your business might encounter:

3 serious consequences of a bad hire (Half, 2022).

                                                                                      Sources: roberthalf.co.uk

1. Lost productivity

If you have a bad hire, and the employee will not do their job effectively, or as well as the person they replaced, it means wasted time. The organisation might be investing the same amount of resources in the staff member, however seeing significantly less output in return. Over a period of time, this will have a real impact on results and the overall performance of the team.

When faced with a struggling colleague, other workers might start assuming other duties which aren't really in their job description. This not only impacts their own performance and productivity at work, however their ability to keep appointments, hit goals and maintain standards.

2. Lower staff morale

If a bad hire is working at below capacity - due to a shortage of skills or motivation - this will quickly have a knock-on effect to the rest of the workforce. One of the first things to take a hit might be staff morale. If employees are asked to do more to cover for a struggling colleague, yet still receive the similar wages, it can cause tension and potentially conflict.

A bad hire who has a negative attitude towards work will have a knock on effect on staff morale. If they are unable to fit seamlessly into existing teams and get on with their colleagues, it will ruin the atmosphere in the office. This potentially impacts on how much workers enjoy doing their jobs, and the likelihood they can stay with the organisation for the long term.

3. Monetary costs of finding a replacement

It costs money to hire workers and to replace them. Organisations need to create job descriptions, advertise roles, read through CVs and application forms and do interviews. All the while, they might be operating short-staffed due to a lack of capacity in the office. Even after the new worker joins a company, there is onboarding expenditure to consider, plus the fact the recruit might not be as productive as the experienced person they replaced.

To overcome a wrong hiring mistake, it might be necessary to reallocate people and resources, invest in further training, or in the most serious instances, let the employee go even then there are further costs to be acquired in terms of re recruiting for the position. Essentially you are back to square one, with a position still vacant.

 

 References 

Taylor, W.  (2020) the Consequences of a Bad Hire [Online] Available at: https://www.bstonetalent.com/2020/02/21/the-consequences-of-a-bad-hire/ [Accessed on 8th April, 2022]

Michalewski, M. (2021) Cost of a bad hire — how much does hiring the wrong person cost? [Online] Available at: https://maciejm.medium.com/cost-of-a-bad-hire-how-much-does-hiring-the-wrong-person-cost-82806f84b8f0 [Accessed on 8th April, 2022]

Half, R. (2022) 3 serious consequences of a bad hire [Online] Available at: https://www.roberthalf.co.uk/advice/recruitment-process/3-serious-consequences-bad-hire [Accessed on 8th April, 2022]

Boghani, J. (2022) 3 Ways to Avoid the Bad Hires [Online] Available at: https://www.roberthalf.co.uk/advice/recruitment-process/3-serious-consequences-bad-hire [Accessed on 8th April, 2022]

Hsu, Y. (1999) Recruitment and Selection and Human Resource Management in the Taiwanese Cultural Context. Business School University of Plymouth [Online] Available at: https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/29818879.pdf Accessed on 4th April, 2022.