Bad Hires Can Be an Expensive Mistake

American paper money

A CareerBuilder survey shows three out of four employers have made bad hiring decisions, and the cost of a bad hire is almost $15,000.   The bad hire can cause less productivity in the workplace, compromised quality of work, and time lost spent recruiting and training the new worker.

Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder said in part “there’s a ripple affect with bad hires. Disengagement is contagious — poor performers lower the bar for other workers on their teams, and their bad habits spread throughout the organization”.  And while most managers quickly realize they’ve made a bad hire, it takes about 9 weeks to let them go.

Employees also sometimes realize they’ve made a poor choice.  Two in three will accept a position, only to realize it was a bad fit, with 50% quitting within six months.  Their reasons for leaving include toxic work culture, the boss’ management style, and the job not matching the initial job description.

New hire retention rates can be improved by over 80% with strong onboarding processes.