Do You Know The Cost Of Losing a Good Hire?

Posted December 21, 2017 by Mary McGinley

Almost everyone either knows or has heard of a worker who would have been a bad fit for the organization or position that they were hired for. In a recent article that appeared on the Human Resources Online website, author Bridgett Hall drew on a recent survey that was recently conducted by CareerBuilder through Harris Poll in August and September of 2017. In it, 75% of companies participating in the survey indicated that they had been affected by having hired the wrong person for the job.

The cost of a bad hire is something that few companies want to have to pay. In the US, on average, the cost of a bad hire is $15,000 on average. However, the cost of losing a good hire is nearly $30,000. That can be a severe blow to the balance sheet of any organization.

What makes a bad hire, of course, can vary, depending on the circumstances. Of those participating in the survey, 37% of the participants indicated that it was because of less productivity, while 32% of the survey’s participants indicated that the time that was lost to recruiting and training a replacement for the position that the bad hire held made up the cost. The issue of poor or compromised work quality was cited by 31% of the survey participants.

For those participating in the survey, companies found that an astounding two out of three who accepts a given position will later come to realize that the job wasn’t all that they had hoped it would be. Those workers usually end up quitting within six months.

According to Rosemary Haefner, chief human resources officer at CareerBuilder, “It’s important to note that there’s a ripple effect 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.  Haefner further suggested that the best approach for hiring managers and HR professionals is to make sure that they draw from a pool of applicants that are the best available for open positions and have in place the best procedures in order to determine the right fit for those jobs.

When making any hiring decision, employers need to have as much information as possible in order to choose the right candidate for the job. Most often, HR professionals will determine this through a combination of background checks, interviews, and applicable testing of candidates as a part of the screening process.

At Einstein HR, we are committed to providing service and screening above and beyond what our clients expect. We provide all level of services, including personality testing and candidate screening in order to help you in your HR and PEO decisions. Contact us today to find out how. You can reach us toll-free at 888-981-3622 (EMC2).