Hiring Well Helps Your Bottom Line
In our book, The SuperSTAR Leadership Model: Good Boss, Bad Boss – Which One Are You?, we outline the nine strategies that the best leaders do that mediocre bosses forgo. One of these strategies includes HIRING and RECRUITING WINNERS. Now, I know that not every manager has the ability to control who they hire or how the hiring process is handled. But, for those that can participate in this process, it is critical that they play as much of a role as possible.
We know what the research has to say about a bad hire – it costs companies a lot. I was just reading a HBR blog post, Seven Non-Negotiables to Prevent a Bad Hire, and the writers presented a few recent research facts:
“A recent survey by Career Builder reports more than two-thirds of employers were affected by a bad hire last year, according to AOL Jobs. Of nearly 2,700 employers surveyed, 41% estimate a single bad hire cost $25,000; a quarter estimate a bad choice cost $50,000 or more…”
Two-thirds of employers? That is the majority. A $25,000-$50,000 expense per bad hire? That is a lot of money. Think of what that does to the bottom-line if a company makes multiple poor hiring decisions per year. You can’t afford NOT to hire right. And here’s the thing – even if it cost you nothing financially, it would still cost you in time, effort and sanity. It’s frustrating to have high turnover rates, and it speaks volumes about the culture of your company. Think about it – if you knew a company had a high turnover rate, how excited would you be to interview there? Why would you even want to work at such a place?
Now, I’ve already written about our recommendations on how to hire right. So, I want to share with you what the writers of this HBR post, David K. Williams and Mary Michelle Scott, have to say about how they suggest you screen employees: use 7 non-negotiables. These are characteristics that they believe are absolutely essential to any hire.
These include: respect, belief, loyalty, commitment, trust, courage and gratitude. They mention that by screening for these specific traits, they have been able to reduce turnover to almost zero. This is phenomenal. What I love about what they have to say is that they get back to the basics – someone’s values, someone’s character. These things matter and remain fairly consistent over time. So, although they can be hard to measure in an interview, they are pretty great indicators of the type of employee one will consistently be, despite the ebbs and flows that inevitably come with one’s career.
The bottom-line? Do what you need to do to hire right (as long as it’s ethical and professional), so that your bottom-line benefits. Don’t cut corners when you’re choosing who works for you – it won’t save you time, and it definitely won’t save you money.
