Yesterday we looked at the costs of a bad hire and a few thoughts on how to avoid them in the first place. Today we’ll look at further advice from our contributing editor, Bridget Miller.
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The costs and frustrations all add up quickly when there’s a bad hire. Let’s take a look at a few ways to hopefully avoid this scenario.
Some ways to reduce the risk of hiring the wrong person are:
- Ensure job descriptions are accurate for the job, and confirm them before making the job posting. Job descriptions should list not only the required employee qualifications and experience but also the working conditions of the job. When applicable, include things like “a requirement to work well in group settings” or “a need to have a personable demeanor with customers.”
- During the interview process, it’s important to look for a good fit with the company culture, which is a distinct and separate issue from employee qualifications.
- Don’t hire in a rush; take the time to get to know the candidates to adequately assess them.
- Consider using skills tests if applicable to the job—this serves as a way to help ensure any new hire will meet the required thresholds. (Be sure to be consistent if using testing during the application process; do not limit the tests to only applicants in specific groups.)
- Always perform reference checks on potential new hires. Don’t miss the opportunity to find out information that could aid in your hiring decision.
- Be selective in who is involved in the interview process. You need someone who can ask the right questions to truly assess the candidates. (You’ll also want someone who understands the legal aspects of what can and cannot be asked during the interview process, of course!)
- Consider using behavioral interviewing techniques to better assess how the applicant acts in real-life scenarios.
- After hiring, take steps to ensure that your new employees will have all of the training and tools they need to succeed—after all, sometimes a bad fit is not the employee’s fault if the individual was not given the opportunity to perform well by having the right training and tools.
- Do what you can to ensure that the talent pool has sufficient depth to have a better chance of finding good hires. Consider enlarging the geographic area where you’re advertising and make sure that you’re providing relocation opportunities so that you can look in a larger area for the right talent, if necessary.
- Conduct market surveys to confirm that the salary on offer for the role is in line with the market salary for the position. If it’s too low, you’ll have a higher likelihood of being unable to attract the right talent. This goes for the benefit package as well.
- Have a process in place to review new employees more often than other employees to help guide them as they learn the ropes. Feedback in the early months can be critical to long-term success and can potentially turn around a problematic situation before it gets out of control.
- Remember that employee development plans are also a key component of having a good employee fit for the long haul.
- Pay attention to your employer brand; it can affect the level of talent the organization attracts.