According to CareerBuilder, the average cost of one bad hire is $14,900, and given all the uncertainty surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, your company simply can’t afford to waste these precious dollars hiring and onboarding for the same position. Not only is it costly to replace a bad hire, but it’s also time consuming.
Companies today have more at stake if they make a hiring mistake, finds new research from global staffing firm Robert Half. More than 3 in 4 senior managers surveyed (76%) admit to recruiting the wrong candidate for a role, and nearly two-thirds (64%) said the negative impact is more severe now than it was a year ago.
4 Months Lost on One Hiring Mistake
When it comes to their most recent regrettable hire, senior managers said it took 10 weeks, on average, to realize the person was a poor match and to let them go, and an additional 6 weeks to restaff the role. That’s a total of 16 weeks, or 4 months, of time squandered on a recruiting blunder.
Where Companies Waste More Time
According to the research, which looked at 28 major metropolitan U.S. cities, some employers take even more time to correct a hiring mistake:
- Seattle: 26 weeks
- Minneapolis: 25 weeks
- Los Angeles: 23 weeks
- Boston: 20 weeks
- Dallas, Philadelphia, San Francisco: 19 weeks
- Miami, New York: 18 weeks
- Cleveland, Denver, San Diego: 17 weeks
“In the past year, companies have made big transitions, including the move to remote work and shifts in their hiring and onboarding practices,” says Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half—in a press release. “When faced with so many changes, there can be more room for error and, unfortunately, a bad hiring decision can have a ripple effect throughout the organization.”
What’s at Stake for Employers
Senior managers reported the biggest tolls on their teams and company as follows:
- Time wasted hiring and training the new employee
- Decreased staff morale and productivity
- Increased stress on the supervisor
McDonald notes, “Common hiring mistakes can be prevented by establishing an effective and efficient candidate evaluation process and working with outside partners to expedite time-consuming steps and help secure the best match.”
To learn how you can avoid wasting time and money on bad hires, attend “RecruitCon Virtual Conference: Hiring in the New Normal,” on Tuesday, May 18 – Wednesday, May 19, 2021. Click here to learn more or to register today!