We’ve written numerous times, both in our blog and in our monthly newsletter, regarding the dangers of making a bad hire.
However, sometimes bad hires do happen. When they do, the key for the company is to rectify the situation as quickly as possible.
The reason? Not only is making a bad hire harmful initially, but it can also be costly in the long run if the hire is allowed to remain on staff.
Below are four specific reasons why a company should get rid of a bad hire as quickly as possible:
They rarely improve to an acceptable level. Once a bad hire has been identified, it’s often tempting to try to “save them,” so to speak: do everything you can to prove that the hire wasn’t a bad one and salvage the person’s employment. Unfortunately, this is equivalent to falling into a hole and attempting to dig your way out of it. Ultimately, it will only make matters worse.
- They’re time-consuming. One of the reasons you hire a top performer is because they save both managers time and the company time overall. They’re forward moving, independent, pro-active thinkers who aggressively tackle problems and obstacles. If your company made a bad hire, that hire probably does not display any of those characteristics, and as a result, will probably be more of a drain on your time . . . which you certainly can’t afford in today’s hyper-competitive market.
- They often impede their co-workers. If you have a team or department of predominately A-level employees, and a less-than-A-level employee is introduced into the dynamic, there’s bound to be problems. Those problems can take many different forms, but they all result in one thing: lost productivity . . . which in turn leads to lost profitability.
- They delay the hire of a better candidate. The reality is this: if a bad hire is currently filling the position, it means that another, better employee can’t fill it. Sure, getting rid of them means admitting that you made a mistake hiring them in the first place, but keeping them in the position in the hopes that they’ll improve (see item #1 above) only delays the inevitable and keeps you from finding and hiring the person you wanted in the first place.
As you can see, making bad hires is something that all companies should strive to avoid, for a number of reasons. If they’re not dealt with in a timely fashion, the negative impact they have can be widespread.
That’s just one more reason why enlisting the services of an experienced executive search firm is a sound investment in the future of your company.
We help support careers in one of two ways: 1. By helping to find the right opportunity when the time is right, and 2. By helping to recruit top talent for the critical needs of organizations. If this is something you would like to explore further, please send an email to stacy@thevetrecruiter.com.