How to Avoid a Bad Hire- Recruiting Tips To Transform Your Hiring Process

This article was first published in Adecco here.

All organizations have experienced the effects of a bad hire at some point, and managers likely know how disruptive and expensive it can be when the wrong candidate is chosen for a key position.

We will walk you through actionable steps that will help you improve your recruitment process. Let’s get started!

What Is a Bad Hire?

A bad hire is when the person you hired for a job is unable to carry out what you expect of them or is harming your organization. Here are five characteristics of a bad hire.

Your new employee:

• Is not producing the quality of work you expected

• Doesn’t get along with their team or has a negative attitude

• Doesn’t have the knowledge or skills they claimed to have

• Is unable to receive feedback and constructive criticism

• Is constantly late for work or regularly doesn’t show up

Why Is a Recruitment Strategy Important?

If you want to hire the best talent for your organization, then you need a recruitment strategy. While employers might have adapted their talent search to suit an increasingly remote world of work, the pandemic has been a drastic wake-up call for organizations that have inefficient recruitment processes.

So, what exactly are the advantages of having a proper recruitment strategy? One of the most obvious advantages is the ability to find and hire the best candidates for the job. Another upside is the money your company will save. This can be seen in reduced costs related to training, employee turnover, and increased revenue. Implementing a good recruitment strategy also offers legal protection. Employers with an unstructured hiring process expose themselves to potential legal issues when candidates feel there was bias or discrimination that led to them not getting the job.

Recruiting Tips to Avoid a Bad Hire

Now that you know the negative impacts of hiring the wrong person and the importance of having a recruitment strategy, you’re ready to start making changes to the way you find and hire talent. Here are our top actionable steps to avoiding bad hires.

1. Represent Your Company Accurately

Paint an accurate picture of the responsibilities of the position, the company culture, and the expectations you have of them are fundamental at every stage of the hiring process. Doing this will reduce the chances of hiring someone that doesn’t fit with the company culture and gives candidates a chance to back out if they feel the position isn’t right for them.

2. Learn from Your Mistakes

Carrying out exit interviews gives you valuable insight into why employees are leaving your company, and whether the recruiting process had something to do with their departure. This also allows you to see what factors you could change to make new hires feel welcome, committed, and motivated as soon as they become part of your organization.

3. Look for Red Flags

If someone has a bad attitude, is repeatedly late for virtual interviews or calls, gives vague answers to interview questions, or has a negative online presence, these could be red flags telling you that they’re a bad hire. By developing your ability to spot these red flags at different stages of your talent search, you’ll save yourself the trouble of hiring a problematic candidate.

4. Set Your New Hire Up for Success

Make sure you inform your new employee about what to expect in their first three months at the organization and establish clear communication channels between them, HR, and the rest of their team so that they feel comfortable reaching out for support. Starting a new job remotely can feel lonely compared to presential work, so organizing introductory calls and virtual social events can make all the difference.