Companies spend a significant amount of time and money filling open positions. Regardless of the position, the benefits of finding and hiring the right person for the right position are self-evident. And after writing and posting the job description, sifting through resumes, conducting phone and in-person interviews, and selecting the final candidate, hiring managers and HR are well aware of the resources invested in identifying that ‘right’ person.
But what about the cost of hiring the wrong person? A recent article in InformationWeek reported that 69% of companies surveyed had at least one bad hire during the year, costing them $25,000 on average, and oftentimes much more. And the impact of a bad hire goes well beyond the monetary. Morale, productivity, and even corporate culture all take a hit when the wrong person is added to the team.
It’s important to understand that the wrong fit in any department will be detrimental, though the specifics will vary depending on where it happens.
SALES
Hiring mistakes in revenue centers like sales can be particularly devastating to all companies in general and to new or growing organizations in particular. That’s because every opportunity lost is a direct hit to the bottom line.
MARKETING
Imagine working tirelessly to achieve product/market fit and then hiring the wrong marketing person to deliver the wrong message to that market. A wrong fit here can jeopardize all that hard work.
CUSTOMER SERVICE
The people who speak to your customers play a huge role in retaining existing clients and driving referrals to new clients. The ramifications of having the wrong people interacting with your clients can be as debilitating in customer service as it is in sales.
HR
It’s hard to overstate the effect of putting the wrong person in charge of recruiting, benefits, and performance reviews, among many other functions. HR professionals are involved in virtually every facet of an organization and they interact with staff at every level.
IT
While there are more quantitative measures used to determine fit in IT, mistakes can still be made. Even if skill set is a match, there are other factors (drive, personality) that can point to a wrong fit. Much like HR, IT interacts with an entire organization, so a bad hire can negatively affect all departments,
There’s a reason why top tier companies like Google say that hiring the right talent is the most important success factor for any organization. And conversely, hiring wrong can turn success into failure, no matter where it happens.
Hoops will help you hire right. Give us a call at (877) 262-7358 to find out how.