It’s Not You, It’s Me: Unraveling the Consequences of Hiring Mistakes

At a glance

• The main takeaway: Some companies are quick to attribute hiring missteps to candidates’ “shortcomings,” but in fact they are often the result of poor internal planning.
• Impact on your business: To find a candidate whose experience, expectations, and career goals are aligned with the position you need to fill, it’s important to conduct thorough strategic planning first.
• Next steps: Partner with an independent recruiting consultant like Aprio, who can provide critical feedback and resources to ensure you make the right hiring decision the first time.

Schedule a consultation with Aprio today

The full story:

Picture this: you’re about to embark on a major strategic project with a looming deadline, and you need to hire more people to deliver results — fast. Perhaps there are one or two members of your team who are consistently stretched thin, and you need to hire more resources to carry the workload.

There are countless reasons why companies seek to expand their teams, but regardless of the need, most feel the pressure to move quickly to find the best candidates. The unfortunate downside of a speedy hiring process is that there is more room to make consequential errors.

When we ask hiring managers why they stress over the recruitment process, there is one reason that comes up time and again: “We made a bad hire in the past and our team suffered.” But what if we told you that that it’s less likely your hire was “bad,” and more likely that the issue is related to your preparation process?

It’s not you, it’s me: Finding the right fit

When a new hire does not work out, it is easy to chalk it up as issues unique to the individual. But just because a candidate isn’t the right fit doesn’t necessarily mean they don’t have the competence and skills to do the work. The mismatch between a candidate and a particular role can stem from a variety of factors. But upon further introspection, many companies uncover that there is a miscommunication between the job they advertised for, the job they actually need, and the perception of both by candidates.

Making the wrong hire not only creates internal strife for your team members, but it can also have a detrimental impact on your organization as a whole, including:

• Time wasted: It’s often said that time wasted is money wasted, and this rings true for companies that hire the wrong person for a critical job. In a recent piece for the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), Edie Goldberg, co-author of The Inside Gig and chair-elect of the SHRM Foundation, stated that about 60% of the total cost of hiring a new employee is made up of “soft costs,” including the time that managers, supervisors, and department leaders spend supporting the actual recruitment process. This translates into time spent away from projects that drive revenue for the organization.
• Diminished reputation: When you part ways with a new hire due to misalignment, you risk more than time and dollars wasted — you also run the risk of burning bridges, resulting in a negative perception of your brand in the marketplace. You can expect to spend more money and time on damage control to preserve your standing in the eyes of potential candidates and even customers.
• Emotional exhaustion: Whether you have had one or multiple false starts with prospective candidates, your team — particularly managers and department leaders, who are often heavily involved in recruitment — will undoubtedly experience emotional burnout, and their work will suffer as a result. Team members who have been picking up extra workload to accommodate unfilled positions will suffer an even greater emotional toll until you can find the proper fit.

Proper planning improves your hiring success rate

What does planning for recruitment look like? First, meet with your team (particularly those who are backfilling the position you want to advertise for), and thoroughly discuss the scope of the role. What duties are you expecting candidates to perform? What does success look like for the position? What are your expectations for success for the first year and for the long term? Get granular, be specific, and record your answers to these questions in detail so you can properly articulate them to candidates during the recruitment process.

Second, make sure that the job description you craft matches what the market can bear, as well as the expectations you outlined as a team. Many companies fail to accurately capture the job they need to fill when they sit down to write a description to advertise. Some job descriptions are too vague, while others may not align with similar job titles and descriptions in the marketplace. Once you have fine-tuned your description, you should also practice due diligence researching platforms to advertise for the role.

The bottom line

As you navigate the planning process, it would be wise to enlist the help of a qualified, independent recruiting consultant that can provide expert feedback, cultivated from industry-specific experience. Aprio Talent Solutions pulls from a deep network of high-performing professionals to connect top candidates with top job opportunities across the U.S. and Canada.

To learn more about how we can help you find the right candidates for your open positions, schedule a consultation with us today.

Related Resources

4 Reasons to Hire an Outsourced Recruiter

Stop Interviewing, Start Selling: 4 Tips to Streamline the Hiring Process

Culture Fit Conversations: Recruiting, Interviewing and Getting to the Mutual “I Do’s”