The Price of a Bad Hiring Decision

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

About half of new hires tend to be average to poor performers . . . which suggests the accuracy that goes into decision-making is really no better than flipping a coin. Heads you win. Tails you lose.

There are many obvious costs to a bad decision to hire someone:

The time to create an ad
The cost of placing an ad
The time and lost opportunity cost of screening resumes
The time and lost opportunity cost to develop a short list of candidates
To interview applicants
To screen out unqualified people who might never use your company’s product or service because you rejected them
To check references
To make an offer to the winner
Who may turn down your offer for many different reasons

But what about the costs when a mediocre performer is on board?

Do you measure those? Can you measure those in lost time and opportunity? Do you track the performance of new hires for at least two years to see if they stay in your employment…