Bad hiring decisions can be expensive mistakes. According to a survey, 75% of employers experienced hiring the wrong person for a role, which costs the company thousands of dollars.
Spotting a bad fit is tricky, especially when they seem perfect in their CVs and charismatic in the interview setting.
Here are the signs you’re not hiring a good fit and some tips to fix it.
Signs You’re Not Hiring the Right Person
Getting by on the bare minimum
A new team member should be motivated and want to prove their worth. A major warning sign is an unwillingness to adapt or a lack of interest in new tasks. This can lead to a lazy employee who produces low-quality work.
Recurring mistakes
It’s normal for new hires to need some training, but making the same mistakes repeatedly or taking too long to learn core skills is a red flag. Frequent errors in work, beyond what is reasonable, can be a sign of a poor fit.
Resistant to change
New hires can offer thoughts on projects or provide input on how to complete tasks; new perspectives are crucial to building a dynamic team of employees. However, if the new hire insists on doing everything a certain way without adjusting to company procedures, they probably don’t have the flexibility needed to be a functioning member of your company.
Asking too many unnecessary questions
If the employee constantly asks a lot of rudimentary questions that don’t add much value, that is a sign of a bad hire. They may ask irrelevant questions to stall since they aren’t sure what needs to be done.
Too many excuses
If the employee gives too many excuses for coming in late, leaving early, or not being able to deliver, then this is a sign that they might not be the right person for the job.
Ways to Hire the Right Person
Assess your company’s culture
To recruit the best people, know what the company needs, its mission, and its values. Consider what type of individuals fit in and what mindset you are looking for.
Detailed job description
Creating job descriptions for each position reflecting the responsibilities, level of skills, and experience required is essential. Clearly communicating job requirements to candidates during interviews is also important. A great job description will serve as an onboarding guide for the new employee, decreasing the amount of time spent introducing the new team member to company operations.
Well-structured interviews
Taking references during and after the interview will help track progress and improve communication with the hiring manager, as well as assist in gauging whether or not the candidate is the right fit. Also, having more than one conversation with serious candidates and including other people in the process ensures everyone is on the same page. Behaviour-based interviewing techniques can also be helpful, which involve candidates describing how they have handled specific challenges in previous job roles.
Hiring the right person for a role can be more challenging than expected. While it’s perfectly reasonable to admit a mis-hire, it’s also crucial to learn from those situations to avoid repeating the same hiring pitfalls.