The cost of a bad hire, especially in the IT industry, can be staggering. Companies need to do as good of a job as possible when hiring new employees, in order to avoid the high costs associated with bad hires.
Bad hires happen more often than most people think, even when recruiters and hiring managers vet candidates thoroughly. Sometimes, a bad hire just happens and no one sees it coming. In today’s post, we will discuss the high cost of a bad hire in IT.
The Actual Costs
A bad hire costs a company quite a bit of money, but just how much money? According to a recent workforce and recruitment survey conducted by a major career board, around 41 percent of companies reported that a single bad hire cost them at least $25,000 over the past year. That same survey found that 25 percent of companies said a bad hire had cost them $50,000 over the past year. This is nearly half of one year’s salary!
The major negative factor of a bad hire is that companies must deal with losses outside of just money. For example, companies have to deal with lost worker productivity, expenses incurred for recruiting and training a replacement employee, time lost for recruiting and training a replacement employee, negative impact on clients and negative impact on the morale of remaining employees.
How Does a Bad IT Hire Occur?
You might be wondering how it is possible for a bad IT hire to occur, especially at an established company. The survey above indicated some possible reasons for bad hires:
- 34 percent of companies claim the hire just did not work out
- 38 percent of companies said that they had to fill the position quickly
- 11 percent of companies said that they failed to perform adequate background checks
- 21 percent of companies said that they did not test the employee’s skills enough
One item that did not appear on the survey results is that the employee was not a fit with the company’s office culture. This is a major reason why some bad hires do not work for a company. These employees are often referred to as “cultural misfits.”
How to Avoid a Bad Hire
So, after seeing all of this discouraging and scary data, how can a company avoid a bad hire? There are a couple of different things companies can do to avoid making bad hires in the future, so they do not lose money and time. A couple of those things include the following:
- Find the intangibles of the candidate to motivate them
- Hire pre-screened candidates with proven backgrounds and skills
- Know what the company wants and needs in terms of IT staffers
- Use all resources available during the candidate search
- Start out with temporary IT employees who must prove themselves
- Make a personal connection with candidates from the moment they arrive
- Attract, or woo, top candidates using resources they relate to
As you can see, the cost of a bad hire in IT is staggering. It not only drains money from the company’s bottom line, but it also takes away time from remaining employees. Switch to a temporary staffing model to bring on quality, pre-screened IT professionals who can work towards earning your trust and staying on board for the long haul.