The best way to fire your worst employee is to never hire them in the first place. While this may seem obvious, companies frequently find themselves in this unfortunate situation.
The stress and desperation of an open position often lead business owners to perceive a candidate who interviews well and looks good on paper as a “perfect fit.” If the owner is wrong—and the candidate is not the right person for the seat—the result can be disastrous. To find the right person for the right seat, you need a commitment to a formal executive hiring process that requires time and homework.
How to Avoid a Bad Hire Before Making an Offer
- Slow down: Do not feel pressured to “fill the seat yesterday,” as quick decisions often lead to unnecessary time, money, and headaches.
- Create a position profile: Think of this as a job description on steroids; it outlines responsibilities and qualifications while also detailing company culture and core values to create candidate buy-in.
- Interview for culture and core values: During interviews, prioritize hiring for culture fit by using your core values to guide your questions and employ tools like the “Build a Superstar Team” scoresheet to identify top talent.
- Measure capacity with high-quality assessments: Utilize tools that measure personality and mental aptitudes, such as the Achiever™ Assessment, to help you avoid bad hires before they happen.
Benefits of a Formal Hiring Process
Implementing a formal, data-driven executive recruitment strategy helps you succeed and realize the following advantages:
- Save money: You can save 3-5 times the bad hire’s salary—often hundreds of thousands of dollars—by getting it right the first time.
- Save time: You avoid approximately 278 hours of wasted time spent undoing mistakes and restarting the search process, according to Topgrading.
- Spare morale: You protect your productive team from the negative cultural impact of a bad hire, which is critical for retaining top-tier talent.
- Safeguard your reputation: You prevent damage to your brand reputation that occurs when customers encounter a hire who does not represent your core values.
The stress of an open position is far less painful than the long-term harm of a bad hire. Whether you need support with Ohio executive recruiting or are ready to implement a professional recruitment strategy and get it right the first time.
*according to Topgrading
