Hiring the wrong person for your company has many impacts: a reduction in efficiencies, periods of downtime while the employee gets up to speed and problems with company culture.  The recruitment process itself is also costly, however working with a recruitment agency can help save you money.  On average, hiring new employees costs employers a third of a workers annual salary to hire a replacement if a worker leaves, according to Employee Benefits News (EBN).  Furthermore, 75% of the causes of employee turnover are preventable – for those employers who are keen to reduce these costs and build a functioning team, read on.

What strategies are there to reduce the likelihood of a bad hire?

Always be recruiting

The most successful businesses are always recruiting.  That means that networking events, graduate programs and speaking to current employees about referrals are ideal platforms to engage with a passive candidate pool.  Don’t leave the process of recruitment until your staff hand in their resignation letter – always have a talent pipeline for your business, much like a sales pipeline.  We often find that employers that recruit in haste will compress the recruitment process, resulting in poor decision making.

Get clear on trainable vs pre-requisite skills

Employers are increasingly seeking candidates who have experience with a certain computer program or have worked for a competitor.  We find that many of these preferences should be down-graded in favour of others.  While industry knowledge may be an understandable pre-requisite, if a candidate has learnt and mastered a different computer program, they are just as likely to learn another just as effectively.  Consider what training is available and what your non-negotiable skills are.

Better job advertisements lead to better candidates

Well written job advertisements are worth their weight in gold.  Top notch candidates are less likely to apply for jobs with unclear role responsibilities or where an employer doesn’t have a clearly defined EVP (Employee Value Proposition).  The work you put into a well-crafted job advertisement will pay you back in terms of candidate quality, many times over.  At Flexi, we can provide you support with writing job advertisements through RPA (Recruitment Process Outsourcing).

Hiring from within

We find it surprising when we speak with employers about senior roles within their business and they haven’t considered some of their existing staff as potential candidates.  This is important as employees can leave if they don’t feel that they can move up within a company and have access to opportunities to grow.

Get feedback from other staff members

If you are in a position where you can’t decide between 2 candidates, have them meet with your existing team as part of the recruitment process.  Multiple opinions can be a welcome opportunity, particularly when a new employee has an impact on company culture.  If the employee is going to work closely with others in a team, it’s a good idea to make introductions to see if their working styles will gel.

Expecting too much, too soon

Consider your induction program and focus on process, people and culture.  Many employees haven’t made it through an induction period successfully due to not meeting employer expectations, only for the employer to start the recruitment process again.  The expectation that new employees should ‘hit the ground running’ isn’t fair and puts unrealistic pressure on new starters.  Ensure your new hire has a strong induction program and partner them with a longstanding employee ‘buddy’ to ease them into your business.

Want more information on how to improve your recruitment processes?  Speak to the recruitment team at Flexi Personnel.