Through all of the ebbs and flows of a business, the economy, and government, one thing that remains a constant for business owners and leaders is the reality that it is crucial to find good employees. Many might attempt to play the challenge to find good staff as generational, but throughout every generation searching for and finding good quality employees has always been important and challenging. As a result, in recent years many have spent time focusing on how to improve the hiring process, which in turn can improve your organizations culture, save money, and significantly reduce your stress. While your personal stress is important, the two most significant motivations for improving your hiring process should be financial savings and improved culture within your organization. How often have you taken time to calculate the true financial cost of a bad hire? The truth is, few investigate this in great detail, but according to a survey by careerbuilder.com almost one-third of companies report a single bad hire costing more than $50,000. In that same study, they found that 41% of companies report a bad hire costing them in excess of $25,000. When you consider the time spent investing in the hiring process, on-boarding and training a new hire, plus a potential severance package and numerous hours of stress for supervisors and managers, it is easy to see how those numbers can add up quickly. These numbers reiterate why each company should regularly review their hiring process and make improvements as necessary. The other primary reason has to do with your organization’s culture. Leadership guru, Dave Ramsey, speaks about this in great detail. A bad hire can have a tremendous impact through potential office gossip, unresolved disagreements in the office, lack of team purpose, and a sense of leadership sanctioning incompetence or laziness. While all of these will likely occur over time, it is important for leadership within every organization to attempt to limit the harmful impact it can have on your organizations culture. For leaders, it will be especially important to make strong hires and reduce the amount of sanctioned incompetence and laziness. Everyone can remember an experience of someone in the office, on the team, etc., who was not pulling their own weight due to lack of effort or inability to perform. When this occurs over time, it can drain the will and spirit of a group, which in turn will keep your team from experiencing their potential. Again, Dave Ramsey gives some valuable advice to consider when evaluating your hiring process. Dave says, “Be the tortoise, not the hare; slow and steady wins in business.” Within Dave’s organization, they sometimes have up to fourteen interviews with a candidate before making a hire. Wait, I know what you are thinking, fourteen is probably too many for most organizations. However, one way you can look at interviewing is like dating. On a first date, everyone puts his or her best self forward; it tends to be numerous dates down the line before you begin to see a more honest representation of your date. While fourteen is likely more interviews than you have time for, being sure to have multiple interviews is important. Likewise, if you are able to have multiple people on your team participate in the interview process it can be extremely helpful in gathering different perspectives on a potential hire. Be sure to have an open forum in which those who participate are able to give honest feedback of the candidate. Additionally, take advantage of the tools at your disposal such as conducting a personality and strength analysis. These can provide valuable feedback that is helpful to know about a candidate on the front end. For example, if you are looking for a sales person, a candidate might be able to present well in a one-time interview, but if they are a cautious beaver personality, you might end up with a problem. It does not matter what industry you are in, searching for and hiring new staff is challenging for us all. Our hope at Akin, Doherty, Klein & Feuge, P.C., is that you would take some time to evaluate your hiring process as a way to benefit your business financially and culturally. Over the past twenty-three years, we have been proud to assist our clients with advising them on their hiring process and participating in their search process when applicable. If we can further assist you with this or with any tax, accounting, estate planning, or other consulting needs, please do not hesitate to contact us.
