The true cost of a mis-hire & how you can avoid this

In today's fiercely competitive job market, it's more vital than ever to steer clear of the detrimental effects of a bad hire, both for your organisation's financial health and its overall culture.

The tech industry's talent shortage has led to hurried hiring decisions, raising the risk of costly mis-hires.

In this blog, we'll delve into the multifaceted costs of a mis-hire and, most importantly, provide strategies to help you avoid these pitfalls.

The financial impact

We’ve already established that finances aren’t the only cost of a bad hiring decision. However, absolutely *no one* wants to lose money.

Finances certainly contribute to the ‘true cost’ of a mis-hire. Money spent on the salary of the wrong candidate ends up accounting for a huge percentage of wasted resources.

The cost of a bad hire across sectors is estimated to be three times higher than the salary paid. For software development hires, the risk is even bigger since bad code can be extremely costly to fix. Depending on the level of hire, that number is likely to add up fast.

So, what makes up that substantial cost? It’s not just the salary that’s potentially wasted!

Companies are forced to take on yet another round of training and onboarding, as well as minor details like contracts, software, and equipment.

We believe that by investing getting to know candidates the first time around, you’re able to plan for your company’s future, including the people you want to see in it.

Cultural consequences

Company culture is a big deal for us here at Digital Waffle, and it’s something we strongly prioritise for the clients we work for.

Imagine for a moment the damage the wrong person can do to your teams and business at large.

Having someone with a mismatch of skills or personality in your company can lead to lost team morale, a lack of engagement, and your other (hopefully great) employees questioning the company’s future.

All of these factors could ultimately lead to a dip in employee satisfaction and productivity - which directly affects company culture overall.

We believe that delivering great talent solutions that speak to a company’s culture means having an innate understanding of what a healthy culture looks like for ourselves.

We want our clients and candidates to not only want to work with us but for our own people to actually enjoy working for us too.

Some of the ways we do that is by enjoying swanky team dinners together, actually listening to feedback and concerns, a long list of perks and trips, and just an overall happy group of people working together to achieve great things.

Time is money

You're already busy. There's no doubt about it.

In fact, you’re probably pushed for time when it comes to managing recruitment processes, right? Finding and onboarding a candidate takes a lot of time and effort. Don’t add fuel to the fire!

Hiring the wrong person for the job will only result in you having to source, train, and onboard their replacement.

Nobody relishes doing double the work.

How can you avoid making the wrong hire?

Use these hiring how-tos to improve your odds of bagging a super hire:

Trust your gut!

When a hire doesn’t go as planned, chances are that you’ve had concerns all along. To avoid making the same mistake again, look out for obvious red flags that pop up early on in the recruitment process.

If something doesn’t seem right, or you have any unanswered questions, you’re more than likely going to end up with a mis-hire at the end of the line.

Move on!

References are there for a reason - use them!

It’s one thing to trust your instincts, but your gut can’t tell you for sure what an employee has been like in the past. Reach out to previous employers for insights into the candidate's past performance.

References are free resources that can prevent expensive mistakes.

Set clear expectations

Be upfront about what you need!

Communicate clear and concise expectations and responsibilities right at the beginning of the candidate’s interview experience.

This gives them measurable action points to work towards, and you get a clear benchmark to measure them against. No surprises on either side sounds like a good start to us.

Get ready to sell your company as much as possible during this stage. Use this opportunity to make it crystal clear why the candidate should accept your job offer over any others.

This way, the candidate will not only choose to work with you but will actually *want* to work with you too.

Our team of recruitment specialists makes it their mission to clearly understand exactly what you need from your new hire before we start our search, making it a seamless and efficient process.

Leverage your recruitment partner

You guessed it, that’s us! Great recruiters (like Digital Waffle) know that your talent solution is about much more than selling a candidate.

Any decent recruiter you work with will recognise the importance of building strong relationships with both clients and candidates. Working with a solid recruitment team gives you access to a long-term partnership and a trustworthy shoulder to lean on.

That means that industry insights, interview veterans, and career partners are just some of the things you can expect from a recruitment agency. Take advantage of that!

At Digital Waffle, we’re specialists in niche tech and digital skills. We provide the winning talent you need to take your business to the next level.

We understand that in today's competitive job market, a bad hire can be costly and disruptive.

However, there are strategies to minimise the risks. Trust your instincts, seek references, set clear expectations, and collaborate with experts to make informed hiring decisions.

If you want to avoid the costs of mis-hires and work with us, then get in touch with any of our experienced recruitment consultants today.