Cost of Keeping the Wrong Employees
The wrong employees. We have all hired them (and unfortunately fired them). The loss in production, extra stress, unhappy employees, and endless excuses… wrong hires are costly. Even worse, those costs will not be compensated. What are the qualities of the wrong employees and what are they costing you?
Qualities of a Wrong Hire
Common characteristics of the wrong employee include individuals who exaggerate their skills and experience during an interview and consequently cannot meet quality or work standards set forth by the company. The wrong employees are more interested in how the company can help them as opposed to how they can help the company. They are more eager to learn about PTO than the position they are applying for. They demonstrate a lack of commitment by arriving late, taking long breaks, and leaving early. Most importantly, the wrong employees radiate negative attitudes which cause a ripple effect among other employees.
Monetary Loss
The Department of Labor estimates the average cost of a wrong hire is 30% of his/her initial salary. For example, if an employee’s salary is $45,000, he/she is costing the employer an additional $13,500.
A 2017 CareerBuilder survey found employers lose on average $15,000 with every wrong hire and 74% admitted they have made a wrong hire.
No matter where you pull the data from, the result is the same. The wrong employee can cost you a lot of money, and the impact goes far beyond the revenue lost due to a decrease in productivity.
Nonmonetary Loss
Recruiting and training – Hiring is a timely process. It’s estimated the average hire takes four to six weeks, after all, there’s time spent writing job descriptions, posting jobs, screening resumes, contacting candidates, conducting interviews, and negotiating with potential hires (all while the position likely remains vacant). Once beginning, the employee will require training to learn the company’s processes, customers, daily activities, etc.
Employee morale – A negative attitude can spread like wildfire to other employees magnifying stress and distracting others. Coworkers have to take on extra work to make up for the loss in productivity. Bitterness and resentment rise among employees and can cause good employees to quit (the cost of losing a good employee averages over $29,000 according to the CareerBuilder survey).
Reputation and customers – An employee’s behavior reflects on the company. Bad attitudes and poor performance can lead to the loss of customers and discourages partners, vendors, and other valuable applicants.
There is also the risk of liability, the stress of firing someone, loss of efficiency, and repeating the hiring process to replace the wrong employee.
Solution
The solution seems simple, right? Just do not hire the wrong employees. Easier said than done. Often companies rush the process to get a vacant position filled or lack interview skills to hire people effectively. A company’s culture may not be transparent to candidates, or it may lack an onboarding process for new hires.
Are you keeping the wrong employees? It is time to upgrade. Twin City Staffing makes it easy to replace wrong employees with the right employees. We specialize in hiring quality candidates in manufacturing including assemblers, machine operators, forklift drivers, and more. We learn your needs and company culture so we can accurately match the right employee. Our recruiters are trained to screen candidates and ask effective interview questions. We follow up with hires and you to ensure the position is the right fit. The best part, while Twin City Staffing is working to fulfill your hiring needs, you get to keep working on moving the company forward.