She was only hired for a part-time role; mostly answering phones and completing project tasks.   In her interview she had answered all the right questions and appeared to be a real team player. Human resources had made a couple calls and hadn’t gotten terribly negative feedback on her past performance and frankly, the job needed to be filled NOW!

After one month of training, her performance was already unraveling; late for work, moody, and disorganized.  As her manager began to address her performance, she became angry and passive-aggressive spewing dissatisfaction throughout the office.   Within a short period of time the office began to feel tense; team members walked on eggshells in fear of “setting her off.” Morale was being severely impacted!

After six long months she was finally relieved of her duties.  Everyone in the office was grateful for the transition.  The questions on everyone’s’ mind was ” How did this bad hire happen?” and ” Why did we wait so long to let her go?”

We have all worked in an office where “she or he” worked.  We’ve all been challenged by a bad hire and have waited for leadership to address it, haven’t we?  The cost of a bad hire can be both financially and relationally impacting.  How do we avoid a bad hire?

1.  Avoiding a bad hire requires that there aren’t any shortcuts in the hiring process; completing a thorough background check with former employees is so important, testing and observing a true skill level, even administering the DISC and EQ Assessments through TTI, are very helpful in finding a healthy hire. Facebook, LinkedIn, even Twitter are great resources to get a clearer picture of the values and professionalism of a potential hire.
2. Matching the right person for the role is key.  Hiring an employee that shares the company’s  values, competencies, and vision will have enormous impact on the entire team.  If your team is relational and collaborative then hiring an extreme introvert may be problematic.  In a quiet and highly detailed environment an out-going extrovert could be problematic.
3. Allow key team members to be a part of the hiring process, let them weigh in as to how they feel this individual would fit into the team.  It’s always interesting to find out whether or not team members see “red flags” that one person alone could easily miss.
4. Establish good managers in your company that will lead their team  members well.  Any hire, even a good hire can go sour under a poor and unavailable manager. Every company needs managers who will address challenges in a timely and professional manner.

If you recognize that your company or a team in your company has low morale, missed deadlines, increasing customer complaints, an unwillingness to engage with new hires, or tend to blame other teams for their project/detail mistakes then YOU HAVE A BAD HIRE somewhere on the team.  The cost is so high!

Hire Well!! 🙂