As the economy recovers, more businesses are hiring. Unfortunately, sometimes hiring done under the gun (also known as “butts in chairs syndrome”) can backfire, resulting in the dreaded Bad Hire. As a staffing firm, you can remind your clients of the drawbacks of the Bad Hire and point out the benefits of using staffing to try before they buy.
Bad Hires usually reveal themselves in the first three to six months of employment, so businesses might think that once the Bad Hire has been released back into the wild, they’re only out those few months’ salary. But that’s just the most obvious cost of a Bad Hire. Other direct costs include:
- Cost of placing ads for recruitment
- Cost of reviewing resumes, interviewing candidates and checking resumes
- Cost of training the Bad Hire
- Cost of redoing work the Bad Hire had done… badly
- And other potential costs such as relocation fees, legal fees if a contract is involved and hiring bonuses
An actual calculator of most of these direct costs can be found here. It’s quite an eye-opener, and really brings home how much more expensive a Bad Hire can be than using a staffing firm.
Then, we have the murkier costs, the indirect costs of a Bad Hire. Costs like lost productivity in the workplace as a whole, lost confidence among shareholders and stakeholders, lost morale and engagement among team members and possible loss of actual team members who have bailed rather than work with the Bad Hire.
Obviously, a lot is at stake when it comes to hiring. Reminding your clients of this, without being too doom-and-gloom-y about it, can reinforce the value of staffing.
The phrase that comes up most often is “try before you buy,” which is a great way to highlight the reduced hiring risks businesses enjoy when they use staffing firms. They can see how hires will fit in with their people, their culture and the job itself before committing to hiring them. They get the freedom and flexibility of trying the candidates who interviewed well without worrying about the many costs and drawbacks of the Bad Hire.
What aspects of Bad Hires have you found most useful in communicating with your clients? Let us know in the comments!