How to Avoid a Bad Hire

businesswoman giving thumbs down

If you are looking to strike fear and dread into the hearts of hiring managers, talent acquisition and HR professionals, you need only say two words – bad hire. 

A bad hire can be classified as an employee who ends up being a poor fit for the organization or is unsatisfactory at the job they have been tasked to do. Lost productivity, lowered team morale, and the monetary cost of searching for and hiring a replacement is more than enough reason to try to avoid a bad hire. Which naturally begs the question: How do you, in fact, prevent a bad hire? Glad you asked, because today, we are going to tell you just that.

Establish a bigger (and better) talent pool

If you find your organization is hiring more “bad hires” than it should (which, in reality, should be none), then the most obvious culprit is the talent pool itself. While many companies pride themselves on being incredibly good at what they do, unless you are a recruitment or staffing agency, your core competency isn’t hiring. So why not turn to the people who make a living by helping companies like yours avoid bad hires by opening up your job postings to a larger, and likely better, talent pool.

Create better job postings

Are you finding your job ads are attracting some less than-desirable-candidates? Well, it may be you are not writing the type of job postings you need to attract top-tier talent. We’d suggest getting ultra-specific about what you are looking for and outlining some clear expectations and the unique requirements of the position. The more focused your job ads are, the easier it is to weed out the unfit applicants. 

Consider more than just their resume

While it is great to find a candidate who checks all the boxes in terms of skill set and experience, perhaps an even more critical element to consider when hiring is fit. By this we mean that sometimes, companies will hire a brilliant employee – on paper – however, when it comes to their social skills and ability to work with your team, they fall a little short. Fortunately, these types of hires can typically be avoided by asking the right interview questions or by partnering with a trusted and experienced staffing agency. 

Check references

Asking for references from potential hires is par for the course these days; however, we are still surprised at how often we find that hiring managers and HR professionals don’t actually follow up and check them. When you check a reference, you are getting an insight into how that person works, which should give you an idea whether they would be a good fit for your organization. 

Looking to avoid bad hires? Want to build a team with staff that make a difference? Contact Ascend Staffing today and discover the difference that working with an experienced professional can make.

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