After a long search, you’ve hired someone to fill a position in your company. During the interview process, they stood out. Yet, after a few weeks, you can tell something’s not quite right. Your new employee isn’t meshing with coworkers, and their performance is lackluster at best. Instead of solving problems, your new employee is the problem.
Coming to this conclusion that you made a bad hire can be extremely difficult for an organization, because hiring someone and bringing them on board is costly.
How can you recover? Recognizing you’ve made a mistake, and taking swift action to fix it, are important first steps. Keeping a bad hire on too long becomes a drain on team morale and productivity within the organization as a whole.
Take these five savvy steps to recover from a bad hire and help keep it from happening again.
1. Determine why it’s a bad hire
Before you take action, dig deeper to discover why the employee isn’t working out.
Is it an organization fit issue or a gap in skills? Did the employee misrepresent their expertise or lack thereof? Or, maybe you made a rushed decision and overlooked potential red flags. Whatever the reason, once you determine the root of the problem, you’ll know whether it’s fixable, or if termination is the best route to take.
2. Let your mission be your guide
The truth is, the decision to keep or fire a bad hire is not always clear-cut and should be made on a case-by-case basis. Don’t sacrifice your business to avoid making a tough decision that may need to be made. It isn’t personal, it’s just business.
3. Know when to throw in the towel
There will be instances when bad hires just aren’t salvageable, period. If you’ve given them every chance to succeed and ruled out reassignment to a new role, it’s time to think about cutting them loose and cutting your losses.
4. Avoid future bad hires
Every business owner makes hiring mistakes. But they’re not a total loss if you learn from them and use the knowledge gained to make better hiring decisions moving forward. Take a close look at what happened, and why it happened, to avoid making the same mistake twice.
A good place to start is your recruiting and interviewing processes. Where are you trying to find people? What questions are you asking job candidates? Maybe they’re not specific enough to identify areas of concern. And are the people who are asking the questions sufficiently trained in interviewing?
Next, make sure you clearly communicate job descriptions with job candidates. List your expectations for the role in detail, while reaffirming your organizational culture. Job candidates should know you’re looking for the total package: an employee with the required skills, who’s also in tune with your company’s culture, mission and values.
If you notice a new hire is lacking culture fit or certain skills, it’s a good idea not to wait longer than 30 to 45 days to offer feedback. Give them the opportunity to do something about it. Don’t let the situation linger.
Acknowledging you’ve made a bad hire is a painful realization. But if you act wisely, and quickly, you can make the best of a bad situation and avoid making future hiring blunders.
Cosmo Insurance Agency is a full-service independent insurance agency based in Hackensack (Bergen County) and Lakewood (Ocean County), New Jersey that offers an all-encompassing range of insurance options for both individuals and businesses. Cosmo keeps its promise to assure an efficient and creative approach to the services we offer. Each of our clients experience a personalized and long-term relationship with us. Our New Jersey based team of health brokers guides our clients in helping them choose the most cost-effective options. By incorporating our knowledge of the insurance guidelines for healthcare, employee benefits, life insurance, self-insurance, dental, disability, and long term care insurance, we keep our clients up-to-date with affordable plans that cover all their specific insurance needs.
