Making the correct hiring decisions will reduce staff turnover, help your budget and give your company more time.

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No matter the size of the company, the dreaded bad hire can end up having a significant negative impact on growth. Investment in the right people is true investment for the future of a company - but sadly not all hires turn out to be as successful as we would expect them to be....

When you invest time and money into finding and hiring the perfect candidate for your business you simultaneously begin investing in the future of your business. Doing so is not merely filling a position that you have ascertained requires filling, it is also a process that can breathe new life into every aspect of your company, encouraging current staff to grow in their roles whilst reinforcing your culture and cementing the personal aspect of your brand.

The challenge for all recruiting professionals isn’t surrounding the awareness of what a good hire can do for a business. It surrounds avoiding bad hires. In the UK the figures are somewhat hazy but one thing we can be certain about is that 99.9% of bad hires weren’t thought to be so when they were initially offered the position.

Every single recruitment campaign should seek to achieve nothing but complete success in each of the areas mentioned above - role fulfilment, culture renewal and catalyst for evolution. Whenever we at eRecruitSmart undertake a campaign for one of our partners we do so with a determination to discover the perfect candidate who blows expectations in all of these areas.

Investing time into recruitment
A considerable amount of bad hires come from time restrictions. In the case of small business owners, it’s often a result of enhanced exterior pressures from juggling a multitude of different roles. Cementing your recruitment campaign to avoid the bad hire is about ensuring you carefully assess each application and avoid making split decisions based on immediate needs.

Be as specific as possible about skills and knowledge
Many professionals have a clear idea in their head about what they need, but struggle to articulate this on paper. Often this is due to time restrictions brought on by other responsibilities, but sometimes this is because they aren’t certain of what skills and knowledge their new hire would need to have. This needs to be included in the job description, not only to assist applicants but also to help guide your assessment of applications.

Be cautious of bias hiring
Bias hiring is one of the most common reasons for bad hires, and it’s particularly tricky because we are often unaware of our subtle biases, especially in the workplace. Be sure you are not hiring/not hiring as a result of your own bias.

Probationary periods and performance analysis
Ideally, if the legwork has been put down pre-hire, you shouldn’t have too much to worry about in regards to probationary periods. However, paying careful attention to your new hire in the first few months is incredibly important to ensure that they grow in line with the business - and so you can be sure that a bad egg hasn’t slipped through the net.