Hiring employees is the first step to operating any business. A good or bad employee can seriously make or break your company’s ability to produce excellent results. Despite the importance of building a reliable staff, many companies continue to make poor hiring decisions. In a study conducted by Brandon-Hall, 95% of organizations admit to having experienced one bad hire per year. To be able to avoid the pitfalls of a bad hire, it’s important to know the most common reasons why many companies continue to commit hiring mistakes:
1. Inadequate Background Checks
43% of hiring managers confess that their bad hiring decision emanated from the inadequacy or absence of employment background checks for their small businesses.
This implies that almost 50% of hiring managers in the U.S. make hiring decisions based only on a job applicants’ CV and a number of interviews. In this day and age, a job applicant’s CV or resume can no longer be trusted at face value because 85% of them contain embellishments or misleading information which could trigger a bad hiring decision.
2. Hiring too Quickly
Rushing to hire someone because you need the position filled quickly can have disastrous effects on your business. It’s good to fill vacant posts as quickly as possible, however a quick fix isn’t always the best solution. Employing an individual that does not fit the company culture or perhaps lacks a certain skill set may cause lost productivity, damage to morale, and perhaps even endanger the safety of other employees.
3. Putting too much weight on Skills over Attitude
A large majority of hiring managers pour their focus into a job candidate’s skills and experience and fail to consider another essential quality that good employees must have: a good attitude. A majority, if not all jobs require a good balance of skills and attitude towards work and co-workers. Approximately 29% of hiring managers committed hiring mistakes due to focusing solely on applicants’ skills and not giving due consideration to their attitude.
Many companies are on the lookout for hard skills because they want to see immediate results from new hires. This can be a successful strategy – if they happen to hire someone who has the right attitude and flexibility to adapt to the company’s culture on top of their ability to deliver. Hiring managers that focus on tangible skills however, have the tendency to overlook the most important attributes a good worker should have such as trustworthiness, reliability, adaptability and desire for continuous improvement. For this reason, you always need to contact a potential hires references to inquire about their attitude and character. As a matter of fact, 70% of hiring managers believe that performing reference checks is the key to finding employees with the skills and attitude that are in line with an organization’s goals and objectives.
A great business organization starts with hiring the right individuals. It is a process that requires care and thorough research. Whether you are performing employment background checks for your small business or you need a large enterprise level customized solutions you can be reassured that you’re making the proper hiring decisions.
If your business is in need of a background screening provider that you can trust, call Edge Information today at (888) 643-5716 or contact us at info@edgeinformation.com.
