collaborative post | Finding a new job is stressful – but it’s equally stressful when you’re hiring someone for a new job too! You don’t want to make a mistake as a wrong hire can cost your business dearly. Loads of small companies have gone under purely because they made bad hires.
Photo by Magnet.me on Unsplash
You have to recognize that bad employees drain your finances. If you wish to get rid of them, you need to pay severance packages. And then you have to deal with the cost of recruitment to get replacements in.
It should be easy to hire a new employee and see immediate success. Unfortunately, things don’t always pan out this way. There are many reasons your new hire isn’t working out. Figuring out the cause can help you make smarter decisions in the future when finding replacement candidates. With that in mind, let’s look at four reasons your new hire…well…sucks!
They don’t fit the company culture
You can’t run a successful small business if the workplace is in disarray. Your team should all buy into the shared company vision – if people aren’t on board with this, it throws a massive spanner in the works.
That’s why hiring for cultural fit is essential for all businesses. You need people to agree with the company’s direction, and to – ideally – have a passion for what you’re doing. When someone doesn’t fit the company culture, they often butt heads with you or other employees. It makes it difficult to reach your true potential, which holds you back.
Before hiring anyone else, think about some key qualities you want to see in employees concerning the company culture.
They were underqualified for the job
Look, you want to hire people with the most experience and qualifications. These candidates will know how to perform their role for your company, meaning they should be good at it. Particularly if they’ve got a great track record and loads of positive references from previous employees.
It sounds obvious, but you must hire the most qualified people for every role. And yet, you’re often tempted by the plucky upstart candidate. You know who we’re talking about, right? The person without much experience, but a great attitude and a killer job application. They’re fresh out of college, so you want to give them a chance.
Listen, there are times when this risk pays off and you discover a hidden gem! On the other hand, it’s far more likely that a bad hire is down to a lack of qualifications/experience. They’ve never been in a work environment like this before, so they struggle to adapt. As much as you’d love to give younger and less experienced people more opportunities, you must hire people with adequate qualifications.
Think about maybe offering internships or hiring for entry-level jobs if you’d like to bring in some fresh talent!
You didn’t learn enough about them
The first two reasons were more about the candidates than you. Sometimes, you have to hold your hands up and admit you made an error. If a new hire isn’t working it, there’s a chance it’s because you didn’t learn enough about them.
During the interview or application process, you didn’t ask enough questions to discover everything there is to know about the candidate. Perhaps they have a medical condition you didn’t account for, meaning they need to work from home. Or, maybe they’re late for work every day because of childcare constraints. You’d learn these things if you asked the right interview questions for startups.
The best questions cover all topics and help you form a dossier on every candidate. You’ll know as much about them as possible, making it easier to either implement things that help them work better, or decide which candidates are the best.
You skipped the onboarding process
You hired an employee and then sat back to bask in your success. Ah, another job well done. They’ll transition within a few days and slot right into your company.
Without wanting to sound rude, this is an incredibly naive way of seeing things. New hires need to go through an onboarding process to get them up to speed. Teach them how things are done; show them what software they’ll use or the correct way to follow certain procedures. Without an onboarding process, you leave your new hires to fend for themselves.
It’s an added investment, but onboarding can help you avoid bad situations and ensure your hires are good ones.
Take two key things from this post. One: you need to pay close attention when recruiting new people, so you don’t hire the wrong person for the job. Two: sometimes your new hire isn’t working out through no fault of their own, but thanks to your negligence. Learn everything about a candidate before you hire them and be sure they pass through an onboarding process.
