Hiring Gaffes Can Be Costly

Before you extend your next job offer, mull this over: One wrong decision carries with it multiple hidden costs.

One in ten hospitality companies surveyed by CareerBuilder.com said that a single bad hire had cost their business more than $50,000 in the last year. Nearly one in five estimated the cost at more than $25,000.

That group of more than 100 hiring managers reported the following domino effects from making a bad staffing choice:

• Lost time to recruit and train another worker – 52 percent
• Less productivity – 48 percent
• Lost money to recruit and train another worker – 47 percent
• Had a negative effect on employee morale – 43 percent
• Had a negative effect on client relations – 28 percent
• Fewer sales – 18 percent
• Legal issues – 12 percent

“Among other things, hiring the wrong talent for a position can have a significant effect on a hospitality organization’s bottom line,” said Jamie Womack, v.p. of corporate marketing for CareerBuilder. “To help proactively prevent bad hires, and their impact on the business, employers are exploring new ways to leverage target talent data and research in their hiring process.”

Of employers who made a bad hire, 54 percent, the highest among industries surveyed, said they think they made a mistake hiring someone because they needed to fill the job quickly. This was followed by lack of understanding of where their target talent is (30 percent), not checking references (19%) and unsuccessful sourcing techniques (10 percent).

Understanding who target talent is and how they will fit into an organization is increasingly important as hiring costs increase. Thirty percent of hospitality employers have an average cost per hire of more than $1,000, up sharply from 9 percent in 2008.