Signs You Have Made a Bad Hire

In the best of times, hiring can be tough. There’s nothing more satisfying, though than completing the recruitment process and sitting on their first day across from your new starter. But if you made a bad hire, what happens?

It can be tricky to spot one straight from the get-go unless they’re completely inept. It is far more likely that as the career of your new employee progresses, it will become apparent that you’ve selected the wrong candidate.

Those signs can be subtle, though. So, you’ll need to watch out for the following five signs to see if you’ve made a bad hiring decision or not!

1. They don’t settle in Well

A common mistake made by hiring managers and staffing agents is to get star-struck by the experience and skill set of a candidate. But what happens to their personality?

Research from Resume-Library and TopResume reveals that 70 percent of employers believe that personality is a major determining factor in evaluating a candidate. And that should not be undervalued.

After all, the personality of an applicant will determine if they will be getting on with their team. This is pretty important for retention rates and to maximize your workforce’s potential. If they mesh well with all of their colleagues, your staff will be more likely to work efficiently. Throwing a disruptive new employee into the mix as such will only damage the morale of the team and the chemistry.

So, if your new starter doesn’t get involved in team discussions, and you get the feedback they’re standoffish, that’s not good news. Certain workers do need some encouragement, of course. But if they don’t contribute actively or cause friction in their team then this is a sign that you’ve made a bad hire.

2. The Flaws Won’t Stop

It is entirely natural for a new hire to make mistakes and it is unrealistic to expect them to be perfect right away. You’re going to have a specific way to do certain tasks and on day one you can’t expect anyone to become a master at this. Mistakes can happen, but if they get constant then you need to worry about that.

Ideally, a new hire will learn from its mistakes and start adapting to the processes and culture. But you need patience.

However, if the mistakes happen repeatedly over and over again, without any change or effort to make an improvement, then it’s clear that you made a bad hire. It suggests they can’t or won’t act on feedback after all, and they’re unwilling to change their ways.

3. They are not committed to the job

You might have been dazzled by your new starter with examples of their dedication and enthusiasm for the industry, but now this is nowhere to be seen.

It can be very frustrating if they are lazy and do not seem to have the same drive and desire that they showed in their interview. We will have represented their best self, remember; but it may not actually be their true self.

So if your new employee is slacking off, showing no eagerness to take on new tasks, and is content with handling a very minimal workload, then you’ve probably made a hiring error.

4. They are not as good as they were

As mentioned above, a candidate will go to great lengths to get themselves promoted. As a result, during an interview, they may slightly over-exaggerate their abilities and experience. While to some degree you might expect this, the new hire should still be able to perform the role to a high standard.

If they are still miles behind where you need them to be, after the necessary training and support, then this is a tell-tale indication that you’ve made a bad hire.

5. They look forward to a lot of special treatment

Of course, during the onboarding process, your new hire should receive some special attention, to make them feel welcome. This could be a company lunch so they can meet the team on their first day, or a hamper full of goodies.

If special treatment becomes an expectation after their first week, though, then it could be a sign that you have made a bad hire. You simply can not go on creating a new employee differently after they’ve settled in.

Plus, if you do, the rest of your team is highly likely to get disheartened. You don’t want to risk harming morale at the expense of a new starter in need.

Conclusion

If you want to reduce the risk of getting a bad recruit, you have to go back to the start all the way; and rework the hiring process. After all, it’s here where you made the recruiting mistake and picked the wrong candidate.

Wherever you’ve messed up along the way, by maximizing your interviews, setting tasks to assess suitability and considering the personality of a candidate when recruiting for the role, you can limit the chances of making a poor hiring decision.

Whether you follow a strict framework in the hiring process, you will ensure that each candidate has a proper chance to be evaluated.