4 ms·

The Real Cost of Hiring the Wrong Employee

18 points by coloneltcb 13y ago

cbhl 13y ago
> Could more data have prevented that terrible day when I had to fire an under-performing employee--and maybe prevented hiring her in the first place? I'd like to think so. This sounds like a poisonous way to approach hiring; to me it reads "let's add lots more bureaucracy so that hopefully I can avoid an embarrassing situation".
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
freejack 13y ago
I wonder how these costs fluctuate by position and country. It'd be interesting to see how these costs adjust for our own companies.
diziet 13y ago
Well if you take into account the cost of 'hiring, total compensation, eventual severance pay, and other factors like legal fees' (which is heavily weighted towards 'mistakes, failures and missed business opportunities') the number can be as high as you arbitrarily make it.
- pseudometa 13y ago
  Even if you filled the position with a different employee, the other guy may or may not be better. Unless he is talking about making the mistake of hiring someone who is not needed at all in the company and the position was wrongly created in the first place.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
rosser 13y ago
"I was a middle manager at a start-up in Minneapolis..." Can you legitimately call a company a "start-up" once it's grown to the point that it has middle management?
- jamesaguilar 13y ago
  Yes.
Frozenlock 13y ago
I was waiting for the introduction to finish, to finally read in details what happened with "Sue"; how she ended costing money... But turns out the introduction was the entire text.
michaelt 13y ago
Is there a better way? I like the Jobularity approach [...] using video introductions, profiles of their interests and talents, and--most importantly--a ranking system that is more data driven than most recruiting tools. Sounds good if you're in a recruiting market where there's a glut of talent so good candidates will be eager to jump through hoops like making a video introduction. But I'm not sure how well it would work in a market with a shortage of talent.
- RougeFemme 13y ago
  In the department that he was hiring for - graphics, marketing and writing - there IS a glut of talent and the candidates probably WOULD jump through hoops. But I would like to hear more - or anything - about what "data" is provided by the Jobularity approach.
eugeneross 13y ago
Really? You hire someone on the spot without asking them if they have experience elsewhere on different programs? Not a very smart move from the start...
RougeFemme 13y ago
". . .I was not great at "onboarding" people--a process that starts long before someone fills out a W9. (For a long time, I thought onboarding consisted entirely of filling out paperwork. Oops. " I would love to know more about what he thinks should be included in onboarding, now that he has the benefit of hindsight and more experience. And I would think that a lot of what he would learned re: start-up onboarding would apply equally well to decent larger companies, as well, though likely on a less-compressed schedule than with a start-up. It also sounds like that employee stayed for a while. In a start-up, I would assume you could and would pull the cord sooner.

18 points by coloneltcb 13y ago

cbhl 13y ago

> Could more data have prevented that terrible day when I had to fire an under-performing employee--and maybe prevented hiring her in the first place? I'd like to think so. This sounds like a poisonous way to approach hiring; to me it reads "let's add lots more bureaucracy so that hopefully I can avoid an embarrassing situation".

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

freejack 13y ago

I wonder how these costs fluctuate by position and country. It'd be interesting to see how these costs adjust for our own companies.

diziet 13y ago

Well if you take into account the cost of 'hiring, total compensation, eventual severance pay, and other factors like legal fees' (which is heavily weighted towards 'mistakes, failures and missed business opportunities') the number can be as high as you arbitrarily make it.

pseudometa 13y ago
Even if you filled the position with a different employee, the other guy may or may not be better. Unless he is talking about making the mistake of hiring someone who is not needed at all in the company and the position was wrongly created in the first place.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

rosser 13y ago

"I was a middle manager at a start-up in Minneapolis..." Can you legitimately call a company a "start-up" once it's grown to the point that it has middle management?

jamesaguilar 13y ago
Yes.

Frozenlock 13y ago

I was waiting for the introduction to finish, to finally read in details what happened with "Sue"; how she ended costing money... But turns out the introduction was the entire text.

michaelt 13y ago

Is there a better way? I like the Jobularity approach [...] using video introductions, profiles of their interests and talents, and--most importantly--a ranking system that is more data driven than most recruiting tools. Sounds good if you're in a recruiting market where there's a glut of talent so good candidates will be eager to jump through hoops like making a video introduction. But I'm not sure how well it would work in a market with a shortage of talent.

RougeFemme 13y ago
In the department that he was hiring for - graphics, marketing and writing - there IS a glut of talent and the candidates probably WOULD jump through hoops. But I would like to hear more - or anything - about what "data" is provided by the Jobularity approach.

eugeneross 13y ago

Really? You hire someone on the spot without asking them if they have experience elsewhere on different programs? Not a very smart move from the start...

RougeFemme 13y ago

". . .I was not great at "onboarding" people--a process that starts long before someone fills out a W9. (For a long time, I thought onboarding consisted entirely of filling out paperwork. Oops. " I would love to know more about what he thinks should be included in onboarding, now that he has the benefit of hindsight and more experience. And I would think that a lot of what he would learned re: start-up onboarding would apply equally well to decent larger companies, as well, though likely on a less-compressed schedule than with a start-up. It also sounds like that employee stayed for a while. In a start-up, I would assume you could and would pull the cord sooner.