The wide-reaching consequences of hiring the wrong person

By limiting themselves to a restricted selection of candidates on the market without conducting an exhaustive search, neglecting to undertake appropriate due diligence and failing to ensure that the executives they appoint are suitably qualified and experienced, organisations are exposing themselves to a potential multitude of negative consequences.

According to a CareerBuilder survey, hiring the wrong person can cost businesses in the UK an average of £50k each, whilst the Chartered Institute of Personnel & Development (CIPD) estimates the figure to be between 4 and 6 times that employee’s salary.
When it comes to appointing a poorly-matched CEO, the financial repercussions will be even greater by the time that benefits, training, bonuses and severance have been taken into consideration.

Organisations don’t just suffer the financial effects of misjudged appointments, though. Think too of how morale is affected, which in turn can have an adverse influence on performance and productivity and can create an undesirable corporate climate. Employees don’t want to have to prop up under-qualified colleagues, whilst employers don’t want their image tarnished by parting company with executives they perhaps appointed too hastily.

Commenting on this issue, executive recruitment consultant, Jean Gamble, remarked that “whenever someone is terminated, there’s disruption among the other employees who begin to question what caused the termination and if it affects how their performance will be evaluated, not to mention their increased work load.”

A study by The Economist highlighted that hiring unsuitable executives poses one of the most significant threats for businesses of today. Businesses in such a position will also suffer in terms of time, potentially having to restart the entire recruiting process for the role in question, which emphasises the benefits of engaging a retained executive search consultant to shortlist, interview and assess candidates from the outset.

The wise course is to carefully plan the search and appointment process, ensuring that candidates offer a strong cultural fit and possess the right skills, and that clear performance objectives are set out from the start. Organisations should look beyond CVs and qualifications, to the soft skills candidates offer. It’s imperative to have clear expectations, knowing exactly what you want the appointed executive to achieve. Allowing a sector and function specialised executive recruitment consultant to handle much of the process results in outstanding benefits for organisations in all industries. Finding the most talented executive for your organisation may take time, but it’s worth the patience and will avoid the pitfalls of hiring hastily.