Nearly Seven in Ten Businesses Affected by a Bad Hire in the Past Year, According to CareerBuilder Survey

Nearly One-in-Four Employers Reported a Bad Hire Cost Them More than $50,000

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Dec 13, 2012, 06:00 ET

CHICAGO, Dec. 13, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- Hiring the right person to fill a position can be a difficult decision to make, and a new CareerBuilder study shows the cost of choosing incorrectly can be high. Sixty-nine percent of employers reported that their companies have been adversely affected by a bad hire this year, with 41 percent of those businesses estimating the cost to be over $25,000. Twenty-four percent said a bad hire cost them more than $50,000.

"Whether it's a negative attitude, lack of follow through or other concern, the impact of a bad hire is significant," said Rosemary Haefner, vice president of human resources at CareerBuilder. "Not only can it create productivity and morale issues, it can also affect the bottom line."

Effects of a Bad Hire
The price of a bad hire adds up in a variety ways. The most common are:

Less productivity – 39 percent
Lost time to recruit and train another worker – 39 percent
Cost to recruit and train another worker – 35 percent
Employee morale negatively affected – 33 percent
Negative impact on clients – 19 percent
Fewer sales – 11 percent
Legal issues – 9 percent

Characteristics of a Bad Hire
When classifying what makes someone a bad hire, employers reported several behavioral and performance-related issues:

Employee didn't produce the proper quality of work – 67 percent
Employee didn't work well with other employees – 60 percent
Employee had a negative attitude – 59 percent
Employee had immediate attendance problems – 54 percent
Customers complained about the employee – 44 percent
Employee didn't meet deadlines – 44 percent

Why Companies Make Bad Hires
The most common reason associated with a bad hire is rushing the decision process. Two-in-five hiring managers attributed a bad hire to pressure to fill the job opening.

Needed to fill the job quickly – 43 percent
Insufficient talent intelligence – 22 percent
Sourcing techniques need to be adjusted per open position – 13 percent
Fewer recruiters due to the recession has made it difficult to go through applications – 10 percent
Didn't check references - 9 percent
Lack of strong employment brand – 8 percent

One-in-four employers (26 percent) stated they weren't sure why they made a bad hire and said sometimes you just make a mistake.

Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive^© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 2,494 hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) between August 13 and September 6, 2012 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 2,494, one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 1.96 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.

About CareerBuilder®
CareerBuilder is the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and attract their most important asset - their people. Its online career site, CareerBuilder.com®, is the largest in the United States with more than 24 million unique visitors, 1 million jobs and 49 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and talent intelligence to recruitment support. More than 10,000 websites, including 140 newspapers and broadband portals such as MSN and AOL, feature CareerBuilder's proprietary job search technology on their career sites. Owned by Gannett Co., Inc. (NYSE:GCI), Tribune Company and The McClatchy Company (NYSE:MNI), CareerBuilder and its subsidiaries operate in the United States, Europe, South America, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.

Media Contact:
CareerBuilder
Jennifer Grasz
773-527-1164
[email protected]
http://www.twitter.com/CareerBuilderPR

SOURCE CareerBuilder