One of the costliest mistakes for any organization is making a bad hire.

That happens when the person hired to fill a position doesn’t have the right skills to do the job or, for a variety of reasons, isn’t a good fit.

Believe me when I say I’ve made a few bad hires in my career.

I’ve learned that bad hires have a significant cost associated with them. Think about the disruption, wasted time, duplication of effort, and cost of damages created with a bad hiring choice. It affects productivity, morale, customer satisfaction, even customer retention. There might also be costs in recruiting fees or wrongful termination—all typical fallouts of a bad hire.

Leadership Tip
Closely evaluate all hiring decisions in your organization.

To evaluate candidates when hiring, ask these questions:

• Do they fit into your culture? How do you know?
• Do they really want the job, or do they really need the job?
• Is there good chemistry with the rest of the team? How do you know?
• Do they have the right skills and experience to do the job, plus some?
• How long will it be before they start generating a return? Can you wait that long?
• Do they have the potential to grow within your organization? What makes you think so?
• What baggage are any highly experienced industry candidates bringing with them? 

Ask others on your team for their questions as well. And be objective. If you ever needed to rely on objectivity, making a hiring decision is the time.

When bringing people into your organization, you add to your most important resource—and you absolutely must get it right.