The central point in hiring right the first time is to get the right person the first time, so you don’t waste money on wages and recruiting expenses on the wrong people and have to repeat everything.
We’ve found over the years that about $15,000 per hire is wasted on getting the wrong person.
So, what can you do?
First, don’t be in a hurry to hire. Work the process below or make up your own. Don’t trust your gut in hiring; at best, it’s only 50% right in our experience. A little overtime here and there until you find the right new hire is much cheaper than wasting money on the wrong person.
Second, define what the person is supposed to do. You don’t want to frustrate good hires by having them ask supervisors what they’re supposed to be doing (and good hires will ask).
Third, circulate the new hire description around your company because the new job might be a step-up for one of your existing employees, which will save you money in recruiting costs. And your existing employees should know about the hiring because one of them might think they’re on the chopping block (if one is, talk to that person separately).
Once you’ve defined what you want, post the job on Indeed and/or Zip Recruiter. They’re both good sources and inexpensive. For executives, you might use a headhunter simply because these people don’t read Indeed and ZipRecruiter.
Post the salary ranges or hourly rates and use a 90-day probationary rate, which is maybe 10% lower than the going rate. Check the salary and/or hourly rate on Zip or Indeed before you set yours because you probably want to pay more than the market rate to get quality people. Pay attention to the perks that the new hire might want because it’s not always more vacation or a bonus.
Bring the supervisor of the person into the process (if there is one) at this point to do the interviews and make sure he/she is in agreement that you’ve got the right person. Ultimately, it’s your decision if it’s a company of 10 or fewer employees, but push the final decision down the organization.
Make sure you’ve got a scoring sheet for each candidate to rank them in how well they meet the criteria outlined above. Hire the best person, assuming you can afford him/her. Your pay offer might also include some perks (outside of healthcare), such as performance bonuses. If you have to go a bit above (no more than 10%), don’t worry about it; it should be money well spent.
Don’t be concerned about DEI because it’s going out as practice. Hire for merit, period. Diversity will take care of itself.
Pay particular attention to attendance records; you want someone who’s there every day, not just Tuesday to Thursday.
As a last step, have the new hire talk to the people he/she will be working with to make sure there’s a good fit.
Remember, if you get a hire wrong, it’ll cost you about $15,000.