What To Do When You've Made The Wrong Hiring Decision

Finding the right people for any role can be difficult.  It’s time-consuming and therefore cost consuming, so it’s critical to get it right.

You may have hired someone and thought they were great – great resume, enthusiastic personality with the right skills and experience; however, after a few months, you’ve realised they are not what you thought at all.  It’s OK – you’re not the first to have made this mistake, and you certainly won’t be the last.

What now?

When you’ve hired the wrong person, it can be a real blow to your confidence and ability to judge people during the interview process; however, there are steps you can take to recover and stop it from happening again.

Establish why it is a bad hire

Consider whether they would be better in another role

Let your mission guide you

Know when to give up

Avoid future bad hires

Establish why it is a bad hire

Before you do anything, you need to discover why the employee isn’t working out.

Is it because you’ve made the wrong hiring decision, or is it because your onboarding process is wrong?  Did you rush the recruitment process and overlook potential red flags? Whatever the reason, once you can determine the issue, you can decide whether it is fixable or not.

Consider whether they would be better in another role

If the person is fitting in well but isn’t performing to the standard you expected, consider whether they would be better suited to another role.

You don’t want to lose someone who is the right culture fit, and that could potentially exceed in another position.  Great people can be difficult to find, so don’t be too quick to dismiss them – training them in a new role will be less costly than restarting the hiring process.

If you do give your bad hire a second chance, make your expectations clear, along with communicating measurable goals and a completion timeline.

Let your mission guide you

Your mission, vision and values should guide every decision you make.  If the employee’s behaviour and skills aren’t aligned with what your company is about, they’re not a good fit.

Be professional and courteous and always do as much as you can to help employees – however, also realise that you cannot completely change people, and there are some that you will have to let go.

Know when to give up

There will be instances when bad hires just aren’t for you or your company.  If you have given them every chance to succeed but they simply aren’t right – cut your losses.

Here are a few scenarios where termination may be the only solution:

• The employee lied about their skills and experience

• The employee simply isn’t the right fit for your company

• The employee shows a lack of commitment

Avoid future bad hires

Every business makes hiring mistakes; however, you can only move forward by learning from your mistakes and implementing a strategy to prevent it from happening again.

A good place to start is your recruiting and interview process.  Start right at the beginning with your job descriptions and list of specifications.

If you don’t know where to start, consult a recruitment professional. Recruitment firms will be able to offer you guidance and assist you in finding the right people, with the right skills and experience for the role you are trying to hire for.

Acknowledging you’ve made a bad hire is a painful realisation; however, the sooner you realise, the sooner you can take the right actions to reduce the impact.