CHICAGO, December 7, 2011 - A bad hire can lower an organization's efficiency, affect worker morale and result in legal issues, and according to a new MiracleWorkers.com survey, it is a problem a majority of American healthcare organizations have faced recently. Seventy-seven percent of healthcare employers said they were affected by a bad hire in the past year.
The survey - conducted 294 U.S. healthcare employers between August 16 and September 8, 2011, by Harris Interactive © - found that a single bad hire can significantly affect an organization's bottom line. Thirty-four percent of companies that made a bad hire estimate that it cost them more than $25,000 and 18 percent said it cost more than $50,000.
A bad hire costs much more than the average cost-per-hire. Thirty-four percent of healthcare employers surveyed said that a typical hire costs $1,000 or less, 37 percent said between $1,001 and $5,000, and 29 percent said more than $5,000.
"It's easier to see how a person looks on paper than it is to judge how they'll actually perform or fit within an organization's culture. Bad hires may be hard to foresee; however, the data reflects the importance of a thorough vetting process," said Rob Morris, director of MiracleWorkers.com. "Before making a decision, hiring managers should attempt, if possible, to introduce the candidate to as many prospective colleagues as possible so that the team can evaluate whether or not the person is a good match."
Why do healthcare employers make bad hires?
A rushed decision was the top reason given for making a bad hire, but the survey found that there's not often an easy explanation:
- Needed to fill the job quickly - 41 percent
- Not sure; sometimes you make a mistake - 37 percent
- Insufficient talent intelligence (knowledge on who target talent is) - 18 percent
- Sourcing techniques need to be adjusted per open position - 9 percent
Effects of a Bad Hire
The survey found that the price of a bad hire adds up in variety of direct and indirect ways. For example, nine percent of health care employers said bad hires resulted in legal issues in the past year. The most common effects are:
- Less productivity - 52 percent
- Lost time to recruit and train another worker - 46 percent
- Cost to recruit and train another worker - 45percent
- Employee morale negatively affected - 45percent
- Negative impact on client relations - 24 percent
Characteristics of a Bad Hire
When classifying what makes someone a bad hire, healthcare employers reported several behavioral and productivity related issues:
- Employee didn't produce the proper quality of work - 68 percent
- Employee had a negative attitude - 66 percent
- Employee didn't work well with other employees - 66 percent
- Employee had immediate attendance problems - 61 percent
- Customers complained about the employee - 53 percent
- Employee was very dramatic, high-maintenance - 48 percent
Survey Methodology
This survey was conducted online within the U.S. by Harris Interactive© on behalf of CareerBuilder among 294 U.S. healthcare hiring managers and human resource professionals (employed full-time, not self-employed, non-government) ages 18 and over between August 16, 2011 and September 8, 2011 (percentages for some questions are based on a subset, based on their responses to certain questions). With a pure probability sample of 294 one could say with a 95 percent probability that the overall results have a sampling error of +/- 5.72 percentage points. Sampling error for data from sub-samples is higher and varies.
About MiracleWorkers.com and CareerBuilder®
MiracleWorkers.com is a network of skill-specific healthcare sites designed to recruit talented healthcare professionals. For more information, visit www.MiracleWorkers.com.
MiracleWorkers.com is a division of CareerBuilder, the global leader in human capital solutions, helping companies target and a+ttract 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 40 million resumes. CareerBuilder works with the world's top employers, providing resources for everything from employment branding and data analysis to recruitment support. More than 9,000 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, Canada and Asia. For more information, visit www.careerbuilder.com.