Tech Recruitment: Avoiding Bad Hires

When it comes to interviewing tech candidates, many recruiters are at a loss for words – literally. They don’t speak the same language and the gap in communication can lead to a hire that has talent, just not the talent your company seeks.

The cost of a bad hire in real dollars can be staggering – some estimates put it from 50 to 150% of the employee’s annual salary (or more). The time and resources spent on advertising, interviewing, background checking and beyond alone are significant. Then you have to double them to re-hire for the same opening. But there are larger costs to a bad hire that, while not immediately translatable in dollars, can be just as devastating to your company.

The Ripple Effect

When a position is vacant, coworkers have to pick up the slack. For IT workers, that typically means long hours, lunches hunched over their workstation, and shifting priorities that can leave internal candidates waiting while system or customer concerns take precedence. Even the best team player feels the pressure to help out – and morale can lower. When a new hire is finally made, team members can see the light at the end of the tunnel. Once the learning curve is over, they can get back to their own work load. When the new hire can’t perform, the cycle begins again: with the recruiter who made the bad hire is the villain.

Risking Customers and Systems

If the new hire is a front-facing staffer who works directly with your customer base, a bad hire can cost you sales, brand loyalty and more. When the wrong talent tries to fake their way through a client interaction, the customer usually knows it. Most don’t respond well for being put in the position of dealing with someone incompetent. Placing your revenue in the hands of someone unqualified can be pricey.

Putting systems in the hands of the unqualified can be devastating. Will you be able to catch that mistake before it takes down everything? And if you do, what will be the cost in down and recovery time? A new hire in tech often has your revenue stream in their control. If they don’t know what they’re doing, you could be risking it all.

Salvage Time

When a bad hire is made, many managers will try to salvage the employee. They’ll look for ways to ‘make it work,’ trying to manage performance or even train the employee. Those hours, taken away from other duties and the needs of productive employees, is costly and usually wasted. And again, coworkers suffer: they can’t get the support they need, because their manager’s time is consumed with the underperformer.

The Risk of Separating

For most employers, a probationary period is in effect for every new hire, and most use that ‘grace period’ to assess whether or not the candidate really has the chops. Some don’t, and that can be costly. Even with probationary conditions, and a clear lack of performance, many bad hires will threaten to sue if they’re discharged. While they may not have a case, you’ll still have to pay to defend yourself. At the very least, you may be responsible for unemployment insurance costs.

Foolproof IT Hires

How to avoid the pitfalls of a bad IT hire? Use Rankdone to verify they’re qualified before your first interview. You set the experience criteria you need: our tests assure the candidate you hire has them. Contact us today.