Hiring Wisdom: The High Cost of New Hires

“The most expensive person you’ll ever hire is the one you have to fire.“

If it seems like more trouble than it’s worth to set a high standard, do a thorough job, and hire tough, here are just some of the repercussions if you don’t:

When you factor in recruiting, screening, interviewing, hiring, and training, it costs approximately 300 times a person’s hourly wage to hire one new employee. (You do the math. How many times a year can you afford to lose that kind of time and money?)
If you don’t screen for attitudes, it can have a significant impact on customer loyalty. According to one oft quoted study, 68 percent of the customers who stop associating with a business do so because of an employee’s attitude of indifference toward the customer.
Poor hiring decisions are also costly in terms of lost profits, missed opportunities, decreased productivity, increased stress, and lower employee morale.

This was originally published on Mel Kleiman’s Humetrics blog.