Hiring Fast and Firing Faster

Hiring mistakes can happen to anyone. All leaders and managers make hiring mistakes occasionally.  In many cases, you simply cannot predict how well a candidate will turn out once they’re hired and working for your business. 

So accept that you’re not always going to make the best hiring decisions. Where leaders and managers get into trouble is in keeping the bad hires around. Accepting your bad hiring mistake and not doing anything to fix it can cost your company a great deal.

What do you do when you realise you’ve made a bad hiring decision?How do you go about fixing the problem?

Interview Before You Have an Opening

It’s counterintuitive and doesn’t sound like a great way to use your time, but once you incorporate this practice into your organisation, you’ll see what a great benefit it can be.

Good managers are always focused on building their teams. In order to do this, you’ve got to find the best people. When you find someone who would be a great asset to your organisation, make room for them in your organisation, even if it means making big changes.

Make a goal of interviewing one candidate a month for the next 12 months, even if you don’t currently have any openings. As you talk to potential hires, you’ll probably find yourself raising your expectations, both for your employees and for yourself. Higher expectations can fundamentally change the way your organisation operates.

Avoid Hiring Victims

One of the big red flags to take notice of when interviewing is the Victim candidate. Some people have convinced themselves that all of their struggles and problems can be traced to other people or poor circumstances. These chronic victims truly believe that they work harder than everyone else and that their former co-workers and managers did things the wrong way.

It’s dangerous to hire victims because they don’t take responsibility for their actions and they create resentment among their co-workers. But how can you recognise victims before you hire them? Get in the habit of asking victim-detecting questions during interviews. For example, you could ask, “Tell me about your favourite and least favourite supervisors,” or “Have you ever been part of a project that failed? Why did it fail?” The answers to questions like these can be very telling. Avoiding hiring victims can save you from uncomfortable situations later.

Firing Faster

And yet, sometimes the uncomfortable situations still eventuate, and you must address them as quickly as possible.

In many cases, the employee who isn’t working out on your team is a good person; they’re just not the right fit for the position or your business. Continuing to drag the bad hire along doesn’t do any favours for anyone - the team, the business, or the hire themselves.

Employees can be an expensive and challenging investment, but when you find the right employees, your company will thrive. Be careful in your hiring, but recognise that everyone makes mistakes at times. Don’t dwell on your mistakes. Move on when necessary so you can find the right people to help grow your business.