By Cliff Kanto

A company cannot afford to waste precious resources on hiring a poor performer in today’s competitive business environment. A weak link in your organization can cause a multitude of problems from poor quality work, to negative workplace morale, or even to the loss of a long-term client.

Weak employees strain human resource departments. They require more frequent performance evaluations and more training sessions. Frequently, the additional investment is wasted. At some point, a weak employee must be replaced because of the high maintenance and poor performance. 

Many hiring managers are aware of these impacts and costs, and have maybe even experienced the havoc that a weak hire can have on an organization. But the ‘bad hire syndrome’ usually makes its way back onto the scene due to demanding schedules and situations requiring an urgent hiring solution.

Here are three tips to consider when recruiting staff:

• Workforce Planning
  Taking both a short- and long-term perspective on workforce planning can help avoid urgent hiring situations. Workforce planning solutions such as succession planning, hiring forecasts, and developing candidate pools can all help to strengthen your hiring position for the future.
• Outsourcing
  Hiring a quality candidate over a weak one does require specialized knowledge to achieve consistent results. Employee screening, reference and background checks, skill tests, and behavioural interviews all contribute to weeding out the bad seeds. It also doesn’t have to consume more time to hire quality over convenience. There are specialized recruitment and staffing firms where your hiring results are guaranteed.
• Passive Candidates
  A good way to avoid the bad hire syndrome is to include passive candidates when sourcing and recruiting. Of course, there are quality active candidates due to business closures and downsizing that should be considered in your candidate selection. But the real gold is in the passive job candidate. They are normally happy in their current positions but find it lacks challenge or growth opportunities. The passive candidate pool is where high-performance employees are found. 

Cliff Kanto, CMA, CPC is the founder and managing director of Mercer Bradley. Mercer Bradley is hired by some of the most respected companies and organizations in the Vancouver area to identify high calibre accounting and finance professionals to join their teams. Cliff currently lives in downtown Vancouver and enjoys hot yoga, competitive squash, tennis, skiing and all the beauty of living in one of the world’s best cities.