Studies show that most mis-hires are not uncovered until after the evaluation period has passed. Reasons include:

• Wanting to give the person a chance
• Not having a better choice for the job
• Not wanting to second guess the decision to hire the person
• Not wanting to look bad for hiring the person

The fact is the longer the mis-hire continues at the job the more costly they become

If the employee has been mis-hired you will have to re-incur the following costs:

• Recruiting fees or placement firm costs
• Create and purchase job advertisements
• Human resources time to review resumes
• Time to contact prospects to schedule interviews
• Managers time to interview prospects
• Time to check references
• Supervisors to train the final candidate

In addition to the above the mis-hire will have increased operational related costs such as:

• Managers time to investigate increased errors
• Customer service time dealing with frustrated clients
• Return shipping costs for errors
• New fulfillment costs for errors
• New shipping costs for errors
• Reduced throughput
• Increased over-time

As you can see the true costs of a mis-hire can be overwhelming.

Use a reputable placement firm

A good placement firm will:

• Evaluate your needs
• Place job advertisements
• Pre-screen resumes
• Conduct preliminary interviews
• Check references
• Offer pre-training to candidates

If you are doing the hiring yourself:

• Look at what incentives and wages others in your industry are offering
• Investigate the best places to place ads to find your targeted workforce
• Look for candidates that are pre-trained in your specific industry
• Look for candidates that are enthusiastic
• Look for flexible candidates that are capable of adapting to your business
• Look for candidates that will work well with your existing workforce
• Have prospective hires complete a physical and security screening

Even under the best of conditions and after ideal preparation some people may still not be ideal for the job or in the face of constant economic change you may want to maintain a flexible work force that can expand or contract to current conditions. If all of the right steps have been taken and an employee still does not work out or workloads decrease the burden of severance can be expensive. As well, you may want to limit long term company liability for benefits or other labour related costs. Using temporary labour eliminates the liability of sick days, employee benefits, WSIB, CPP, EI, and severance. Just be mindful of finding the right employment agency that fits your long term needs. Finding motivated temporary labour is not an easy task. Many agencies do not offer sick days, benefits or bonuses and employee turnover is staggering. Employees may have very little training if any and lack of knowledge about a work site can even lead to fatal accidents.

To reap the savings of maintaining  a flexible labour force focus on employees that have been trained for long term placements, are certified with WHIMIS, have valid certificates to operate any necessary equipment that is on site and are paid a fair wage by the temporary agency that will attract above average placements. Research shows that a 10% wage increase over minimum rates can produce a 20% increase in productivity by simply minimizing turnover.