Businesses Regret Half of New Hires

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International recruitment consultancy Robert Half reported that 46% of the businesses surveyed to develop a recently released report had made a bad hire in the past 12 months, with small businesses feeling the greatest impact.

At 61%, the biggest factor leading to a hire considered ‘bad’ was new staff not having the technical skills required in the role. But there is no need for you to feel the full impact of this factor when you can get quick and accurate snapshots of candidate accounting/bookkeeping technical skill levels before you hire them. Follow this up by scheduling targeted priority training/coaching to fill the gaps and minimize the risks of insufficient technical skills affecting your clients. Check out our testing suite here.

In a candidate-scarce global employment market, hiring people with technical shortfalls that you know about and can address can help you get ahead of your competitors. So can discovering that your candidates technical skills fall way short of what you can hope to develop/train before they sign an employment contract.

The second biggest factor leading to bad hires was businesses feeling they rushed the recruitment process (56%).  With candidates having competing job offers, the need to act quickly isn’t going away any time soon, but following our ‘fast and thorough’ recommendations, you should be able to make offers to candidates, or confidently reject them, within a day if you interview them well, run technical tests and assess whether they have the personality profile suited to the role and your business.  It may still feel rushed, but is more likely to be a thorough, yet fast hiring decision that you are less likely to regret. 

Whilst the need for technical skills dominate the survey, cultural fit inevitably surfaces as a key issue to get right to avoid bad hires. Again, with the worlds only Accountant-specific personality profiling questionnaire at your fingertips, there’s no reason for you to fall into this trap either.

Lastly, 44% of respondents reported a recognition that good candidate vetting was key to avoid making bad hires, as well as a willingness to learn from their mistakes.  This is sweet music to our ears, so long as our clients and followers are among the 44% and reduce their bad hire frequency with great vetting.  If you’re a 44-percenter, but haven’t trialled our tests yet, today should be the day. Click here to request a free trial of your choice.

This article was adapted from a piece originally authored by Mahalia Mayne and was first published at: https://www.peoplemanagement.co.uk/article/1754516/businesses-regret-half-new-hires-amid-skills-shortage-poll-finds

About the Authors

Giles Pearson FCA was a PwC Partner for 18 years before jointly setting up Accountests.  

Steve Evans has a whole career dedicated to enabling employers to attract, recruit, develop and retain talented individuals and teams, with particular expertise in candidate testing and assessment before setting up Accountests.

Accountests deliver the world’s only online suite of annually updated and country-specific technical knowledge tests designed by accountants for accountants and bookkeepers.