A new study from US company CareerBuilder has given us a glimpse into the lives of employers in industries very similar to our own here in Australia, and it’s a tad confronting to see how often employers get it wrong.

According to the new survey, conducted by Harris Poll among 2,257 hiring and human resource managers and 3,697 workers, making the wrong hire isn’t just inconvenient, but it could cost your agency a hell of a lot too.

The survey showed companies lost an average of $14,900 (almost AU$20,000) on every bad hire in the last year, and it’s a common mistake — nearly three in four employers (74 per cent) say they’ve hired the wrong person for a position.

“It’s important to note that there’s a ripple affect with bad hires. Disengagement is contagious — poor performers lower the bar for other workers on their teams, and their bad habits spread throughout the organisation,” said Rosemary Haefner, Chief Human Resources officer at CareerBuilder.

“The best thing hiring managers can do is put in the time and effort on the front end to make sure they have the best available pool of applicants for every job opening. And, just as importantly, have good procedures in place for evaluating candidates.”

When asked how a bad hire affected their business in the last year, employers cited less productivity (37 per cent), lost time to recruit and train another worker (32 per cent) and compromised quality of work (31 per cent).

How do you spot a bad hire?

So how do you know if you’ve hired the wrong person? When asked what made them think they had made the wrong decision, employers who have made a bad hire said:

• While the candidate didn’t have all the needed skills, thought they could learn quickly: 35 per cent
• Candidate lied about his/her qualifications: 33 per cent
• Took a chance on a nice person: 32 per cent
• Pressured to fill the role quickly: 30 per cent
• Had a hard time finding qualified candidates: 29 per cent
• Focused on skills and not attitude: 29 per cent
• Ignored some of the warning signs: 25 per cent
• Lacked adequate tools to find the right person: 10 per cent
• Didn’t do a complete background check: 10 per cent
• Didn’t work close enough with HR: 7 per cent

Overall, this is how employers categorise someone as a bad hire:

• The worker didn’t produce the proper quality of work: 54 per cent
• The worker had a negative attitude: 53 per cent
• The worker didn’t work well with other workers: 50 per cent
• The worker had immediate attendance problems: 46 per cent
• The worker’s skills did not match what they claimed to be able to do when hired: 45 per cent

Workers have regrets, too

Employers aren’t the only ones making regretful decisions. Two in three workers (66 per cent) say they have accepted a job and later realised it was a bad fit, and while half of these workers (50 per cent) have quit within six months, more than a third (37 per cent) have stuck it out.

Workers who said they had taken a job only to realise it’s a bad fit said they noticed their mistake based on toxic work culture (46 per cent), boss’ management style (40 per cent), job didn’t match what was described in the job listing and interviews (37 per cent), and a lack of clear expectations around the role (33 per cent).

Don’t let the good ones go

While the cost of hiring the wrong person can be high, the cost of letting a good worker go is even higher.

According to employers, the average cost of losing a good hire was $29,600 this year. And while 75 per cent of workers say they’re loyal to their current employer, much less (54 per cent) say they feel their company is loyal to them.

On top of that, nearly a third (31 per cent) say they are likely to change jobs in the next year.