How to Regroup from a Bad IT Hire
No one is perfect, and sometimes mistakes are made. Errors happen in any situation and any business. One of the most painful errors you might make, is a bad hire. It is an unfortunate event, but for IT and businesses where tech is the backbone, it can be potentially disastrous.
So how do you recover from a bad hire? What should you do to mitigate the situation, and should you start rethinking your IT recruiting process?
Acknowledge the Problem
It might sound like the easiest step, and yet sometimes acknowledging the problem can be the most difficult part of moving past a bad hire. Before you can address an issue, you must first recognize that an issue exists.
There are plenty of reasons why it may take some time to acknowledge a bad hire situation. Sometimes there are unfair complications, such as a family or friend hire, where no one wants to talk about nepotism.
Other times, the new hire is an excellent fit for the company culture but is not delivering on results. Or maybe the opposite, with a new hire producing great results, but is so toxic to the current corporate culture that no one wants to work with him or her.
Whatever the case, fixing the issue will only begin when company leaders take action and communicate next steps to employees. This recognition and acknowledgment should occur quickly. The longer a problem is ignored—willfully, or otherwise—the more widespread the damage becomes.
Understand the Issue
Bad hires are bad hires for different reasons, so it’s imperative to understand why this hire isn’t working out. Is the hire bad because he or she isn’t living up to claimed capabilities on the resume? Is the hire not working out because “red flags” were noticed during the interview, but were glossed over as “something that will work itself out.”
You need to identify the root of the issue as well as the damage that resulted. This way, you can begin establishing measures to prevent a similar situation in the future, whether that’s changing your hiring committee, your recruiting tactics, your interview questions and procedures, or your employee evaluation intervals.
Take Responsibility & Action
Finally, people need to own up to decisions. The choice to hire someone is always a management decision, so it is essential to own the choice and take responsibility. Now that you know mistakes were made and you have garnered an understanding of how it happened, the situation has to be dealt with.
If you have the option for reassignment and it’s both financially and operationally feasible, then start transitioning your hire into a new position and see whether this investment pays off.
If you have to terminate the hire, then take those actions. Show the rest of the company that leaders value accountability and accept the consequences both for bad hires and for the management team who made the decision.
Change Your Protocol
Once you’ve dealt with a bad hire, whether it is through reassignment or termination, it’s now time to review practices and start making changes. While it’s not true of every bad hire, many bad hires can be avoided by merely changing hiring practices.
IT recruiting companies, for example, have very extensive screening techniques that ensure the people they send your way can deliver precisely what they claim they will.
One way to make significant progress is to invest in an IT recruiting company and engage their services. By entrusting the recruiting process to those that specialize in IT recruiting, you save time while not compromising on the effort to find capable new hires.
The financial investment you make by working with IT recruiting firms means you save not just on time but also resources, and you’ll acquire staff who add value to your company, rather than detract from it.
We Can Help You Hire Only the Best
Take uncertainty out of the recruitment process and come to the experts. Poly Tech Talent can help you find and hire the top IT talent in the industry. Just contact us and let us help you find the people who can make a difference in your business.
Find more helpful articles like this one in our Ultimate Guide to Hiring Executive Talent in Technology.