Why you need to hire the best.(EXPERT ADVICE)(advice on hiring people)

"If the new employee doesn't work out, I'll fire them and bring someone new in".

If had a dollar for every time I heard a manager say this, I wouldn't be here writing this article. Instead, I'd be sitting on a beach on some tropical island consuming my favorite beverage.

I cringe when I hear this type of comment. Not only is it a misinformed approach to hiring, it's extremely costly.

A study by the Society for HR Management estimates the cost of a poor hire for intermediate positions at $20,000, senior management at $100,000 and sales representatives at $300,000. Pierre Mornell, in his book Hiring Smart, says that if you make a mistake in hiring and you recognize and rectify the mistake within 6 months, the cost of replacing the employee is two and one-half times the person's salary. For example, if you were to use this formula, the cost of a poor hiring decision for a candidate earning $50,000 per year would be $125,000! WOW! That's a staggering amount of money and it comes right off the bottom line.

In his article "Staffing can cost you in more ways than one" published in the Medical Post (2003), Doug Payne writes: "Hiring a new employee costs $1,580 on average ... To terminate and replace one employee costs an average of $68,112."

Why are the costs so high? There are a number of hard and soft costs that can be factored into a poor hiring decision.

Some of the hard costs include the time you invested in ...