Bad hires hurt more during pandemic, senior managers say

Dive Brief:

The negative impact of a bad hiring decision is more severe during the pandemic, according to 64% of senior managers in a recent Robert Half survey.
Most respondents, 76%, said they had recruited the wrong candidate for a role, leading to time wasted on hiring and training; decreased staff morale and productivity; and increased stress on supervisors. Senior managers in the survey said it took as many as 16 weeks to realize a poor match, let go of the employee and rehire.
The move to remote work, combined with shifts in the hiring and onboarding process, may leave employers with "more room for error and, unfortunately, a bad hiring decision can have a ripple effect throughout the organization," Paul McDonald, senior executive director at Robert Half, said in a statement. The firm surveyed more than 2,800 senior managers at companies with 20 or more employees in the U.S.

Dive Insight:

2020 accelerated recruiting's transformation into a more digital function as employers adopted hiring formats that matched the movement of companies and candidates online. A survey last October by Robert Half found a majority of senior managers said their companies were conducting remote interviews and onboarding sessions, and 60% said they shortened their hiring processes overall.

Recruiters and employees both perceive value in in-person recruiting discussions, sources previously told HR Dive, meaning this format has not gone away entirely. But a year of online recruiting may have shifted ideas about how the hiring process works. For example, candidates may prefer a more transparent approach from employers regarding work-life balance and expectations. Employers may also seek to encourage more natural conversations during remote or web-based interviews rather than a more formal approach.

Some employers have had considerable time to reevaluate their hiring practices during the pandemic, according to an August 2020 Lever survey. The company found 41% of recruiters were focused on cleaning recruiting data, and more than one-third were rethinking recruiting processes as hiring freezes took hold.

Employers are also incorporating assessments into their virtual interviewing processes in order to ensure a good fit. Officials at CVS Health told HR Dive last year that the company implemented virtual job tryouts in an effort to better predict candidates' chances of success, even as the company hired nearly 50,000 employees in a short period of time.