Social media screening can reduce the financial implications of a bad hire

Recruitment can be an expensive and lengthy process. Research shows that the average time-to-fill for jobs across all US industries has been rising steadily since 2009. It is important to find candidates who are a good fit for your company with the right qualifications, experience, and personality. Although it is a daunting task to find suitable employees, one bad seed can have a negative impact on your entire organization.

Today we're starting a new series to take a closer look at some of the implications of a bad hire. Over the coming weeks, we'll focus specifically on brand reputation, cost, and workplace safety. This week we'll concentrate on the financial implications of a bad hire.

Bad hires are costly

The majority of businesses have made at least one bad hiring decision. In fact, 75% of employers who participated in a recent CareerBuilder study admitted to hiring the wrong person for a position. It can take up to six months to figure out that the person is a bad hire. Many companies will spend additional time working with the employee to improve their performance before they decide to replace them. Consequently, a bad hire is said to cost a company roughly 30% of the individual's first year potential earnings.

Social media screening can weed out bad hires

Consider the following example: Company X recruited and hired John Doe for an annual salary of $30,000. After a few months with the company, the office manager began to recognize concerning trends in his behavior. He was placed on a performance improvement plan for an additional month. One day, John had a violent outburst in the break room. Finally, after investing countless hours recruiting, onboarding, and training John, they were forced to let him go. This cost the company an estimated $10,000 after taking into consideration the costs of having John be part of the company to begin with, combined with the costs of replacing him.

This scenario could have been avoided if Company X had conducted a social media search on John. Such a search would have revealed that John has a history of posting violent statements on his Facebook profile, such as the ones pictured below.

Our social media hiring reports are designed to capture your applicant or employee's online activity. We look for unlawful activity, potentially violent behavior, sexually explicit material, racism and/or demonstrations of intolerance. Find out how our product can protect your company from workplace safety issues and save you money by contacting us today.

Check back next week for information about how social media screening can protect your company from workplace safety issues.

Contributing author: Caitlin Rogers