Nearly every recruiter and the hiring manager is guilty of making choices that negatively affect the quality of hire.

As per recent research by Glassdoor, some 95 percent of the employers have admitted to recently making a bad hiring choice. These decisions are not only having a direct financial impact but also negatively affect the new hire productivity, employee morale, and first-year attrition. As per HBR, as much as 80% of employee attrition is because of poor hiring decisions.

The only saving grace is that you are not alone in making these hiring mistakes.

Based on our experience of working with talent acquisition leaders, here are the top reasons their hiring efforts are falling short.

1. 1. Rush to fill the job.
2. A recent study found that 43 percent of companies highlighted rush to fill the job as the biggest reason for bad hires. While some of the high-volume industries don't offer too much liberty of time to the recruiters, it is still possible to strike the right balance between the rush to fill the vacancy and the quality of hire.
3. 2. Not hiring for the culture fit
4. A lot of recruiters depend on candidates' CVs, interviews, and references to hire an employee. These hiring practices can do some justice to job fit but fair poorly to identify culture fit. 20% of HR leaders highlighted non-fitment to culture as a big reason for first-year attrition.
5. 3. Candidates faking or manipulating
6. Candidates often fake or manipulate their CVs and experiences. Experience, reference checks, and simulations provide some layer of insights into the work experience but can be managed by candidates. These candidates become bad hires when they cannot cope up with real job expectations.
7. 4. Lack of proper onboarding
8. A study found that a large chunk of employee turnover-22%-occurs during the first six weeks on the job. People join a new job, are unaccustomed, feel unwelcome, and choose to leave in no time. Proper onboarding sets the stage for an engaging experience. Empowering new hires with insights and tools to make them successful and welcomed makes them much less likely to second-guess their decision to stay in the company.
9. 5. Hiring for skills and not traits
10. Skills and knowledge are not worth anything if they can't be put to use. A vast majority of organizations hire for skills and not the traits like motivation, willingness to learn, coachability, emotional intelligence, etc. The skills can be taught, but it's nearly impossible to train traits.
11. 6. Lack of Employer Branding
12. The quality of candidates applying for the job is directly related to the employer's brand. If the employer brand is not strong, the best candidates opt-out of the hiring process or worst rejects your offers. The organization only gets the second-best candidates, and they choose the best amongst them. Not having the best quality of hires contributes to bad hires.

1. 1. Invest in quality of hire
2. Invest in hiring processes that provide a good quality hire based in an unbiased, fun, stress-free, and engaging manner. Use online assessment tools to measure skills as well as traits to find the right fit. Use a mix of skills simulations and personality assessments both for the best results. For bulk-hiring situations, use assessments that can be replicated to multiple candidates and locations in parallel.
3. 2. Hire for culture fit
4. Talent assessments can be used to measure culture fit with the organization. Only hire those candidates who can align with the culture of the organization and grow with it long-term.
5. 3. Invest in assessments that can't be manipulated
6. Traditional assessments have a bad reputation for getting manipulated by the candidates. Organizations are now investing in game-based assessments that can't be manipulated. These assessments don't ask direct questions, so candidates are not even aware of competencies getting measured. This makes them less susceptible to manipulation or bias.
7. 4. Pre-onboarding and onboarding
8. Pre-onboarding and onboarding processes act as a great bridge between the time candidate accepts the offer, their joining, and the first few days. This period gives a preview to the candidate for what the future holds for them in the new organization and prepares them for the first few days at the job.
9. 5. Invest in employer branding and candidate engagement
10. Organizations with better candidate engagement and experience have a better employer brand to attract the best talent. Be reactive to the candidate's requirements and offer them a fun and engaging hiring experience free from stress, and they will help the organization in enhancing their employer brand.

Bad hires are a financial burden to the organization, and they also have a stressful impact on the employee. Efforts should be put by organizations and the candidates to engage transparently and without any bias in the hiring process so that even if the organization doesn't hire the candidate both are still the winners.