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Understanding job demands, screening among ways to avoid bad hires

With the increase in employee attrition in job markets across the Asia-Pacific, recruiters are spending long hours browsing and filtering the most suitable candidates from thousands of resumes.

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Matthew Glasner

With the increase in employee attrition in job markets across the Asia-Pacific, recruiters are spending long hours browsing and filtering the most suitable candidates from thousands of resumes.

This involves a meticulous understanding of a job’s profile and key result area, and working on a plan that would help them understand a prospective candidate better.

With the surge of different information sources, it becomes tedious for recruiters to scan through the information available on candidates in different social networking sites.

According to Recruiter.com, the true cost is a staggering US$830,000 (S$1.06 million ), based on someone earning US$70,000 and whose employment is terminated after two-and-a-half years.

The extent of expenditure on a bad hire depends on the position, training cost and tenure for which an unsuitable employee is associated with the organisation. In a survey by Recruit Plus in Singapore, 99 per cent of respondents felt their organisation was employing a certain percentage of bad hires, from 10 per cent to a whopping 50 per cent.

Bad hires often cause a significant business loss, which can tarnish a company’s image. One of the major losses is reduced employee morale.

The reasons for a bad hire are: Uncertainty about a particular position’s requirements, urgency to fill the vacancy, insufficient talent intelligence, inefficient research done on the candidate and lack of referral checks.

To avoid a bad hire, employers should understand what skills a position demands, converse well with the candidates to understand them better and make optimal use of social networking sites and available resources for screening.

There has been a surge in discrepancies in candidates’ resumes, and recent cases of employees at a senior level fabricating their qualifications or employment history (such as former National University of Singapore don Anoop Shankar).

Background screening helps in weeding out individuals with fake credentials and widens the scope of opportunities for deserving candidates. Companies should also conduct criminal and financial checks.

A First Advantage screening report this year showed that criminal history and financial-related discrepancies can pose greater legal, compliance, reputational and security risks than other types of discrepancies.

These checks help to not only provide a safe work environment, but also protect a company from damage to its reputation or confidential data that results from negative hiring.

Conducting a screening programme also requires compliance with the regulatory environment of each country and local region. Many employers may be uncomfortable doing this, but a company’s success depends on its employees.

It is crucial for every company to have a talented team. A bad team has always been a catalyst for a firm’s failure.

*The writer is the managing director of a specialised background verification company.

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