What effect does hiring the wrong person have on your business? The old adage “hire slow and fire fast” is absolutely accurate. Many employers don’t realize the impact that hiring the wrong person has on culture, productivity, and profitability.  Over the long haul, the wrong team member slows down coworkers and takes additional dedicated resources to improve their performance (that could be utilized on more important priorities). Poor performers require more of your management time and put a greater load on the other team members to handle the tasks the poor performer should be completing.  So, if a poor performer is sucking the energy out of your team, what is your disconnect to letting them go?

Intuitively, we recognize when a team member isn’t meeting expectations initially, but often, we convince ourselves more time will improve their performance. Or maybe it’s a training issue.  Many business owners and CEOs are generally overly optimistic and see what the team member could be rather than how they are actually performing.  But leaving the underperforming team member in the position creates challenges for the entire team…and your customers! 

• Underperformers often create a negative atmosphere, and they complain about the lack of support they receive, or they blame customers for their underperformance.  
• Underperformers not only negatively impact your team but also harm your company culture.  

Mistakenly, many business owners give people more time to improve their performance than these team members have earned.  Why would they do that? Two reasons:  

First, they’re overly optimistic that the underperformer will turn around with additional time and resources.

Second, it is hard, and time-consuming to find great talent!  Replacing an underperformer means a business owner has to recruit, hire and go through the training process again.

Can you remember a time when you hired an underperformer and you kept them on your team too long? What impact did it have on your business and at what cost?