ORGANIZATION THEORY – PERIOD 2
VRIJE UNIVERSITEIT AMSTERDAM
HIRING THE RIGHT
PERSON FOR A JOB AND
RETAINING THEM
Damini Bissumbhar – 2739680
Luc Glasbeek
23-10-2021
, Hiring the Right Person for a Job and Retaining Them
When selecting possible employees, employers need to consider numerous elements to ensure
the right person for a job is employed (Clegg, Kornberger, Pitsis & Mount, 2019). Those
elements include (a) the nature of the job, (b) the required skills, capabilities, and qualifications
of the future employee, and (c) the skills, capabilities, and qualifications of the people in the
job market (Clegg et al., 2019). Although, keeping those factors in consideration does not
prevent employers from making mistakes in hiring. According to a survey conducted by
CareerBuilder (2017), 74 percent of employers have admitted that they hired the wrong
individual for a position. The employers that took the survey listed various reasons for making
a bad hire, such as thinking that the candidate could quickly learn the needed skills, rushing to
hire someone for the job, or not working close enough with the HR department. In some cases,
there may not be an HR department to work with.
Making bad hires could be a genuine mistake. However, this is not always the case.
According to an article published on the Forbes website by Sally Percy (2018), many
organizations still cling to the same old mindsets when it concerns hiring people. Percy listed
three reasons as to why this is the case. First, the old-fashioned organizations seem to prioritize
the skills somebody possesses rather than their cultural fit, even though 87 percent of leaders
found that successful hires happened when evaluating cultural fit. Second, those organizations
undervalue ‘soft skills’, which consist of skills such as communication and thinking outside of
the box. The organizations believe that it is safer to hire someone with whom they can pursue
strategies to grow and transform, which could lead to them possibly missing out on promising
talent. Third, organizations that hire people with potential and train them to develop their skills
could lead to them having employees who make a positive difference, whereas organizations
with old mindsets exclusively hire people based on skills they already possess and thus miss
out on hidden potential.
Problem statement
Whether it was an honest mistake, or an organization hired someone in line with
outdated mindsets, hiring the wrong people can be rather costly. Companies lose on average
$14.900 per bad hire and $30.000 per good hire that they lose. Apart from bad hires being
expensive, when a bad hire is made, productivity and efficiency decrease, leading to possible
team dissatisfaction (CareerBuilder, 2017). In summary, many implications take place when
hiring the wrong person.
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