The Importance of Effective Hiring and Applicant Management

Letting go of an underperforming Project Manager? Expect costs up to $170,000*

How much does a poor hiring process cost? According to the Harvard Management Update, replacing an underperforming employee can ultimately cost up to twice their annual salary.

The typical costs considered in a bad hire are the time and capital wasted in recruiting and training, as well as lost productivity, as new employees are typically less effective as their experienced counterparts for the first several months.

Other, indirect costs can include:

• The time managers and co-workers spent either dealing with the poor performer or carrying his/her workload.
• The impact on other projects and initiatives as other staff are tasked with the former employee's duties once he/she is terminated.
• Re-establishing rapport and confidence with customers that the former employee worked with, and whose performance reflected poorly on the rest of the organization.
• The effect on employee morale.

A "bad hire" doesn't just happen, it is usually the result of a hiring process that is faulty- and the ultimate cost of a faulty hiring process is incremental, both in capital and organizational performance.

For example, consider a large organization with an annual turnover rate of 8%. If it lacks a solid applicant management and hiring process, resulting in the hire of mediocre performers, within 5 years up to 40% of its workforce could be considered "mediocre".

Resources for Recruiting and Hiring

The following are useful websites on the subject of resource management:

• Society of Human Resource Management - The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) is the world's largest professional association devoted to human resource management.
• HR.com - A website dedicated to HR managers which offers opportunities for education, networking and skills-sharing.
• Wikipedia - Wikipedia is an online, user-edited encyclopedia, which includes comprehensive information on resource management.

HR Software Resources

There are a number of useful software tools, including Lotus Notes based applicant management software as well as 100% Web based personnel management software, as well as specific tools for hiring and recruiting.

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* Assuming an annual salary of $85,000.

Tracker also offers solutions for:

• Lotus Notes to SharePoint Migration
• Employee Vacation Tracking
• Role based software
• Web based collaboration
• Improving Resource Pool Visibility.
• Web based HRIS / HRMS