98% of Singaporean bosses have hired the wrong person for the job

A majority of Singaporean leaders have hired the wrong person for the job, reveals a recent research commissioned by specialised recruiter Robert Half.

According to the research released today, 98% of 150 Singaporean chief financial officers (CFOs) surveyed have admitted to making a miscalculated hiring decision, with 24% discovering this within as soon as two weeks.

The following were cited as the most common reasons why new hires did not meet expectations:

• 43% said new hires had a mismatch of skills required for the role
• 37% found them under qualified
• 35% felt they were over qualified
• 34% reported a misalignment in attitude towards the role

When met with such hires, 35% of employers laid off the employee, while 33% have developed training programmes to boost skills and partnered with a staffing agency to secure a replacement, respectively.

About one-third (32%) dealt with it by finding an internal vacancy that would better suit the candidate, and 28% adopted a 'wait and see' approach to determine if the employee's perfomance would improve.

Matthieu Imbert-Bouchard, managing director of Robert Half Singapore, said: "Hiring the wrong person for the job can have significant negative repercussions for the business, with the cost of hiring the wrong applicant escalating beyond just financial repercussions.

"Aside from causing a setback to a company’s productivity levels, team morale and stress levels can be negatively impacted which in turn highlights the importance of having an efficient, streamlined recruitment process."

Citing survey data, he pointed out the three consequences of a bad hire included increased workload for colleagues (43%) as well as increased stress on managers (43%) and colleagues (41%).

He said: "It's essential for hiring managers to have clear hiring criteria in mind, come to the interview prepared and implement a rigorous process in order to identify the "best fit" candidate. To keep the hiring process on point and in line with changing market demand, Singapore’s hiring managers need to regularly review their hiring policies in order to balance the recruitment process with the right level of efficiency and rigour."