Recruitment Expert Highlights Cost Of Flawed Interviews

Madeleine Allen, Managing Director of Allen Training Associates, is warning business leaders that they must do more to support line managers in conducting effective interviews or risk costing their companies substantial sums of money.

Allen states:
ìThe Chartered Institute of Personnel Directors (CIPD) estimate the average cost of filling a vacancy to be 4,800. A significant sum in its own right but, more worryingly, the cost of failure, that is, the cost of selecting an incompetent candidate, is very high. Not only does it include the cost of time and money for the hiring process, it also includes the costs associated with the loss of productivity. It is estimated that hiring the wrong person - and then having to replace them - can cost an organisation up to three times the individual’s annual salary.

ìMost companies expect their line managers to undertake the task of interviewing candidates to fill vacancies, despite the fact that these individualsí skills lie in other areas, and this is one of the potential weak points in the recruitment process. Line managers tend to focus on candidates that have the professional knowledge, technical skills and experience for the post to be filled, often without due regard to their suitability to fit into the culture of the team or company that they are joining.

ìThis is an inherent flaw in the approach adopted by many organisations to the recruitment process, and I have seen the damaging results at first hand.

ìI worked in a well established IT security consultancy that was recruiting a new Sales Manager. The successful candidate had excellent experience and technical skills, but came from a military background that proved to be completely at odds with the informal, academic background in which the rest of the team members operated. While the candidate ticked all the right knowledge boxes, he was command and control driven ñ and totally inappropriate culturally. The result was messy - and expensive.

îBusiness leaders must have an effective recruitment advice/HR support system for their line managers in place or, at the very least, ensure such individuals are able to undertake training that will allow them to conduct effective interviews that have a high probability of selecting a suitable candidate.

ìCompanies can significantly improve their Return On Investment in the recruitment process by educating their line managers in competency based interviewing techniques. This would enhance the ability of line managers to make a better choice of recruit, reduce the risk of wrong selection via flawed interviewing techniques, and save the business major costs by reducing staff churn.î