The Mammoth Costs of a Bad Hire

It’s high time for business organizations to be cautious while hiring new recruits. A bad hire can cost an organization a hefty amount of money and not to forget, it can have a negative impact on the company.

“Lower employee morale and decreased productivity are the biggest consequences of bad hiring and promotion decisions,” according to The Right Management Group, the world’s largest career transition, outsourcing and organizational consulting firm.

Organizations should hire the right person and not just someone who can fill the vacant position as the cost of a bad hire are staggering. A survey published by Careerbuilder found that 41% of companies surveyed informed that a bad hire had cost then $25,000 in the last year. It was also found that 38% of the companies hired a bad employee just to fill the vacant position.

Jay Goltz, a small business expert and a blogger, identified some tips which can help an employer hire the right employee.

1.    Conduct Great Interviews

2.    Always Check References

3.    Give your Employee a Great First Day on the Job

Mindflash.com designed an infographic based on the survey by Careerbuilder. Let us have a look at the detailed report through this infographic.

Big Companies Using Virtual World For Employee Fitness

Apeejay Daredevils, Chandigarh Tigers and DHL Challengers are not names of squads from 20-20 cricket. These are India Inc's racing teams across the virtual world.

The initiative called Stepathlon, organised by global wellness company Stepathlon Lifestyle, aims to encourage activity and foster health and well-being among employees in a fun manner.

Companies see this as an opportunity to make their employees more conscious about health and fitness and help improve productivity. The event plays a dual role of promoting team-building and employee engagement, cross-functional interaction and networking, while creating an environment of bonhomie.

The event, which started on September 20 and ends on December 28, connects 21,000 stepathletes and about 138 companies across the globe. Each team comprises five employees from single or multiple locations and includes members from junior to top management.

Some of the industry bigwigs who are a part of the walk around the virtual world include Mahindra & Mahindra chairman Anand Mahindra, Godrej Group chairman Adi Godrej, Aditya Birla Financial Services Group CEO Ajay Srinivasan, Godrej Properties ED Pirojsha Godrej and HDFC BankBSE 1.23 % ED Paresh Sukthankar.

"We are very excited about the event. It reminds us that physical activity is important to remain fit and being healthy is a great contributor to productivity and innovation. Stepathlon in a fun way reminds us to remain fit," says Rajeev Dubey, president (group HR, corporate services and after-market), Mahindra & Mahindra.

"The event also has a group activity aspect and helps in employee engagement and team work," adds Dubey, sounding excited about clocking an average of 8,000 steps a day for his team Leg Forward. "I am trying for 10,000," he says. About 1,310 employees from the Mahindra Group are participating in the event.

Each Stepathlete wears a pedometer - a step-counting device - and enters their daily steps into the Stepathlon event website. These steps are converted into kilometres and the team's position is mapped on an online platform. Teams compete internally as well as against teams from other companies, in a race across more than 40 different locations on a map of the 'virtual world'.

"As an engagement initiative, it gives employees from across functions, departments and hierarchies an opportunity to connect with each other and network," says Naina Panse, head - employee engagement, HDFC Bank. "As a welfare initiative, it makes them more conscious about their health and well-being and inculcate it as a habit. Above all, there is a lot of bonhomie and fun involved in the event," she adds.

The enthusiasm that the event is generating among corporates reflects an increasing awareness in India that health and wellness can drive productivity at the workplace.

"Stepathlon provides opportunity for employees at all levels to grab some moments from their daily work schedules and get moving. It enables companies to have a happier, healthier, and more productive workforce," says Ravi Krishnan, CEO and co-founder of Stepathlon.

Adds Ashutosh Telang, executive vice president and head - HR, Marico, "The event fits well into Marico's Member (employee) Wellness programmes; we see it as an innovative way to get members together for a "healthy" cause. It has empowered our members to live Marico's purpose."

Besides health and fitness, the major motivation of course is competition to win the race.

Campus Recruitment on a Fall.. Students Opting for Post Graduation..

With campus placements turning weak, more students are opting for post graduate (PG) studies. Colleges have seen a 10% to 40% increase in applications for post graduate courses this year.

With the economic slowdown taking a toll globally and sentiment falling domestically, companies are going slow on campus recruitments. Consequently, students who are graduating want to use this time to equip themselves with more qualifications.

"The trend started in 2009 because of the weak job market then. Year-on-year, we are seeing a 5%-10% increase in the number of applications. All the programmes are full. That was not the case earlier," said S Vaidhyasubramaniam, dean - planning & development of SASTRA University in Thanjavur. "The demand has increased for PhD programmes, especially in life sciences. We received more than 800 applications for 15 PhD seats."

At Manipal University, there has been a 15%-20% increase over the last year for PG admissions, said Chetana Bekal, management executive, Manipal University. "The increase is significant in MTech and more surprisingly in MSc. Many MSc students are looking to get into teaching," she said. At SRM University in Chennai, the number of applications has increased by around 10% said S Ganapathy, dean of placement. He said that the situation was the same in other universities too.

There is also considerable increase in the number of people applying for competitive examinations like Graduate Aptitude Test in Engineering (GATE), which are the qualifying examinations for PG studies. "I clear GATE applications and I have seen an increase of almost 40% in the number of applications," said M A Maluk Mohamed, principal at M A M College of Engineering, Trichy. "Many public sector firms like BHEL accept GATE scores for recruitment. So, it helps students in that regard too." "Such trends are seen during economic slowdown. It's not only students. Even executives will look to add to their skills in this period," said E Balaji, CEO of Randstad India, an HR consultancy firm.

This influx has both positive and negative aspects, says experts. While it is for genuine addition of skills in many cases, it is only to decorate the resume in others. "Increasing enrolment for PG is not unusual in times of recession. However, the challenge lies in attracting brighter students to PG studies. If quality increases, it would do a lot of good to the academic system," said Vaidhyasubramaniam.