The true cost of a bad hire

A bad hire is expensive long before the offer. By the time someone starts, the organization has already paid for an unclear role, a slow process and a mismatch it could have caught earlier.

The cost starts in the job post

If the title, level and first-six-months outcome are vague, the wrong people apply and the right people skip the role. A clear post is cheaper than a long shortlist.

Add the hidden costs

• Manager time spent redefining the role after start.
• Team throughput lost while the new person ramps.
• Recruiter and interview time for the replacement process.
• The opportunity cost of a seat that is not doing the work.

Make the trade-off visible

A hiring team should be able to explain why the role exists, what good looks like and what it will not do. If those answers are missing, pause the search and fix the brief.

A better default

Publish a salary range, keep the process to three steps, and tell every candidate where they stand. None of these guarantees a good hire, but they make the expensive mistakes much rarer.