Jobs in UAE, Gulf: Why 30 out of 100 employees are bad hires

Around 30 per cent of employees recruited by UAE and GCC companies are bad hires, costing firms a huge sum in terms of visa, training and others, say recruitment industry executives.

Mohammad Osama, CEO of recruitment and executive search company GRG, said 30 out of 100 employees are bad hires and this is happening across all age categories, whether it’s Gen X, Millennials or Gen Z.

Nicki Wilson, managing director of Genie Recruitment, said bad hires are often overlooked in larger firms which slowly affect productivity over time.

“This is where probations are critical and regular check-ins with not just the person in question, but also the wider team are important. Any indication of a 'bad hire' will be flagged earlier if regular check-ins are a standard practice within an organisation,” she added.

Bad hires lack the skills and competency to carry out required jobs assigned to employees.

In terms of financials, Wilson said a bad hire costs a company in various ways, including the price of a sponsorship visa, training, relocation, medical insurance, and time spent onboarding the worker.

“Bad hires can also cost more than just money. A bad hire can affect the dynamics of a team and culture in an organisation which might have a trickle effect across the entire business now, as well as in the future. The metaphor of a 'bad apple' is useful in this case.

“From team morale to productivity, often an underperforming team member will bring their teammates down with himself. This is why it is key to act fast and monitor anyone who might be showing red flags. The other area of concern is how this might affect clients, since anyone dealing with a client facing could truly damage a company’s reputation and in the UAE, word spreads quickly so avoid this at all costs,” said Nicki Wilson.

Osama said bad hires cost anywhere from one per cent to 20 per cent of company revenues, depending on the seniority of the hire; stage of the company in the organisational life cycle; level of maturity or saturation of the industry and markets that the company is operating in; and the company’s competitive landscape in terms of the size and strength of competing firms.

Highlighting the reasons, Osama said insecurity at the hiring manager level leads to hiring people inferior to them in calibre, where hiring managers resort to employing those who are just like themselves to have 'strength in numbers' to create greater political influence within the organisation.

He explained that this is 'penny-wise pound-foolishness' on the part of the employer where they would settle for a bad hire just because it’s easy on the wallet, without considering the fact that paying a little more to attract the right employee could change their fortunes as a company.

In addition, being overly 'functional' and 'technical' on the requirements for the right candidate and ignoring the human/soft skills and the right culture fit for the company is another major reason for bad hires, said Osama, who has seen over 2,000 recruitment processes across 400 companies.

In order to avoid a bad hire, Mohammad Osama of GRG advised employers to do the following:

“In my experience, I’ve seen that it takes talent to recognise talent,” concluded Osama.