Bad hires: Don’t become another victim

We all know that bad hires can have detrimental effects on your business. The cost is significantly higher than just their salary as the negative impact on reputation or team moral can be challenging to say the least. A high turnover of staff creates instability within a business and can affect its day to day functioning of a business, slowing everything down.  In short, smart hiring decisions will always be a critical challenge for any business. 

So, should we do more when screening new hires?   

We now live in a digital age and there is more information about all of us than there has ever been, but some processes have not evolved to capitalise on this.  Employee references and data base checks only show a part of the picture. There is a wealth of open source data on an individual, from social media to wider media sources that that can reveal more about a person.  By utilising open source data and technology you can uncover an individual’s “online footprint” and gain an understanding of how they choose to engage with the world.  While most people that we screen at Neotas meet the requirements of any employer’s robust social media policy, there are an important percentage that fall dramatically short. 

In the past few months we have seen racism, sexism, graphic content and illegal activity, to name just a few of the categories we include.  While the final decision to hire always falls to the prospective employer, some of these candidates clearly showed behaviour that could be genuinely damaging to the prospective team.  Yet almost all of this information is missed by the more traditional background screening process.  What may be more surprising is bad behaviour appears at all levels of seniority, from the second Twitter account a CEO used to make highly political and vitriolic statements ,to senior managers caught on video for football hooliganism, to more junior hires that are perhaps “angry online” but would benefit from some coaching on how our online and real-world personal brands are now closer than ever. 

It’s time to know more about the cultural fit of your candidates BEFORE they join and the technology, speed and cost of these makes that makes it more practical than ever before.  Don’t be the last one to see information that is freely available for your customers, colleagues or competitors to view online. Make sure you “Know More” when it matters.    

If you want to know more about compliant, easy to implement social media checks or deeper dive reputational checks, including how social media checks can enhance your due diligence process, please give us a call on 0208 0902 622.