Finding and hiring competent, capable and quality staff is a constant challenge faced by large, medium and small companies. Many companies find that it is even tougher today for them to compete for talent, and are constantly in search for people to fill positions. Let us look at some of the problems in recruitment which can give us a clearer understanding about hiring and firing policies in companies.

Many companies find it difficult to find people who are suitable for the position and therefore hire staff just to have somebody fill a position. This often leads to the expensive consequences of a bad hire; workplace disruption, lost productivity, increased stress, and decreased morale. In addition, firing a “bad hire” creates workplace anxiety, legal and personal complications and a rise in expenses.

To make the best hiring choice, instead of rushing through it, companies must make a commitment to the importance of the hiring process. Creating recruitment policies is the first step. Companies which develop common-sense recruitment policies are the most effective at identifying, attracting and retaining quality employees. However, few companies and recruiters have policies in place that address issues surrounding effective recruitment. Therefore companies should focus on developing recruitment policies. When the HR policies at a work place are effective, it usually attracts more employees to join the companies. Where as, when you find that the policies are not the same as what was told at the time of recruitment, employees may feel dissatisfied and show a decrease in effectiveness at the work place. This may later result in firing of the employee.
Many companies even after many days do not change their job descriptions to suit the real job duties, and many of the employees are misled by the positional tags which may increase the chances of recruitment but later lead to job ineffectiveness. This can include hiring an over qualified or an under qualified employee for a job. Both can be dangerous and sooner or later result in firing of the employee because of his/her inability to adjust to the work.

Hiring a bad employee can be deadly, especially in a small or medium sized company. While it is difficult to determine the exact cost of hiring a new employee, research in this area estimates that it costs the average company between $8,000 and $12,000 (international companies) to hire and train each new employee. This expense cannot be ignored as these costs directly impact the company’s productivity and bottom line. Hiring the right person the first time will help reduce the number of new staff a company has to hire and train, thereby reducing overall operating costs. This amount can become a white elephant when companies find the hired employee ineffective and have to resort to firing.

Joe Kraus’ ‘No False Positives’ hiring philosophy

Briefly, the “No False Positives” school of hiring says that ‘bad hires’ are worse than ‘no hires’ because bad employees infect the company with all sorts of issues. Better to march on with nobody in an important slot than to bring in a sub-par performer. The ‘hire fast-fire fast’ approach basically boils down to “it’s really almost impossible to understand whether a person is going to be a perfect match before they start working with you day to day, so best to find somebody that seems close enough, and then remove them quickly if they don’t work out.”

As organizations begin to recognize the importance of good recruitment to the bottom line, the need for clear and concise policies, that outline how new staff are treated, gain  paramount important. High orientation, recruitment and turnover costs can be avoided if all new staff is treated equally. Constantly hiring new staff hinders productivity, which in turn hurts the bottom line. This can easily be avoided if new employees are hired using the same criterion, and if they know how they will be treated as new employees. This can actually give a clear picture to the employee regarding their job descriptions, and help companies to understand what employees expect.

In many MNCs, hiring employees in mass recruitment, especially from campus, is a common phenomenon; but all this recruitment is in anticipation of forthcoming projects and  for being shown as the resource pool. When these projects are not secured on time by the organizations, the employees become useless to the company and are termed as bench sitters.  This often leads to firing them even before they could actually work.

When organizations recruit employees they should definitely check on the following areas apart from technical/academic knowledge.
1. Aptitude: Intellectual ability of an individual to learn material sufficiently so that he can properly perform the task required by the job and business. Some individuals have a natural talent and tendency for specific business areas.

2. Attitude: Attitude is defined as “a way of looking at work; a way of thinking and feeling.” Therefore, an attitude is not just the way we think, but the way we think and feel.

3. Behavior: The actions displayed by an organism in response to its environment. Conduct applies to actions considered from the standpoint of morality and ethics.

Consistent application of a company’s hiring process will ensure that minimal bad hiring decisions are made. However, organizations always need to provide a good justification before firing employees. Now let us look at some of the popular reasons behind firing employees at work.

* Habitual or frequent late coming without intimation.
* Frequently being absent without prior intimation for non emergency purposes.
* Disrespect or unprofessional conduct at work with colleagues, seniors and sub-ordinates.
* Insubordination or disobeying the organization’s rules, regulations and policies at work.
* Exceeding authority.
* Negligence or neglect of duty at work and display of fatigue.
* Dishonesty or unfaithfulness with organizations confidential information.
* Furnishing or making false changes in records or information of the organization.
* Punching another employee’s time card without approval from management.
* Leaving the job (abscond) or organization’s premises without proper approval from the management.
* Refusing to follow the instructions or directions of the management.
* Assault, unprovoked attack or threats to others at work.
* Sexually harassing or abusing others at the work place.
* Use/possession of drugs, alcoholic beverages and weapons (non licensed/permission to carry) in organization premises or when on official duty.

* Intentionally making errors in work, negligently performing duties, or willfully hindering or limiting productivity.
* Not being able to adjust to team work.
* Not exhibiting the proper behavior and not following basic etiquette when dealing with others at work.
Hiring and firing polices are very tricky and change from organization to organization as well as from sector to sector.