The beginning of the football season is almost upon us, and here in America fans are waiting for their favorite professional and amateur teams to take the field. One of the biggest story lines during the NFL offseason centered around Oakland Raider wide receiver Antonio Brown. Brown was traded from the Pittsburgh Steelers earlier this year after having a very public falling out with the organization and demanding more money despite still being under contract. Even though he is universally considered one of the best receivers in the game, Pittsburgh was only able to get a couple of middling draft picks for Brown in a trade with the Raiders, who immediately signed him to a new contract for more money. At the time, most people viewed this trade as a win for the Raiders and a loss for the Steelers.
As we get closer to the start of the regular season, however, there are many who are viewing the trade differently now. The main reason for this may be Antonio Brown’s behavior with his new team. Aside from missing time this summer with injured feet due to a mishap during cryogenic therapy, he has continued to exhibit the type of odd behavior that wore out his welcome in Pittsburgh, including threatening to retire rather than wear the league’s mandated helmet. Jon Gruden, the Raiders head coach, has expressed disappointment with Brown’s frequent absences and his lack of urgency in establishing on-field chemistry with his new teammates. Brown finally reported to training camp this week, so perhaps things will still work out well for the Raiders. However, it is possible that the team ends up regretting their acquisition of Antonio Brown notwithstanding his undeniable talent.
This story illustrates the challenge that faces every company or institution: How do we attract the best talent, and how can we ensure that our new employees fit well within our organization’s culture? Effectively answering these questions can be one of the most important tasks of any management team because bad hires can severely hurt the bottom line. So what can be done to minimize the risks in hiring new people? Pre-employment screening may be the answer. Business owners and personnel directors can benefit from pre-employment assessments for all of the following reasons:
1. Employment Assessments Can Save You Money.
In the world of professional sports, a bad contract can literally cost an employer millions of dollars. While most companies don’t stand to lose such large amounts on individual hires, mistakes in hiring can cost any business a large amount of revenue. A 2017 CareerBuilder survey estimates the cost of each bad hire to be about $15,000 a year. Obviously, too many bad personnel decisions can threaten the very existence of small businesses or companies that operate on tight margins, but they can also substantially eat into the profits of larger corporations annually.
2. They Can Save You Time.
In sports, sometimes teams wait years for a high draft pick to develop before finally admitting they’ve made a mistake and cutting their losses. The same is true in other industries as well. Any manager or owner who has hired the wrong person for a job knows that they have had to invest a lot of extra time and energy into trying to properly train the employee. While this is occurring, more work may be pushed onto other employees to pick up the slack, hurting the overall productivity of the enterprise through inefficiency and poor resource allocation.
3. They Can Help Improve Morale.
When athletic clubs sign players who disrupt team chemistry and harmony, people refer to those players as clubhouse cancers. These same types of people can have a similar effect on your business by hurting morale and making an unpleasant work environment, which can completely derail your company by driving your productive workers away. The same CareerBuilder survey referenced earlier estimates that the cost of losing a quality hire is roughly $30,000 a year, which is twice the cost of making a bad hire. Therefore, it is vital for companies to protect their culture and continuity by avoiding these sorts of hires.
As you can see, there are some very compelling reasons to utilize pre-employment assessments while searching for new employees. The additional scrutiny can go a long way toward saving organizations time, money, and morale. No matter your industry, you can benefit by making pre-employment screening part of your regular hiring practices.
Leadership Excellence provides pre-employment and employment screenings and assessments to organizations of all sizes across the United States. These highly-accurate assessments are affordable and proven to help businesses hire the best employees. If you are interested in assessments for your company, contact us today to learn how we can help!
