Topgrading

Results: 

Thank you all for participating in the first ever (as far as we know) attempt to estimate how many hours are “wasted” on mis-hires.  “Wasted” is in quotation marks because of course when we visit that ticked off customer, annoyed by the behavior of a C player, those hours spent are necessary.  And when we hold those coaching sessions because the C player is falling dreadfully short of performance goals, those hours spent are necessary.  We just wish we hadn’t mis-hired the C player, and we wish we could have devoted those coaching hours to helping an A player perform even better! 

Sigh.  So, “wasted hours” are those consumed by us and others in the organization to try to fix or do damage control for the problems caused by mis-hires. 

Ok, this was hardly a scientific study, but the results are interesting.  Respondents were asked to consider a mis-hire who was in the company at least one year and whose compensation was $90,000-$150,000.  The exact wording of the questions was: 

The number of hours per year WASTED (for you and others) because a C player was hired rather than an A player: 

Five hundred seven people responded.  Since the median response was at the high end of the 100-199 hours wasted category, it seems that the average mis-hire can cause us to waste at least 150 hours. 

Hmm.  For everyone who ever said, “I don’t have the time to spend three hours in a Topgrading Interview,” let’s follow that with, “… but I have 150 hours to waste on a mis-hire!” 

For the 2005 version of Topgrading: How Leading Companies Win by Hiring, Coaching, and Keeping the Best People we asked 52 companies to estimate the dollar cost of mis-hires, and many of you recall that the average cost (for someone earning $100,000) was $1.5 million. 

Summary:  Every time we avoid a mis-hire (of someone earning about $100,000 base) we save $1.5 million and 150 wasted hours.