Picture this…
A construction firm lands a multi-million-pound commercial project and needs to bring in a new Project Manager—fast.
They interview a candidate who speaks confidently about managing large teams, handling tight timelines, and coordinating stakeholders. His CV boasts experience with major contractors and impressive projects.
He gets the job.
But once on site, he can’t read basic drawings, misses subcontractor meetings, and casually suggests “just pushing the schedule back” when delays hit. Turns out, he’d never actually led a project from start to finish. He had mostly been an assistant PM, and on far smaller scopes than he claimed.
The company let him go after just three weeks—and scrambled to find a replacement. The result? Lost time, wasted money, and a hit to their reputation.
The Lesson?
weeks and scramble to find a replacement, costing them time, money, and their reputation.
Lesson: A great CV and smooth interview can’t replace real competence. Your hiring process must go beyond surface-level confidence and identify proven capability.
Unfortunately, stories like this aren’t rare—they’re routine.
In this article, we break down the direct costs you can measure, the hidden ones you can’t, and how to avoid bad hires altogether.
What is a Bad Hire?
A bad hire is someone who, once brought into the business, proves to be a poor fit for the role, the team, or the company—due to a lack of skills, performance issues, or misaligned values. The result? A negative impact on morale, productivity, and profitability.
According to the Recruitment & Employment Confederation (REC):
- 4 in 10 hires are considered a poor fit
- 85% of employers admit to making at least one bad hire
- And surprisingly, nearly a third believe it had no financial impact
The reality? It does. In fact, the REC found that:
A single bad hire costs a business an average of £19,355.
£9,730 in recruitment and training + £9,625 in lost productivity.
The Direct Costs: What You Can See
Recruitment Expense
Job adverts, recruiter fees and interview time…it all adds up. When you hire the wrong person, you waste those investments and must spend them again to find a replacement.
Onboarding and Training
New hires require onboarding, training, and mentoring. These processes take time from managers and team members and often involve paid training programmes or materials. A bad hire means this investment delivers no return, and wasted resource.
Salary and Benefits
Even short-term hires cost thousands once you factor in pay, National Insurance, pension contributions, and other benefits. If they’re not delivering value, that’s money straight down the drain.
Rehiring and Rework
Replacing a bad hire means restarting the recruitment process and, often, correcting their mistakes. whether it’s fixing bad code, resolving client issues, or redoing flawed project work. That’s double the time and cost.
The Indirect Costs: What You Don’t See… Until It’s Too Late
Team Morale and Productivity
One of the most overlooked consequences of a bad hire is the impact on team morale. When someone underperforms, misses deadlines, or creates tension, it places extra pressure on others to pick up the workload. Resentment builds, collaboration suffers, and the overall energy of the team declines.
Damage To Reputation
Whether it’s client-facing errors, communication issues, or missed commitments, a poor hire can quietly chip away at your company’s credibility. Clients notice inconsistencies in your working standards and will question your reliability. Internally, employees may lose faith in leadership’s judgment, especially if the hire’s issues go unaddressed.
Cultural Breakdown
Perhaps the most dangerous hidden cost is the slow breakdown of company culture. If a bad hire is negative, or simply not aligned with team values, they can dilute the standards you’ve worked hard to build. Worse, if tolerated too long, they set a new (lower) bar for behaviour and performance.
Unlike salary or recruitment fees, indirect costs don’t show up on spreadsheets… but they leave a lasting mark. Over time, a single bad hire can ripple through an organisation, affecting morale, performance, reputation, and culture in ways that are hard to quantify.
Hiring Is Expensive… and Hiring Wrong Is Priceless
The true cost of a bad hire goes far beyond salary.
While no hiring process is foolproof, partnering with a reputable recruitment agency can significantly reduce the risk. Agencies bring expertise in vetting candidates, assessing both skills and cultural fit, and streamlining the hiring process to avoid costly missteps.
Find out how V7 Recruitment can help you avoid a bad hire at www.v7recruitment.com.
