You Thought Hiring Was Expensive? Try Getting It Wrong.
Hiring is a big investment. But do you know what’s even more expensive than finding the right person? Finding the wrong one.
A bad hire doesn’t just cost you a few months’ salary—it drains your time, wrecks team morale, and leaves you right back where you started (only poorer and slightly more traumatised).
The real price of a hiring mistake? Estimates put the cost of a bad hire at 3-5x their annual salary when you factor in lost productivity, rehiring costs, and the damage they leave behind.
So before you take a “hire fast, figure it out later” approach, let’s break down why bad hires are so costly—and how to avoid them.
1. The Salary Burn (Before You Even Realise It’s a Mistake)
A bad hire doesn’t usually look bad on day one.
You’re excited, they seem great, and you’ve invested in their onboarding. But within a few months, the warning signs creep in:
- They’re not delivering.
- They’re not fitting in.
- They’re making costly mistakes.
And before you know it, you’ve burned through six months’ salary and got nothing to show for it.
The cost calculation:
- Salary: £80K (Finance Manager) x 6 months = £40K burned.
- Employer costs (NI, pensions, benefits, training): £10K.
- Lost productivity: Another £10K+.
Total: £60K+ before you even start replacing them.
How to avoid this:
- Don’t rush to hire just because you need someone ASAP.
- Use structured interviews to assess real skills (not just “good vibes”).
- Get salary benchmarking right—underpaying attracts the wrong candidates.
Rule of thumb: Hiring slow is expensive, but hiring the wrong person is worse.
2. The Productivity Black Hole
Bad hires don’t just cost you their salary—they also drag down everyone around them.
Best case? They underperform, and the rest of the team picks up their slack.
Worst case? They actively create problems, confusion, and mistakes that set the whole team back.
How to avoid this:
- Use practical hiring tests (especially for finance roles—can they actually analyse a P&L?).
- Look at cultural fit—do they match the way your team works?
- If you spot a bad hire early, act fast—don’t let it drag on.
Rule of thumb: A bad hire doesn’t just hurt their own role, they make everyone else’s job harder too.
3. The “Oops, We Have to Do This All Over Again” Cost
When a bad hire leaves (or is “encouraged” to leave), you’re not just back to square one—you’re actually behind it.
Now you have to:
- Restart the hiring process.
- Find new candidates (probably in a rush).
- Rebuild lost team confidence.
And let’s not forget exit costs:
- Notice period payouts (even if they underperformed).
- Recruitment fees (again).
- Onboarding costs (again).
Total cost of a re-hire? Easily another £20K-£50K+.
How to avoid this:
- Use data-backed hiring decisions (not gut instinct).
- Make sure your recruitment partner actually knows your business (hi, We Do Group!).
- Use We Do Benchmark to offer a fair salary upfront, so you attract the right talent from the start.
Rule of thumb: If you’re hiring for the same role twice in a year, something’s broken.
4. The Morale Killer (And Why Your Team Wants to Quit Too)
Bad hires don’t just burn cash—they also wreck team morale.
- If they’re lazy, the team gets resentful.
- If they’re toxic, people start looking for an exit.
- If they’re unqualified, their mistakes frustrate everyone else.
One bad hire can poison an entire department faster than a finance director on a caffeine overdose.
How to avoid this:
- Get team feedback during hiring—if the candidate isn’t a fit, listen.
- Act quickly if things aren’t working—keeping a bad hire “just to be nice” is a morale disaster.
- Invest in proper onboarding and mentoring to set people up for success.
Rule of thumb: If a bad hire is making your best people miserable, the real cost is losing them too.
5. The Reputation Damage (Yes, Candidates Talk)
The hiring world is smaller than you think. If you get a reputation for:
- High turnover
- Messy hiring processes
- Not paying the right salaries
…it’ll get out. And top candidates won’t touch you.
How to avoid this:
- Be transparent about expectations and salary (We Do Benchmark can help with that).
- Build a strong employer brand—make people want to work for you.
- Fix internal hiring mistakes—if you’re losing people fast, find out why.
Rule of thumb: The best candidates do their research—make sure what they find is positive.
Final Thought: Hiring Smart Saves You Thousands
If you think hiring the right person is expensive, wait until you see the bill for hiring the wrong one.
✅ Slow down and get it right—a rushed hire usually ends badly.
✅ Use data, not just gut feeling—benchmark salaries and run structured interviews.
✅ Be honest about what you need—hire for skills, not just a CV full of buzzwords.
✅ Work with experts—if you don’t know where to start, We Do Group does.
Want to avoid expensive hiring mistakes?
We Do Benchmark helps you set the right salary to attract the right candidates—no more guessing, no more underpaying (or overpaying).
We Do Group finds you top-tier finance talent who actually fit your business—so you’re not re-hiring six months later.
Hiring is an investment. Let’s make sure it’s a smart one.
