Reason for 89% of new-hire failures

Profile Pic OnContracting
Jan 18th, 2013
Reason for 89% of new-hire failures

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In his book ‘Hiring for Attitude’, author Mark Murphy’s shocking results from tracking 20,000 new hires over a 3 year period claims 89% of failures were not due to lack of skills but what he calls ‘Attitude’ problems of the employees, which are obviously hard to gauge in interviews.

 

The top 5 reasons for new hire failures

 

Coachability (26%)- ability (or lack of) to accept and implement feedback from bosses, colleagues, customers and others

Emotional Intelligence (23%)- ability to understand one’s own emotions and accurately assess others’ emotions

Motivation (17%)- Sufficient drive  to achieve one’s full potential

Temperament (15%)- Personality suited to job

Technical Competence /Skills (11%)- Functional or Technical skills required to do the job

 

 

Most interviews for contractors dwell on only technical skills and it is just assumed that the attitude of the employee won’t be a problem- or is this oversimplification of the issue. One could argue that the Skills percentage is low because that has already been filtered for in the interview as it more objective and measurable.

Either way- Are your interviews geared to check a candidate’s soft skills and fit? Do you drop candidates that come across as ‘going to be pain to manage’? Let us know at marketing (at) oncontracting

latest articles