You’ve filled the vacancy, onboarded the new hire, and breathed a sigh of relief — only to realise a few months later, it’s not working out. The fit isn’t there. Productivity has slipped. Morale is starting to dip.
Sound familiar? Every business makes hiring mistakes, but the cost is often higher than most realise. According to the CIPD, a bad hire can cost up to £25,000 once you factor in lost productivity, management time, and recruitment spend. Not to mention the impact on team morale!
The good news? Every one of these mistakes is fixable. In this blog, we’ll explore the five most common hiring pitfalls and how to avoid them for good.
Want to pinpoint where your process could be costing you the most?
The True Cost of a Bad Hire
When hiring goes wrong, the consequences ripple far beyond finances. Teams lose trust, managers spend hours firefighting, and business momentum stalls.
We recently spoke with a client who estimated one mis-hire had set them back six months of growth. Not because the person lacked skill, but because the wrong expectations were set from day one.
Hiring mistakes happen easily, but with the right approach, they’re entirely preventable.
Here are five of the biggest ones to watch out for:
1. Rushing the Briefing Stage
It’s easy to dive straight into recruitment mode, but skipping a proper briefing is one of the fastest ways to hire the wrong person. Without a clear definition of what success looks like in the role, even the strongest candidates can miss the mark.
Research shows 42% of hiring managers advertise a role before defining the full requirements. The result? Unfocused interviews, misaligned expectations, and wasted time.
Fix it by aligning early. Map out not just the day-to-day duties, but the outcomes the role should achieve. Involve all stakeholders so everyone agrees on priorities before the first CV hits your inbox.
2. Neglecting Your Employer Brand
The best candidates are researching you long before you speak to them. In fact, 75% of professionals look at a company’s reputation before applying.
If your online presence doesn’t reflect your culture or values, you’ll struggle to engage quality applicants, especially in competitive markets. Outdated job ads, inconsistent messaging, and a weak careers page can all send the wrong signal.
To fix it, audit your employer brand [internal link to employer branding PDF landing page] regularly.Make sure your job descriptions, website, and social channels tell a consistent story. Highlight employee voices and success stories, not just vacancies.
3. Weak Interview Structure
Unstructured interviews are one of the biggest hiring blind spots. When decisions rely on “gut feel” rather than evidence, bias creeps in and accuracy plummets.
According to Harvard Business Review, unstructured interviews make bad hires 400% more likely. The fix? Standardise your process. Use consistent scorecards, behavioural questions, and clear evaluation criteria that focus on both skills and mindset.
When every interviewer measures the same competencies, you remove inconsistency and make more confident, data-led decisions.
Need help? We help businesses design interview frameworks that reveal not just what candidates can do, but how they think, adapt, and grow, so you hire for long-term success, not just short-term fit.
4. Poor Candidate Experience
In today’s market, the candidate experience is your brand experience. Slow feedback, vague communication, or multiple rounds of delay send a clear message: “We’re not organised.”
It’s no surprise that 58% of candidates turn down offers after a poor experience.
The fix is simple but often overlooked - communicate clearly and quickly. Acknowledge applications promptly, keep candidates updated, and ensure feedback flows both ways. Even those you don’t hire should walk away with a positive impression of your business.
5. Ignoring Passive Talent
The strongest candidates are often the ones not actively looking. Studies show up to 70% of the workforce are “passive” (content in their roles but open to the right opportunity).
If your strategy relies purely on job boards and applications, you’re missing out on this entire pool of talent.
To fix this, you need to take a proactive approach. Combine targeted outreach, network referrals, and long-term relationship building to engage passive professionals. It’s slower than posting an ad, but the payoff is huge.
At Get Recruited, 82% of our placements come from passive candidates. People our clients would never have reached from solely posting a job ad.
The Effect: Time, Money & Morale
Hiring mistakes don’t just waste budget; they drain time, energy, and trust. A single poor fit can take 6–10 weeks to replace, costing between £10,000 and £25,000, and that’s before factoring in lost productivity and morale.
The good news? When you get hiring right, the rewards are exponential - stronger teams, lower turnover, and better results.
Why Partnering with Get Recruited Makes the Difference
Fixing these hiring challenges takes process, insight, and access, but that’s where we come in.
At Get Recruited, we blend data-led recruitment with deep market expertise.Our structured 20-stage process is designed to reduce risk, remove bias, and connect you with the right people faster.
With 94% retention across our placements and a 5-day average to shortlist, we help clients avoid the pitfalls, reach passive candidates, and build teams that perform.
We don’t just fill vacancies; we build confidence in your entire hiring strategy.
Every hiring mistake starts with the same goal: finding great people fast. But when speed outweighs strategy, costs climb quickly. The difference between average and exceptional recruitment isn’t luck, it’s process, clarity, and partnership.
Download your free copy of Hiring Mistakes Costing You Time, Money & Talent and start building a smarter, stronger hiring process that saves time, reduces risk, and drives long-term results.