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10/13/2016

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Thank you, Margaret.

There have been several studies that have looked at costs associated with turnover, usually to make the case for retention campaigns (as you noted). Often these studies are advertised as showing the cost of losing a good employee.

However, have you come across any studies that estimate the cost of retaining a bad employee? Other than a few well-publicized quips from Tony Hsieh (Zappos - see, for example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9C36EYM-mWQ), I haven't seen good data.

Yet, we know intuitively that making a poor hiring decision can be exacerbated if the person you hire becomes entrenched in your organization. (Which is another way of saying that retention isn't an end unto itself - we want to retain the right talent, but perhaps not every employee.)

Great point, Joe. A quick web scan shows that SHRM and Harvard Business Review have data on the cost of poor hiring decisions, including the point that much of turnover comes from these decisions. If you are looking to promote better new applicant screening, I'm sure there data on the ROI of this investment, especially around behavioral screening.

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