Recently, I’ve seen a number of posts urging CEO’s to make hiring decisions faster, and ideally after just one interview.

These posts get a lot of popular support, as neither hiring teams nor candidates want to put themselves through multiple interview stages, when let’s face it we’ve all got so many other things to do.

For the record, I think this is utterly bonkers and any business that makes senior hires this way is asking for trouble.

OK, I acknowledge for junior hires it’s perhaps less of an issue, as the cost of getting it wrong is so much less.

For instance, if you hire a Sales Rep and they don’t perform, the worst that can happen is that their territory under performs in the short term.

Whereas if you hire a weak Senior Sales Leader, they set the culture, the strategy, the process and can also demotivate your entire sales team.

These things can’t be put right in the short term, dragging the business back and needlessly burning precious time and yet more resources to put right.

Momentarily, putting myself in the shoes of one of my candidates, if the CEO makes their decision to hire so quickly, that would make me very nervous.

Remember it’s also my career on the line, and I don’t want to wake up three months into a new role knowing I’ve made a huge mistake.

In my head, if the CEO makes an important strategic hiring decision based on so little data, what other decisions is he rushing, and do I really want to join his team?

Getting hiring decisions right is tough enough as it is, with around 30% of new hires failing within the first 12 months.

By the way, where else within your business, would you accept a 30% failure rate?

Hiring mistakes may be common and sometimes even taken for granted, but what’s under-appreciated is the high levels of unnecessary cost they generate for the business.

If you like a good scare, take a look at our Bad Hire Calculator but be warned it’s a true horror story based on your numbers!

Rushing a senior hiring decision is like playing Russian roulette. It’s not necessary and the costs of getting it wrong are truly frightening.

If ever there was a job worth doing right, it’s hiring a Senior Commercial Leader!

The good news is that a well-run recruitment process can reduce commercial downtime, substantially cut the risk of hiring mistakes, improve employee retention rates and even reduce overall hiring costs.

If you’re ready to know how, why not introduce yourself and start the conversation?