Business Opportunities Weblog

Hiring Poorly is Worse than Not Hiring

By on September 16, 2004 in Ideas

Joe Kraus, one of the founders of Excite, says that hiring a bad employee is far worse than not hiring anyone. He explains:

Other than fundraising, nothing I do as an entrepreneur is as important as hiring. But, hiring is tricky because it’s so easy to loosen standards, especially when you’re feeling in a pinch for people. But, I always keep two things in mind when hiring, no matter how desperate I feel.
  1. A bad employee does far more damage than no employee, no matter the issue.
  2. A players hire A players, B players hire C players, and C players hire losers. Let your standards slip once and you’re only two generations away from death.
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Business Opportunities Weblog editor and publisher Dane Carlson lives in the Sierra Nevada mountains of California, just 15 miles from Yosemite National Park. He accidentally became a professional blogger in 2001. He has added 12,203 posts to the site.

Another Idea: How to Start a Employee Leasing Business

  • C.Marie

    I couldn’t agree more! A perfect example is the one in which Washington Mutual Bank hired as a manager a man with a history of crassness and gender harassment. Once hired, Washington Mutual chose to retain him (instead of admitting to a very poor hiring choice) and lose those he harassed. Those employees were all more qualified and experienced with impeccable work records and work ethics. As a result of this company wide practice, as well as so many other poor choices, this once powerful financial institution has become a mere, pathetic shodow of it’s former self.
    One suggestion to those in charge of hiring and firing:
    Take a long look at how many of todays successful entrepreneurs were the former great job performers you chose to cut loose.

  • jaeda

    i think that depends on the performance of a person, you can’t see their worth before you hire them.

  • cassy

    if you really want to have a good business and make it grow, you have to hired workers who are dedecated to work hard for you,and to be sure you have to check thier background so that you are insure that you hired the best worker for your business.

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