Hiring Practices — Finding the Right Fit

CHOOSING THE right employees is a key decision for printing companies. Facing short deadlines and tight margins, the addition of a below-par performer can prove costly for a graphic arts provider.

“There is a lot of data which says that the cost of a bad hire is about two and a half times the person’s annual salary,” says Debra Thompson, president of human resources consulting firm TG & Associates in Tucson, AZ. “That is measured in terms of the wages paid, the cost of rework that was necessary, the cost of customers lost because of bad service, and even the cost of replacing good employees who got fed up with carrying the load for the bad performer and left.”