Don’t Make These Hiring Mistakes

Hiring for a mission-based organization isn’t just about filling a role—it’s about finding people who will champion your cause, share your values, and help drive your vision forward. But the stakes are high. One wrong hire could cost your organization precious time, money, and resources better spent directly on your mission. A bad hire doesn't just impact productivity; it can derail the mission itself. 

So pause your resume reading and interview scheduling, and rethink what you’re looking for. Are you looking to fill a role, or are you looking for the hidden potential your organization needs? Watch out for these most costly hiring mistakes that have the power to either thwart or propel your mission.

Choosing Skills Over Culture Fit

A common trap is to over-prioritize hard skills or technical expertise that catch your eye on paper, while underestimating the importance of cultural fit. In a mission-based environment, culture often plays a more crucial role than in other organizations, where profit might be the central driver. While your team’s skills are a crucial element of your team’s productive capacity, overlooking how well a candidate fits into the organization's ethos can cost you time and money in the long run.

When every employee fits within the organization’s culture, collaboration within and across departments and teams is possible. Hiring someone who is brilliant in their technical role but does not align with the organization’s way of working can kill collaboration efforts.

You may realize too late that the person you hired doesn’t "get" the culture. You could notice friction, which is demoralizing for teams that are otherwise fueled by a strong sense of shared purpose.

While technical competence is essential, especially for specialized roles, it's equally important to ensure that a candidate has the soft skills, flexibility, and temperament that match the organization's culture.

Overlooking Misalignment with Your Mission

Possibly the gravest mistake an organization can make is hiring someone whose values and passions are misaligned with the mission. It’s the unified mission that drives all productivity, culture, and growth on your team. Teams in mission-based organizations rely on a strong sense of unity and shared purpose. Having even one employee who isn’t motivated by the mission on your team can crush the morale of the staff around them. 

No other quality is worth more than mission alignment. If a person doesn't care about the mission, they're unlikely to be fully committed, even if they are highly skilled. When employees don’t buy into the mission, they are more likely to leave when challenges arise, leading to costly turnover and the additional expense of retraining replacements. An individual’s personal commitment to the mission is what will bring them back day after day, despite inevitable challenges or disappointments in the workplace.

Neglecting Long-Term Potential

Another costly mistake is focusing solely on immediate needs without considering the long-term growth and potential of the candidate. In mission-based teams, stability, continuity, and personal growth are crucial. 

Choosing potential isn’t just about taking a chance on candidates with less experience. Many mission-based teams have flat structures or rely on internal leadership development to maintain their values and culture. Hiring someone who doesn't have the potential or desire to take on leadership roles could hamper this process. 

The candidate with potential is one that’s open to leadership opportunities, not just the role they are interviewing for now. If an individual lacks the capacity to grow with the organization as it evolves, their value to the team will decrease over time. This mistake could result in another round of hiring in the near future.

If you’re counting the costs between what you’ve budgeted for hiring, what you’ve spent so far, and what you could lose if the hire fails, check out Vanderbloemen’s Bad Hire Calculator. With this tool, you can predict precisely what’s on the line for just one specific hire in your business. With a precise estimate, you can consider appropriate next steps in your hiring process. Explore the Bad Hire Calculator to learn exactly what costs go into finding that ideal candidate, and what investments are wasted by a failed attempt to fill your vacant role.