Hiring can be time-consuming. It usually takes 30 or more days to find a suitable candidate.
Even after reviewing hundreds of resumes and conducting countless interviews, it’s still possible to make a bad hire. There might be red flags that will only emerge once they start working with you.
Fortunately, there are ways to determine whether you hired the wrong person – and what you can do about it. Let’s look at an admin assistant, for example.
Signs That You’ve Hired the Wrong Admin Assistant
An admin assistant helps business owners manage day-to-day operations. You can rely on them to file paperwork, answer phone calls, prepare documents, and manage your calendar.
These tasks require an admin assistant who is organized, meticulous, and efficient.
If you notice that your admin assistant doesn’t have these skills, it could be a sign that they’re not the right fit for the job. Here are some of the other signs to look out for:
- Lack of Understanding About the Role. It can take a new hire 3-6 months to adjust to your company’s processes.
However, they should already know the things needed to do their job. Otherwise, it can be a sign that they don’t have the right skills to be an efficient admin assistant. - Lack of Initiative. A good administrative assistant anticipates your daily needs, especially after they’ve been managing day-to-day office operations for a while.
A lack of foresight can be problematic during more challenging times, especially when they display reluctance to go beyond their job’s basic requirements.
- Poor Communication Skills. An admin assistant might speak and/or write well, but can still be bad at communicating.
Signs of poor communication include frequent misunderstandings with colleagues and costly errors in written correspondence. They may also be unable to communicate challenges that emerge or what help they need.
- Resistance to Feedback. Managing day-to-day operations requires patience, adaptability, and willingness to grow.
If your admin assistant reacts poorly to constructive feedback or doesn’t make a noticeable effort to improve, it may show a lack of adaptability.
- Inconsistent Work Quality. A good admin assistant needs to deliver excellent, quality output regularly. Fluctuations in the quality of their output can be a sign of inconsistency in their effort or lack of attention to detail.
What to Do When You’ve Made a Bad Hire
There are different ways to move forward after a bad hire. Here’s what you can do if and when you find yourself in this predicament:
- Offer Mentorship. A mentor might help the new hire improve their performance. You can assign a talented and well-connected employee to help your admin assistant adjust to the company, office culture, and structure better.
- Let Them Go. If mentoring won’t work, termination may be your only option. This should be your last resort, such as when the employee doesn’t prove coachable or if the constant errors or behavior reach intolerable levels.
- Improve Your Hiring Process. Moving forward, implement changes to avoid similar mistakes such as improving how you verify skills and cultural alignment. Better yet, consider partnering with an outsourcing provider like Remote Staff to help you find the right fit.
With over 16 years of experience, Remote Staff can help improve your hiring and onboarding process. With hundreds of pre-qualified candidates and tried and tested matching process, we can help you achieve a smooth and rewarding work experience with our skilled Filipino remote workers.
Call us or request a call back today.
Syrine is studying law while working as a content writer. When she’s not writing or studying, she engages in tutoring, events planning, and social media browsing. In 2021, she published her book, Stellar Thoughts.
