Recruiting and hiring good employees is arguably the most critical aspect of running a small business. After all, if you’re not hiring the right people to begin with, your ability to succeed in nearly everything else you do in your staffing practices will be greatly compromised.

Your company loses more than time, money and effort by recruiting, hiring and training people who perhaps shouldn’t have been brought on in the first place. You must also deal with the havoc that the “wrong” employee can create: the business you may lose when that individual interacts with customers, the costs you incur when you have to repeat procedures that were handled ineptly, and the pressures on other employees who must pick up the slack.

And consider the expense and hassle that arises when you have to cut your losses and dismiss this “wrong” hire. In the long run, it’s more difficult for the manager and team to accommodate a poor performer than it is to invest in recruiting quality candidates.

The biggest mistake you can make when you’re in the market for new employees is to rely on the same tried-and-true methods that you’ve been using for years. Consider the following factors:

• A lot more is at stake today than in the past. Long gone are the days when you could minimize the consequences of a bad hiring decision by “finding a place” for a new hire who isn’t fitting in. The pace and pressure in today’s workplace are too great. Everybody has to contribute, which means more than simply doing one’s own job. It means having a measurable impact on a company’s ability to compete, maintaining high quality standards, and keeping customers happy and costs under control.
• The qualifications for jobs that were once considered routine are escalating. With fewer layers of management present in most small businesses, today’s line employees must do their jobs with less supervision than in the past, and not every employee can flourish in this kind of environment.
• Technology is having a huge impact on work processes. Because just about every task in business has to be done faster than ever, companies of every size are relying on technological advances to streamline day-to-day operating procedures. And few small businesses can afford to have employees who can’t adjust to the new pace and growing demands.