When a hire doesn’t work out, most operators look at one number: wages paid.

But that’s not the real cost.
It’s not even close.

The Time Cost Everyone Undervalues

Time is the first domino to fall—and the hardest one to stop.

A bad hire eats up time through:

• Reviewing applications and résumés

• Interviews that go nowhere

• Onboarding and training

• Fixing mistakes on the job

• Reposting the role and starting over

That time doesn’t come from nowhere. It comes out of nights, weekends, and hours that should be spent managing crews, winning work, or keeping projects moving. This is where hiring tradespeople starts to feel overwhelming instead of manageable.

The Money Cost Beyond the Paycheck

Wages are just the first expense. The rest follow quickly.

A bad hire often leads to:

• Paying job boards again to refill the role

• Overtime for other workers covering gaps

• Lost productivity on job sites

• Rework, callbacks, or missed deadlines

• Slower job completion that affects future jobs

When hiring skilled labor goes wrong, margins tighten fast. One unreliable worker can quietly erase the profit from an entire project.

The Morale Cost Nobody Tracks

This domino usually falls next—and it hits harder than most people expect.

One bad hire can:

• Burn out your most dependable workers

• Create frustration across the crew

• Lower expectations on the job site

• Damage trust between leadership and the team

Good tradespeople notice when standards slip. When they’re constantly picking up slack, morale drops. Over time, that frustration turns into disengagement—or worse, turnover.

Why the Dominoes Keep Falling

Most bad hires aren’t the result of carelessness. They’re the result of limited visibility.

Operators are often forced to hire based on:

• Résumés that don’t show reliability

• Pressure to fill roles quickly

• Little insight into communication or work habits

That makes screening skilled workers harder than it should be and leaves employers guessing how to tell if a worker is reliable before day one. And in hiring, guessing is expensive.

The Takeaway for Employers

A bad hire doesn’t just cost wages.

It sets off a domino effect that costs:

• Time you don’t have

• Money you didn’t plan to spend

• Morale that’s hard to rebuild

The solution isn’t hiring faster or posting more jobs.

It’s improving how you evaluate people before they ever step on a job site.

If you’re looking for a better way to hire tradespeople, download the Collars app and connect with workers based on real experience—not just résumés.

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