Unexpected ways bad employees destroy companies

• Jeff Pelliccio, Contributor

• 
  

Samantha Lee/Business Insider

Whether your business is large, small, or somewhere in the middle, it is just as susceptible to the crippling effects of bad employees as any other company.

Although they initially impressed you in the interview, underperforming employees now pose a serious threat to your business.

Just how dangerous are they? According to a 2013 CareerBuilder survey of 6,000 hiring managers and HR professionals, 27% of U.S. employers that had made a bad hire claimed that a single bad hire cost their business more than $50,000.

This is a financial burden no business can bear, not to mention the fact that most businesses have more than one bad employee in their roster.

If you've recently discovered your team, department, or company is suffering from a few bad eggs, don't panic — you're not alone. Many businesses are plagued by bad employees they don't have the time or energy to root out.

However, ineffective and unproductive workers actually cost your company more than it can afford to lose. Here's a look at four hidden ways bad employees are hurting your business, and why you have to let them go to reach the goals you have for your company:

1. Negative business reputation

One of the most damaging ways bad employees harm businesses is by destroying a company's reputation. A business's reputation for quality products, services, and professionalism is something that takes years to establish, but one bad employee can derail all of this hard work.

Unprofessional service or products lacking the level of excellence expected of your business leaves clients and customers dissatisfied. This in turn causes them to associate poor service and bad quality with your brand. Damaging your reputation this way is often irreversible and takes years of work to bounce back from, if you are ever able to do so.

2. Lowered employee morale

Bad employees not only hurt your bottom line, but they also lead to lowered employee morale from your top employees. The rest of the team has to pick up slack from unproductive or ineffective workers, which can cause your valued employees to become dissatisfied, disengaged, or worse.

Bad employees may even cost you these great workers if their workloads become unmanageable while you attempt to address the problems with the bad egg. Instead, you must make the tough choice and remove bad employees so you can focus your efforts on finding a team member willing to share the load and work hard to achieve the vision you have created for your business.

3. Workflow interruptions

Employees that refuse to think for themselves or problem-solve independently cause workflow interruptions for management. Rather than focusing on the core issues in their department or team, your managers are forced to hand-hold the problematic employee through tasks and be peppered with questions constantly.

This leads to less productive management-level employees, whom you rely on to move your initiatives forward. However, they are now unable to drive or implement these initiatives due to the constant supervision required for bad employees. Although firing an employee that isn't performing is an uncomfortable conversation, you have to ask yourself how much more you are willing to lose due to this individual. Once you start thinking solely about what is best for the business, the decision becomes obvious.

4. Wasted training costs

Another hidden cost associated with bad employees is the wasted resources spent on training and retraining these individuals. Continuous sessions cost you production time and money, not to mention the wasted time for employees doing the training. Additionally, it's likely that the knowledge extra training sessions provides will not be implemented successfully.

These resources could instead be used to train new, effective employees. However, until you get rid of the bad eggs in your organization, you will be unable to provide these resources to the workers that deserve and would benefit most from them.

To sum it up, your bad employees cost your company more than you ever could've imagined. With this in mind, it's time for you to make the hard choice, get confrontational, and root these bad employees out of your business. Because the truth is, you can't afford the alternative