Hiring Key Personnel in 2025: Reducing Turnover and Costs
🖋️ Originally written by Stuart Atkins 🛠️ Edited and Modernized by Hany El-Awadly. MBA – Global Life Orientations Lead – 2025
“Hire slowly, hire right — because the cost of a wrong hire has never been higher.”
In the 1970s, Stuart Atkins wrote about the hidden costs of hiring mistakes and the strategies to avoid them. More than 50 years later, his message rings even louder: a bad hire can drain time, resources, and morale faster than almost any other business decision.
Today, the stakes are higher. Research shows that replacing a key employee can cost 50% to 200% of their annual salary, when you factor in recruitment, onboarding, training, and lost productivity. That’s why the principles behind smart hiring are more important than ever — and why the LIFO® Method’s approach to understanding people’s patterns and strengths is still game-changing.
Why Bad Hires Happen
Even with strong hiring processes, costly mistakes slip through because of:
- Urgency bias – Filling a role too quickly under pressure.
- Interview personas – Candidates who “act” their way through an interview.
- Time-starved managers – Rushed or distracted interviews.
- Surface-level assessment – Focusing on resumes, not real drivers.
- Narrow evaluation scope – Testing for a few scenarios instead of the full role.
- Context blindness – Ignoring regional or departmental differences in success traits.
- Outdated success models – Not re-examining what makes top performers thrive today.
The Modern Solution
Atkins’ philosophy remains timeless: external specialists should augment, not replace, your hiring team — and decisions should be based on clear, objective success profiles.
Modern principles for better hiring:
- Define success patterns clearly with data and role analysis.
- Attract quantity first to find quality — leveraging AI sourcing and digital channels.
- Screen objectively using validated assessments.
- Dig deeper with behavioral and situational interviews.
- Decide with data, not gut feel alone.
CIPD Alignment: Behavioural Preferences in Hiring
Our updated approach also aligns with the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)’s Core Behaviours model, which emphasises that great hires are made when organisations consider how people behave, not just what they can do.
According to the CIPD Profession Map, effective recruitment should assess:
- Ethical Practice – ensuring candidates’ values align with organisational and professional ethics.
- Working Inclusively – seeking those who foster respect, equity, and belonging.
- Professional Courage and Influence – finding individuals able to challenge constructively and influence for good.
- Valuing People – prioritising empathy, adaptability, and a genuine interest in developing others.
These principles mirror the LIFO® Method’s focus on identifying and matching behavioural preferences to organisational success patterns. By embedding these behavioural assessments alongside technical and experience-based evaluations, organisations improve cultural fit, retention, and overall performance.
🔗 Learn more about CIPD’s Core Behaviours here: https://www.cipd.org/en/the-people-profession/the-profession-map/explore-the-profession-map/core-behaviours/
What to Assess in 2025
Beyond traditional traits like resilience, leadership, and problem-solving, today’s hiring must also evaluate:
- Digital fluency
- Cross-cultural agility
- Continuous learning mindset
Benefits of Doing It Right
- Lower turnover, higher retention
- Faster time-to-productivity
- Stronger leadership pipelines
- More accurate promotions and reassignments
- Confidential and efficient executive searches
Hiring Best Practices Today
- Build a success profile for every key role
- Engage both active and passive talent
- Use layered screening — AI + human judgment
- Offer realistic job previews to align expectations
- Apply structured decision-making to reduce bias
Final Thought: Hiring right is not just about saving costs — it’s about building the future of your organisation. By blending timeless hiring wisdom with modern tools — and aligning with CIPD’s behavioural standards — you protect your investment, your culture, and your people.
📚 Explore the history and principles behind the LIFO® Method here: https://lifo.bconglobal.com/what-is-lifo/history-of-lifo