Hiring Economics Series

The Hiring Economics Series examines why companies make the hiring decisions they do and what those decisions actually cost. Using economic frameworks and data from hundreds of hiring decisions, this series challenges conventional wisdom on ATS systems, interview processes, job requirements, and compensation strategy.

What You'll Learn:

Why the true cost of a bad hire is 3-4x salary
How information asymmetry makes hiring inherently difficult
Why optimizing for speed systematically reduces quality
How signaling theory explains interview failures
Why lowball offers filter out your best candidates
How to time hiring decisions strategically

Who This Series Is For: CFOs evaluating hiring budgets, COOs building teams, VPs making headcount decisions, Finance Directors analyzing workforce investments

The True Cost of a Bad Hire: A Framework for Hiring ROI

This accounting is worse than incomplete. It's dangerously misleading. And once you understand the mathematics of hiring failure, you can't look at your hiring process the same way again.

Information Asymmetry in Interviews: Why Candidates Know More Than You Do

Your interview process reveals what candidates want you to know. The real question is: what are you doing to learn what they don't?

Why Job Requirements Are Economic Fiction

Inflated requirements don't just filter candidates; they shrink your qualified pool below the threshold needed for efficient hiring.

The Screening Bottleneck: Why More Applications Mean Worse Hires

Your open position just received its 500th application. Congratulations. You now have a problem that looks like success but performs like failure.

Speed vs. Quality: The Hidden Costs of Fast Hiring

Time-to-fill matters, but time-to-productivity matters more. Cost-per-hire matters, but quality-of-hire matters more. Vacancy costs are real, but mediocrity costs are larger.