Bad Hiring Decisions Are Among the Most Costly Management Mistakes

Strategic people decisions have a significant impact on leadership quality, workplace culture, and business performance. Scientifically validated personality assessments are therefore becoming increasingly important for strengthening leadership, stabilizing teams, and preventing problems before they arise.

Skills shortages, rising mental health challenges, and high employee turnover are putting increasing pressure on organizations. One of the underlying causes is poor hiring and promotion decisions. After all, résumés and interviews can only reveal so much about how people actually behave at work or how they respond under pressure. Once made, poor hiring decisions or unsuitable leadership appointments often remain unnoticed for a long time.

Personality Over Résumés

Against this backdrop, scientifically validated personality assessment is gaining importance in the workplace. With the internationally recognized Hogan Assessments, Mavie Work uses a tool that examines personality from three perspectives: everyday strengths, potential risk behaviors under stress, and the values and motives that influence decision-making. The goal is to measurably improve leadership quality, team performance, and long-term organizational stability.

“We see every day that leadership problems rarely stem from a lack of professional expertise, but rather from personality patterns that become problematic under pressure,” says Christoph Schnedlitz, Managing Director of Mavie Work. “Organizations that systematically take personality into account make better people decisions—and take responsibility for the health and performance of entire teams.”

Particularly critical is the so-called “dark side” of personality: behaviors that are perceived as strengths under normal circumstances can become overused under stress and turn counterproductive—for example, when drive and ambition become ruthlessness, or attention to detail turns into micromanagement. This affects collaboration, motivation, and mental wellbeing.

Hogan Assessments help identify these risks early and minimize them proactively, rather than reacting only after conflicts, sick leave, or resignations have already occurred.

Scientific Evidence Instead of HR Myths

Studies and international HR analyses show that poor hiring decisions generate significant costs for organizations, including productivity losses, increased absenteeism, employee turnover, replacement costs, and additional strain on teams and leaders.

Poor leadership decisions are particularly expensive, as their impact extends across entire departments and organizations.

As a result, demand for objective, scientifically validated methods that can predict job performance and leadership behavior continues to grow. The internationally established Hogan Assessments have been used more than 13 million times worldwide and have been examined in over 1,650 scientific studies. They are among the personality assessment tools with the highest predictive validity and can be applied across approximately 1,000 different job profiles.

As a holistic provider of workplace health solutions, Mavie Work combines scientifically validated Hogan Assessments with integrated health, leadership, and coaching programs. This makes personality relevant not only during recruitment, but throughout the entire employee lifecycle—from talent acquisition and leadership development to the long-term growth of teams.

In a working world where mental health conditions are among the most common causes of long-term sick leave, personality is becoming a critical issue for the future of both businesses and society.

“Personality assessment is not an HR trend—it is a tool for modern leadership,” emphasizes Schnedlitz. “When we understand how people lead, make decisions, and respond to stress, we can create workplaces that are more effective, healthier for people, and more successful for organizations.”