The Real Cost of a Bad Hire (And How to Avoid It)

One bad hire doesn’t just cost you money…it costs you momentum, culture, and trust.

If you’ve ever felt like you’re constantly cleaning up, overcompensating, or questioning your instincts after bringing someone onto your team — this episode is for you.

In this next installment of our business masterclass series, Krista pulls back the curtain on how she hires — and more importantly, how she avoids costly mistakes.

This isn’t surface-level advice. It’s a real, proven system built inside a service-based business where people are the product.

Inside this episode:

• A structured, multi-step interview process that leads to better decisions
 • Why a simple resume or first impression isn’t enough
 • The power of working interviews + shadow shifts (and what to watch for)
 • The exact questions that reveal:

•  self-awareness 
•  accountability 
•  coachability 
•  emotional regulation under pressure 

• The non-negotiables that protect your team and your brand
 (think: integrity, punctuality, no drama, and exceptional client experience)

Why this matters:

The wrong hire doesn’t always show up on paper —
 but you feel it in your day-to-day.

This episode gives you the tools to:
 ✔ hire with more confidence
 ✔ protect your culture
 ✔ build a team that actually elevates your business

🎧 If you’re building a team — or planning to — hit play.

If you're getting something out of the podcast, please—

✅  Subscribe for more real, tactical business conversations
 ⭐ Leave a review to help more founders find the show
 📲 Share this with a business owner who’s hiring right now

Want to experience Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique for yourself?

 💚 Book here: https://panacealuxuryspa.com

Transcript

Welcome And Podcast Mission

Krista 0:11

Welcome to Serenity and Fire, the podcast where wellness meets grit. I'm your host, Krista Quadenti, founder of Panacea Luxury Spot Boutique. Join me as we dive into the intriguing world of biohacking, clean living, cutting-edge thought trends, and the hustle, grind, and grit of entrepreneurship. My personal battles with weight management, infertility, and the 30-year journey to create and launch my dream business. To building a sanctuary for those who have been touched by cancer, I'm here to share world talks, inspire big dreams, and spark a passion for holistic living inside each and every one of you. So let's dive in. Welcome back to Serenity and Fire. Today we're continuing on with this little mini business masterclass series of things that have been happening to me over the last couple of weeks. And today's episode, we're going to be talking about the single most expensive mistake you can make in your business, and that's hiring the wrong person. So I wanted to go into interview questions and how we structure our interviews because I had a friend who owns another business reach out to me recently and she had been having some struggles with hiring people. And she was like, How do you do it? I want to first say that hiring the wrong person can not only be one of the most expensive expenses to your business, but it can also be one of the most frustrating. It can be one of those things where you feel like you're doing everything right and you finally got your system down wrong. And then you realize there's a hole somewhere in the process and you have to fix it. So it's sometimes kind of feels like that boat with a hole in it and you plug it and then another hole pops up and you plug that and then another hole. And then the next thing you know, you're like doing Tetris in your boat trying to plug all of these holes. But I think after 15 years of owning businesses, we've learned a ton. And I've really honed in and refined our process, at least to a point where I feel like we're making really, really good hiring decisions to the best of our abilities. And that is a big win in itself because hiring is one of the most challenging things a business will ever go through. It's something that never ends. And if you're someone who's listening to this and thinking, I think I might want to own a business, I can personally share with you that employees can be the most rewarding and also the most frustrating and challenging thing in your business. And like I said, it's one of those things that you're gonna always constantly be working on. You should always be constantly hiring, no matter what business you're in, because people's lives change, their priorities change. And even when you hire the absolute best person for a position, you still can't control what goes on in their personal lives. And when things change for them, their priorities change. And that might mean that your business is no longer a priority for them. And that person that you thought was going to be with you forever and who was the perfect hire now suddenly is leaving your business and you're having to fill that position again. So going back to the cost of bad hires, those things don't just cost you actual money. Those bad hires cost you culture, time, energy, resources, momentum, and sometimes even your reputation. Because if you make a really bad hire and they get in and they mess up your whole business and they aren't nice to your clients and they damage your reputation, that can be a really big problem. So having strong leadership teams to have their thumb on all of this so that things like that can be caught early are also really, really critical to the hiring process. But I really want to walk you through some of the questions that we ask in our interviews and how we've now structured our whole entire interview process for the people that we bring into our organization. And more importantly, when we're asking these questions, what is it that we're specifically looking for in the questions? So first and foremost, I'll say that when I first started owning businesses, I really was like, if somebody introduced someone to me and they said they were a great person and I trusted that person, I would bring them in, meet them, and just trust my friends' intuition and their recommendation and I would hire them. And that was a mistake. And I made that mistake many times hiring people that were recommended, thinking that, well, if this person recommended them, of course they're going to be a great hire. But the fact of the matter is, is that people can act very differently in personal situations than they do in their business situations. And that's the first thing that you really have to recognize. And for me, even with people that I know, if I've known them personally and I have a great relationship with them, they now still have to go through our entire interview process. They have to meet my director, they have to meet my team, they have to be evaluated just like anybody else. Because the reality is that they may be great in a friend situation, but not so great in that work situation. And so that was one key learning experience that I've learned over the years. The other one is hire slow and fire fast. And I don't mean that in a crude way. Obviously, I'm the first person in probably many businesses who will go to bat for my employees. I very much believe in doing everything we can to develop our team members and to bring them up to the level that we need them to be so that they can be successful. And even if they're struggling and having challenges in the position, I want my team to fight really hard for them. Because if we hire them and we spend the money to bring them onto our team and to train them, if they're not working out in a position, we have to really seriously evaluate if that's the individual or if it's us as a team. And we need to put every single resource in to do everything we can to make that person successful. But sometimes the writing is on the wall and you do know pretty quickly that that person is not going to be a good fit and that they're not going to be coachable and that they're never going to fit in with the culture. When that happens, you have to be able to release that person so that they can do something that they would be more happy in and more successful in. So that's probably the second tough lesson that I've learned over the years. The third one is that your interview process has to be structured in a way that not only makes people excited about your business, but that makes them earn the position. And I know that we live in a culture now where people leave from one job and go to the next for pennies on the dollar. Um, they leave for the craziest reasons, but you have to elevate the position and make the position important enough that they feel that they've had to earn it. Because if, like anything in life, if you don't have to work hard at it, you typically don't value it. So our interview process is quite intense for most of our positions. They, the candidates will first go through a screening interview with our HR manager. That's usually about a 30-minute phone call just to kind of get to know them, um, explain the position a little bit, gauge their interests, their availability, when they're ready to um take on a new position, a little bit about their past experiences. And then from there, we bring them in for an in-person interview. Typically that's gonna be either with the HR manager or with a department manager. Um, at that point, we're gonna sit down with them for at least an hour. We're gonna dive deeper into situational leadership type questions. Um, how do they handle certain scenarios? Um, how do they act in a team environment? How do they act when they have to um work solo or on their own? Um, how do they respond to coaching? And then once we get through all of those types of questions, and if it feels like there's a synergy and a good connection and they're connecting with our culture, then we do a tour of the facility. And usually for us, that's a really exciting part of the interview process because Panacea is so unique that people are really, really excited just to get in and see what it is that we do and what we offer. So you want to make that part of your interview process as exciting as you possibly can. You're you're you're selling your facility to this potential candidate. So we get really excited about that part of the interview process. And then if everything goes well from there, if it's a therapist, then we will typically invite them back in for a practical interview, meaning they have to actually come in and perform the services that we're going to be asking them to perform as part of our team. So if it's massage, they'll do an hour massage with me, my director, or the department manager. If it's a facial, the same thing. Nail services, the same thing. If it's someone on our wellness guide team, our wellness guides are really the glue of the organization. They're the first and the last person that everyone sees when they come into our facility. They set the tone for how the experience is going to go for the entire time that the client is there. They're the ones who make sure the clients have everything that they need, that they're set up for their services, that they know how to use all of our amenities, that they have cocktails or mocktails when they want them. Um, and really just everything in between. They do the checkouts, the check-ins, they help them with product purchases, all the things. And so that's a really important job in our organization. And it has a lot of different facets. Um, they do everything from bartending to attending to the spa to squeegeeing floors to stocking towels to giving guided tours. So there's it's a very dynamic position and they have a lot of opportunity to do a lot of different fun things. Um, but it's not for everybody. So we have our candidates come in for a um shadowing interview. And in that interview, we have them stay for a couple of hours and they get to actually see what the position is like in real time. So they get to shadow someone at the front desk, checking people in and out, helping them with their consent forms. They get to shadow someone giving tours so they can hear what the tour script sounds like and how we engage with our clients. They get to spend some time in laundry seeing, you know, what all happens behind the scenes, some time behind the bar, and just all of the different facets of that position. They get to see that you're going to be on your feet for the entire shift and what that feels like and what that's going to look like. And that's really important for us too, because what we're also looking for in that shadow interview is how do they engage with the team? Are they jumping in and offering to help out? Um, are they asking a lot of good questions? Or are they kind of sitting back, really reserved, not talking to anyone, super shy, um, super extroverted? Those things matter. And even though we understand that being in that scenario can be a little nerve-wracking because you're around a bunch of people you don't know, you don't know how to do anything, you're really just there to observe and watch, we do find that the people who are the most successful candidates are the ones who ask a lot of questions, are the ones who jump in and say, Can I help you carry that? Or is there anything I can grab? Do you want me to run that back to the client? Like things like that. Those people are going to be the ones that are gonna work really hard, who are gonna care about the job, and who are naturally inquisitive and want to learn and grow. So those are some of the things that we look for. And then after that shadow interview, or if it's a therapist, their practical interview, we then bring them back in for a final interview. For the therapist, it's another two-hour interview where they get to sit down with a director or someone higher than their manager. And at that point, we're really diving deep into culture and making sure that there's a good cultural alignment, that they fully understand the expectations of the position and that we fully understand their expectations of the job because we need to make sure that we can support them from a growth and management and leadership perspective. If we can't provide that, or if they can't provide that to us, then even after going through all of that, we'll walk away from the candidate. Um, we want it to be a good fit both ways. So those interviews are so critically important. And so my friend who was, you know, struggling with her business said, what are like your top 10 questions that help you really, really get to know a candidate? So I thought I would share them with you today. And we're just gonna kind of go through them and then I'll share what it is that we're looking for when we go through these interview questions. So the first one is, what behaviors can I expect from you if we do give you this position? And this is important because we're looking for self-awareness, we're looking for specificity, we're not looking for like generic answers from the client. We also want to know, I mean, you'd be surprised, some of the things that people tell us and the and the characteristics and things that you learn about people from asking these types of questions. So another question we ask is if I hire you, can I trust you to champion the brand, even if you would do things differently if it were your own business? And this is important because we want people who are going to be loyal to the organization and to the brand over their own personal ego. And one thing that's really challenging as a business owner is typically pretty much everybody we hire new, they want to show that they have knowledge and expertise and they want to come in and they always have a better way of doing everything. And, you know, they always have all these great ideas. And our leadership philosophy is we kind of try to tamper that down just a little bit in the beginning because we want them to come in and learn our processes, see how we do things, why we do them, the way that we do them. And then once they've been there for a period of time and they understand how the business works, we 100% welcome those kinds of ideas and recommendations and feedback. So what we don't want though is someone who has the, well, I know how to do everything. And so I'm gonna share with you all of my ideas so that you can incorporate them into your business. So we're we're kind of looking for people's expressions and how they respond to that question and you know how they feel about company loyalty. Because when you create a brand, you need people to be brand ambassadors. You need people to really speak the language of what you're doing in that company so that your clients have buy-in and your clients also fall in love with the brand. And those are the kind of people that we look to hire. So another question we ask is what are three words that your biggest fan would use to describe you? And this is gonna tell us really what their strengths are, where they see their strengths. And then an opposing question we ask is if I were to ask your biggest critic to describe you in three words, what would they say? And this one always trips people up, but it's so important to the process because this tells us if the candidate is being honest with themselves, if they really do see that they have areas for improvement and how they can work on them. It also can be very revealing too when you hear certain things about people that might be characteristics that you don't want within your organization. Another question we ask is if I were to ask your most recent manager or employer if there were areas where you could use improvement that I can help you with to help you be successful in this position, what do you think that they would say? And this one is really all about whether or not this person is going to be coachable. Because if you have someone who comes in and they're like, I don't think anything, I'm perfect, like I do everything right, I really do nothing wrong. Like that's not true. Everybody can can do something better. Everybody in every job that they've ever had has someone who has told them, like, hey, I'd I'd love to see you excel in this, or I'd love to help you improve in this. There's always something, and we're really looking for that self-accountability and their willingness to want to be coached in those areas. Another question we ask is tell me about a bad decision that you've made professionally. And here we're looking for ownership and not blame. And this question, the way people respond to this can be very revealing about how someone sees themselves within a team. And then we'll go through some of our company values and our deal breakers for the business. And we'll ask the candidates which of these things give you pause. And this is where we feel like truth really shows up. We can see if this person is really going to connect to our values and our deal breakers for the business. And and I'll tell you, my deal breakers are very simple. Um, integrity and honesty at all times, punctuality in your position. Um we will always bend over backwards to deliver an exceptional client experience. And fourth, no drama in the workplace. That is, those are the four deal breakers for me. And if people can't deliver and fulfill those things, then in my opinion, this is not the right culture for them. So that's we're looking for that. And then we'll ask, how do you handle constructive feedback? And this really is gonna just reveal where they are from an emotional maturity perspective. If there's someone who is like, I've never been given constructive feedback, or nobody ever gives me constructive feedback because I've never done anything wrong. Or if they're like, Yeah, they tell you a story about how someone gave them constructive feedback and they had to push back on it because they were right and this person was wrong. Like, those are the kinds of things that you're looking for when you're asking these types of questions. And then we want to ask, how do you do in multitasking situations? This is really important for us because we have a lot going on at Panacea, and especially in that wellness guide position. This is an important position, but it does require you to switch tasks and move back and forth between a lot of different roles. And if someone is not used to doing that or is not comfortable doing that, then again, it's probably not the right fit. Then we'll also ask, tell me about how you deal with difficult clients. And here we're really looking for emotional regulation. Sometimes people like cower down and hide in a corner and just can't deal with anyone who is being difficult. Um, sometimes they'll run straight to leadership. And so, depending on how you run your organization, the way they respond to this question is really important. And for us, because we're such a customer service-oriented business, we need people on our team who can help de-escalate clients who are upset, who can understand and relate to the fact that when a person walks in the door and they're already fired up and inflamed and just not being a really great human, it could be for a million different reasons. And we have to be empathetic to that and just do everything that we can, despite the way that person might be acting, to give them the best possible experience and to turn their day around from this horrible day that they've had before they came in into an incredible, relaxing experience. So making sure that we're looking for those types of qualities in the people that we're interviewing. And then one thing for my business that's really important. And if you have a business that's in the customer service world, this question for me is really critical. And it's how do you handle a situation when a client does not tip you for a service you provided? And with this question, this matters so much to me because first and foremost, we provide an experience and a service that many people save up for a very long time to take part in. And I mean, we have people who book services out three, four, six, twelve months in advance. And they plan for this. And, you know, for some people it's very affordable, and for other people, they have to save. And so, you know, we are grateful for every person who comes through our doors. And tipping is just one of those extra icings on the cake. They're appreciated but not expected. And we want people on our team who really truly believe and connect to that philosophy because not only do you have situations where you have no idea what the financial wherewithal is of the people who come in, but also you have no idea how they've grown up culturally. Um, there are people who don't believe in tipping for specific reasons. There are people who tip in other ways. They become brand ambassadors for us and they go out and tell everyone they know and they recruit everybody to come in and they help you grow your business even without you knowing it. So our philosophy is that everyone is treated the same, whether they tip or not, and we are fine with it either way. Does it stink as a service provider when someone doesn't leave you a tip? Yes, of course it does. Um, because you do tend to personalize that and think that that tip reflected the service that you provided when in many instances that's not the case at all. So those are the types of questions that we ask in our interview process. And at the end of the day, we're looking for so much more than just skill sets. We're looking for behaviors, we're looking for how you respond under pressure, we're looking for professionalism, we're looking for personalism, we're looking for Compassion and passion too. So all of those things matter when we're going through that interview process. And quite frankly, the reason why, well, one of the reasons why our interview process is as long as it is, is because it's very hard to see the true personality of someone and the true characteristics of someone in just a one-hour interview. It's literally almost impossible. And even with all of those interviews that we do and this extensive process that we have, and when it comes to our leadership process, when we put people into a leadership position, it's even more intense. The team gets involved, we do scorecards and like it goes even a couple of levels higher. Um, but even when you do all of those things, sometimes you still don't get it right and you have to be okay with that. But at least if you put a process in that is as extensive as what we've implemented, you can you can feel good about the hiring decisions that you make and know that you went with as much information that was presented to you as possible. And so at the end of the day, the right people don't just grow your business, they're gonna protect it, they're gonna be spokespeople for it, they're gonna be ambassadors, um, and they're gonna be the people that really champion the brand and help the brand grow to another level. Whether they're with you for a month or they're with you for a lifetime, those hires are really, really important and they do matter. So thank you as always for tuning into Serenity and Fire. I hope you enjoyed today's episode and I hope that it helps you in your own business. And as always, if you want to continue to support the show, definitely follow us on social, leave us a review, and tune in to my other episodes wherever you get your podcasts. As always, keep balancing serenity with fire. I'm Krista Guigeny, and I'll talk with you more in our next episode. At Panacea Luxury Spa Boutique, we don't just offer traditional spa treatments. We create rituals that relax your mind, restore your health, and rejuvenate your spirit. From biohacking technologies to advanced oncology trained care, everything we do is designed to help you heal on the deepest level with clean, holistic therapies, products, and amenities that are second to none. And right now you can experience two of my favorites: our whole body LED lightbed or hyperbaric oxygen therapies. And as a thank you for listening, you'll get 10% off your first session when you use the code Serenity10 at booking. What is your panacea? Let us help you find it because true wellness isn't a quick fix, it's a ritual.