It's no secret that bad hires are costly to organizations. The expenses associated with recruiting, hiring, and training replacement employees are often significant. The expenses aren't only monetary either. Bad hires are also costly in terms of employee morale and productivity. Yet, even the most seasoned hiring managers and HR professionals make bad hires from time to time. Why? They rely too heavily on their dominant hiring styles.

What's a hiring style? The four primary hiring styles include:

Tackler. These are the decision-makers. They like fast results and being in control. They cut to the chase during interviews and respect candidates who do the same.

Teller. Tellers are all about communication. During an interview, they spend much of the time talking, trying to sell the candidate on both the position and the company.

Tailor. Tailors focus on relationships. They like candidates who are team players and collaborators. Tailors strive to build rapport with candidates during the interview process.

Tester. Testers focus on the facts. They like candidates who present quantitative data during interviews.

While none of these hiring styles are incorrect, problems arise when hiring managers become too dependent on a single style. Relying too heavily on one style can result in a sort of hiring blindness, which causes the interviewer to see what (s)he wants to see in a candidate instead of what the candidate actually has to offer. The good news is, hiring blindness can be avoided if hiring managers make a conscious effort to follow three simple steps:

1. Know their personal styles. The first step to avoiding bad hires is for hiring managers to determine their own hiring styles.

2. Acknowledge what they tend to miss. Once they've determined their hiring styles, it's time for hiring managers to look for their blind spots. What do they tend to miss during interviews? Are they able to recognize drive but not a candidate's potential to work collaboratively with a team?

3. Collaborate with a hiring team. The best way to get a full, all-inclusive view of a candidate-- and to prevent bad hires-- is by composing a hiring team that consists of people representing all four hiring styles.