Managers asking themselves "Where does the day go?" may now have an answer. Chief financial officers (CFOs) recently surveyed by Robert Half International said that, on average, supervisors spend 17 percent of their time -- nearly one day per week -- overseeing poorly performing employees.  

However, managers aren't the only ones to suffer the effects of a bad hire. Ninety-five percent of respondents said a poor hiring decision at least somewhat impacts the morale of the team, with more than one-third (35 percent) saying morale is greatly affected.

The survey was developed by Robert Half, the world's first and largest specialized staffing firm. It was conducted by an independent research firm and is based on interviews with more than 1,400 CFOs from a stratified random sample of U.S. companies with 20 or more employees.

CFOs were asked, "In general, what percentage of a manager's time is spent coaching and/or supervising poorly performing employees?" The mean response was 17 percent.

CFOs also were asked, "To what extent do you think making a poor hiring decision affects the morale of your team?" Their responses:

"Bad hires are costly, not just for the drain they place on the budget but also in terms of lost morale, productivity and time," said Max Messmer, chairman and CEO of Robert Half International and author ofMotivating Employees For Dummies^® (John Wiley and Sons, Inc.). "Underperforming employees also require significant attention from employers, distracting managers from business-critical initiatives and causing other team members to pick up the slack."

Messmer added, "Bad personnel decisions rarely happen by chance. In retrospect, managers usually discover they failed to give proper attention to the hiring process."