How to hire the most reliable workers in your area

Sponsored MoneyWatch: Managing Your Money How to hire the most reliable workers in your area We may receive commissions from some links to products on this page. Promotions are subject to availability and retailer terms. .chip { background-image: url('/fly/bundles/cbsnewscore/images/chip-bgd/chip-bgd-moneywatch.jpg'); } By Angelica Leicht Angelica Leicht Senior Editor, Managing Your Money Angelica Leicht is the senior editor for the Managing Your Money section for CBSNews.com, where she writes and edits articles on a range of personal finance topics. Angelica previously held editing roles at The Simple Dollar, Interest, HousingWire and other financial publications. Read Full Bio Angelica Leicht April 21, 2026 / 3:02 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google When you're hiring, it's important to identify, attract and retain workers who will follow through on the job. Catherine McQueen/Getty Images As a business owner, the most expensive hire you'll ever make probably isn't the one with the highest salary. It's the one who doesn't show up, either literally or figuratively. Unreliable workers generally cost businesses far more than a vacant role due to missed deadlines, burned-out teammates and customers who notice the chaos before you do. And yet, most hiring processes are still built around resumes and gut feelings, which are tools that have almost nothing to do with whether someone will be there when you need them.The labor market has also shifted in ways that make this problem harder to ignore. Turnover rates remain elevated across industries and workers today generally have more options and less loyalty to any single employer than they did a decade ago. That doesn't mean reliable workers don't exist, though. What it actually means is that the old hiring playbook, the one that relies on a phone screen and a handshake, is no longer enough to find them. So how do you actually identify, attract and retain workers who will follow through — not just in the int...