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He was tall, dark and handsome and a great lover. From the outside, he appeared to be the ideal date and partner. But after 3 months of living together, Jenny realised that her ideal mate was less than ideal. Whilst he could turn on a charming personality, he liked drinking with the boys each night while she preferred walks in the country. She liked a tidy house and he preferred to live in a mess.

Like Jenny, have you ever hired someone who appeared to have all their technical skills for the job, but when put in the work environment turned out to be a complete nightmare? Maybe their CV

read perfectly but they did not live up to their billing? If so, read on.

How you end up with a complete nightmare
There are two main reasons why you may end up with a complete nightmare employee. The first is that on paper the candidate appeared to be the perfect fit but in reality annoyed everyone she worked with . No amount of technical knowledge could compensate for the employee's inability to work as part of a team. The second, and quite common reason, is that you have promoted someone from a technical position to a team leadership position as part of their career development not realising that the person was not suitable for this new role and would have been much happier doing the technical work. Instead he leaves a trail of destruction in the workplace and his reports end up leaving because they can't stand him.

In both these situations, the employee is incompatible with your business and the role which they occupy. But what do you do?

Incompatibility dismissals
The law does recognise that it is possible to dismiss an employee on the grounds that they incompatible. However, such dismissals are rare and very difficult to justify. However, before abandoning this route, let's look at what incompatibility means. For Jenny, incompatibility meant that her new boyfriend didn't live up to her values. He had a great personality which worked on a dinner date, but when it came to core values they were at odds.

Your business will have core values too and if you end up with an employee who doesn't match up to your core values, then you will have an incompatible employee. For example, some businesses have very strong values around customer service, whilst others place emphasis on profit. Some businesses place emphasis on team work whilst others are more inclined towards the importance of presentation and punctuality. Google is a very different company to work for compared to working for the IRD. Neither is right nor wrong, but both have different values.

Your ability to retain employees will be determined largely by your values. Research suggests that the most popular reason why employees stay in employment is not salary, but because they see themselves as a good fit with their employer's values.