Many companies take a wait-and-see approach with new hires. If they need three employees, they hire five and hope only two wash out. They place a mirror under their nose. If the mirror fogs up, they hire them. They don’t buy uniforms for new hires until their 90-day probation is over.
The recruiter is not overly critical of these approaches. After all, he’s recruited that way for years. He figured a vacancy was inconvenient, so it was best to hire fast to get the open slot filled, then monitor the new hire closely. Any signs of trouble would lead to a dismissal.
But eventually, the recruiter ran some numbers and concluded he was going about it all WRONG! There were at least three problems with his wait-and-see strategy.
1. It’s expensive. Payroll is typically a company’s largest single expense. Doubling up is a costly hedge.
2. It is a self-fulfilling prophecy that becomes embedded in the organizational culture. If the company expects a high percentage of new hires to quit, a high percentage of new hires actually do quit.
3. It is foolish to think that an employee is going to fully commit and be engaged while the team waits for them to mess up. Employee engagement does not happen that way.
The recruiter got tired of this roller coaster and committed to learning more about employee selection, onboarding and engagement. As a result, he began to put more effort into choosing the right person from the start. That meant asking questions that were better predictors of performance. It also meant incorporating at least one pre-employment assessment, like the DISC profile. After adopting this new approach, his good hire percentage went up significantly. It helped him make wiser hiring decisions, and perhaps more importantly, helped him avoid bad ones.
He also began to put more emphasis on onboarding. Employees get buyer’s remorse – just like employers do. The recruiter made it his mission to ensure that no new hire in his department would regret taking themselves (even temporarily) off the open job market to join the team.
Want a new hire to question their decision? Hand them a stack of faded, used uniforms with stains or holes. Assign them a truck or a workspace that is dirty and cluttered from the last person who occupied it. Or you can just throw them in the work and hope they’re productive.
Want them to commit from the outset? Put more emphasis on selecting the right person. Try to demonstrate a sincere commitment to their success by committing resources, including your time, from day one. Do that and the results will produce better bottom-line results with more engaged employees.
Contact the Davidson Group to improve your hiring and onboarding process.
