Hiring can be easy; post a job, receive a stack of resumes and pick. It can be as easy as your weekly curbside pick-up. Take the trash bag to the end of the curb, you’re done. It’s easy to skip the blue box and go right for the garbage, but we know it’s not a good choice for our future. The greenhouse gasses keep rising, the ice caps keep melting and future generations depend on what we do NOW, not tomorrow. It’s no different than hiring. There is no immediate return when we make a hiring decision. Often, we don’t know if the new employee was a good choice for several weeks or months. Choosing to recycle, sort the cans, paper, and plastic is a decision that also rewards you in the future. The decision to hire quickly, without a structured approach, is a decision for now, a decision for today.
What if we treated hiring with a future benefit in mind?
Would we rush the decision? Would we try to hire the “warm bodies” to fill the seat? If we were focused on the future benefit of hiring the right candidate, would we take an entirely different approach? The way we sort our recycling and trash has evolved over the last few decades. We first transitioned to the blue box recycling. We then transitioned to multiple blue boxes. Many communities also use green bins to further support the environment. Our hiring practices haven’t evolved the same way. We depend on reviewing resumes, assessing candidates in “natural” social interviews and making a decision based on experience. Hiring practices haven’t evolved for the work environment, where knowledge workers and millennials are the dominant force.
The future benefit for an organization is to expand the employee base with talented employees who want to stick around.
We now know that
employees who have an organizational or culture fit are more likely to stay with an organization and have a greater commitment to the organization. Specifically, with millennials, this factor can’t be overlooked. We also know from decades of
research the traditional approaches used to select and recruit candidates are not effective. But, like recycling the benefit to changing is one for the future. It’s easier to hold on to the way that we’ve always done things; to grasp on to the traditions and avoid making a shift. This is despite the benefits of attracting talent with a strong employer brand position and using new technologies, such as candidate assessments, we don’t.
We don’t change because it’s easier not to.
Imagine the future impact of hiring the wrong candidate. The impact might not be clear in the first three months or even six. A new employee who doesn’t get along with their peers, but “fakes” it to get past the probationary period. The new employee who isn’t interested in being part of a team, but tries to fit in at first. The employee who doesn’t know the skill you’re looking for, as much as you believe it at first. You end up letting that employee go. Finally, the employee that’s just looking for the next gig, who isn’t interested in staying around for the long term.
Some spring cleaning is in order.
Look beyond the immediate return of hiring the same way you always have. Evolve your hiring process; use scientifically proven selection methods techniques. Upgrade and use the latest technology driven assessments. Adopt validated and monitored skills assessments. This spring, clean up your hiring process. Adapt to the millennial and knowledge worker environment.
