Hire Hard, Manage Easy
2003-11-17 email this article to a friend.
Reflecting on my 24 years in business, I can recall (to borrow from Dickens), the best of times and the worst of times. The best times corresponded to those periods when my employees were contented and stable. The worst and most trying episodes in my business always occurred when turnover was high and staff morale low.
Fortunately, I’ve had more good times than bad, but I often wonder where my company would be today if it hadn’t suffered through agonizing periods when the personnel side just wasn’t firing on all cylinders. How much profit have I lost over the years? How much potential growth was stymied? How many late nights at the office would not have been necessary? How many gut-wrenching experiences could have been avoided?
In a perfect world, employees are all loyal and happy, everyone works as a team and productivity clicks along without missing a beat. But alas, this world is far from perfect. The key to business success – whether you employ 3 or 300 – is to minimize the bad times and maximize the good. If you can keep the personnel side of your company under control, with relatively few and minor disruptions, over time you can double and triple your profits – and be home with your family at 5:15.
The common reaction to employee problems is to work longer and harder on the management side. This approach takes many forms. It might manifest itself in stronger discipline and external controls, with stricter monitoring of employee work habits and increased reporting requirements. For some, it could mean a whole new system of employee incentives and rewards to replace the ones that just “aren’t working.” Or it might involve various and sundry “morale boosters” and special programs that coax employees into putting on a happy face. Often borne of desperation, these herculean efforts almost never work for very long – if at all.
Don’t misunderstand me. Personnel management is one of the least understood and most important aspects of business success. In future articles, we’ll explore the “best practices” approach to “HR”, learning what has worked so well for leading firms. But none of these practices require “harder” management. On the contrary, they make HR management a whole lot easier!
The problem is that companies frequently get the cart before the horse. Innovative personnel management only works when you are managing the right people. That means recruiting and hiring with excellence. And don’t kid yourself. Effective recruiting and hiring is hard work. Very hard work. But the reward is worth it. For two or three weeks of hard work on the hiring end, you can look forward to an easy job on the management end for years to come. Hire hard; manage easy. That’s what it’s all about.
Most Bozeman area firms tend to hire easy and manage hard. At least, they try to hire easy. Here are some of the “hire easy” techniques that get them in trouble – and cost them far more time and hassle in the long run:
* Running help wanted ads that solicit resumes, not people – as if it’s productive use of an employer’s time trying to decipher piles of faceless, pumped-up paper.
* Calling public agencies because they’re “free” instead of investing a little in a professional placement service that has the aggressiveness and expertise to truly help.
* Conducting casual interviews with little thought given to the quality and effectiveness of the questions being asked.
* Never bothering to check references or criminal backgrounds before hiring.
* Never bothering to conduct personality assessments fitted to the job opening.
* Hiring on gut instinct, a friend’s recommendation or some other subjective criteria.
That list could go on for several pages, but you get the idea. Many employers short cut the recruiting and hiring process because they are naturally uncomfortable with it. Others simply place too little value on the importance of doing it right. In both cases, they are unwilling to do the hard work necessary to produce the needed results. They force themselves to manage hard (and unsuccessfully) because they insisted on hiring easy.
At the very least, the following “short list” should be implemented before hiring anyone to a permanent position in your company:
(1) Have a structured, well-conceived, multi-stage interviewing and evaluation process.
(2) Use reliable, independent referral sources to increase your candidate pool and efficiently focus your time.
(3) Engage real people in your advertising, not impersonal resumes that lead you astray.
(4) Always test and match the candidate’s personality traits to the specific requirements of the job.
(5) Always check references thoroughly before hiring. Always.
It’s time to elevate the hiring process to a top priority in your company. Work hard at it, and make it work for you. Don’t be afraid to spend a little money for the results you want – it will return to you tenfold.
The value to your company of a great employee is inestimable. Hire hard and you’ll manage easy.