This New Hire is Not Working Out

We take a wait and see approach with new hires. 
If we need 3, we hire 5 and hope only two wash out.
We place a mirror under their nose. If the mirror fogs up, we hire them.
We don't buy uniforms for new hires until after their 90 day probation is over. 

I'm not overly critical of these approaches. After all, I recruited that way myself for the first ten years I was in operations management roles. I figured a vacancy was inconvenient for me, so it was best to hire fast to get the open slot filled, then monitor the new hire closely once they're in place. Any signs of trouble and I would cut my losses. 

But eventually I ran some numbers and concluded I was going about it all wrong. There were at least three problems with my own wait and see strategy. First, it's expensive. Payroll is typically a company's largest single expense. Doubling up on it is a costly hedge. Second, it is a self-fulfilling prophecy which becomes embedded in our organizational culture. If we expect a high percentage of new hires to quit, a high percentage of new hires actually do quit. Third, thinking that an employee is going to fully commit and be engaged while we sit back and play wait and see is foolish. Employee engagement doesn't happen that way.

I got tired of this roller coaster and committed to learn more about employee selection, on-boarding and engagement. As a result I began to put more effort into choosing the right person to start with. That meant becoming a better interviewer and asking questions that were better predictors of performance. It also meant incorporating at least one pre-employment assessment. I used to believe paying for a DISC profile on two or three candidates I might not offer jobs to was a waste of money. But I soon discovered that the return on investment of that simple tool was huge. After adopting it my good hire percentage went up significantly. It helped me make wiser hiring decisions, and perhaps more importantly, helped me avoid bad ones.

I also began to put more emphasis on on-boarding. Employees get buyers remorse just like employers do. I made it a mission to make sure that no new hire in my department would regret taking themselves (even temporarily) off the open job market to join our team. 

Want a new hire to question their decision? Hand them a stack of faded, used uniforms with stains and holes or rips. Assign them a truck or a workspace that's dirty and cluttered from the last person who occupied it. Don't have a plan - just throw them in the work and hope they're productive. Don't take them to lunch the first day or spend time with them during their first few weeks. Don't help them visualize what success looks like in their new job.

Want them to commit from the outset? Do these two things: put more emphasis on selecting and less on hiring, and demonstrate a sincere commitment to their success by committing resources, including your time, to them from day one. Do that and you'll find that your bottom line is much better off than it was with the conventional wait and see approach.