If you want to sabotage your hiring program, then we’ve compiled the Top 3 ways to never hire another individual. (Unfortunately, we’ve seen some companies that, despite their best intentions, partake in one, two or all three of these rules.) So, do these things and you can extend your search forever!
Sabotage #1 – Take too long to hire.
This is the #1 problem in hiring and the easiest to accomplish if you’re trying to sabotage the hiring process. We define too long as violating the 72-hour rule. Over recent history, we’ve seen that a candidate’s availability decreases dramatically after 72-hours. You’ve heard that old adage that fish and visitors stink in three days, well now you can add ‘Candidates’ to that phrase as well. There are a number of ways to violate this rule:
- “I’m working too hard. I don’t have time to hire someone.”: So, the vacancy remains open and your job doesn’t get any easier. To break this rule somewhere along the line you have to call a time out and make a hire. If you don’t hire, then your job will never get easier.
- Window shopping: We don’t really need someone, we’re kind of testing the market to see what’s out there. This could also be that you’re “looking for that Diamond in the Rough.” If you’re looking for diamonds, try a South African diamond mine.
- “They don’t have a polished resume”: Most of our candidates are blue-collar workers. If you need an author then a perfectly spelled, grammatically correct, polished resume is a minimum. But if you’re looking for someone for a general labor or semi-skilled position, then writing is probably not their forte.
- Be indecisive: we have clients that will go weeks or even months before they make a decision. Again, after 72-hours, consider that the candidate is probably gone.
Sabotage #2 – Disrespect the candidates.
For the second year in a row, the Society of Human Resource Managers (SHRM) found that candidate resentment regarding the hiring process is on the rise. (see “Candidate Resentment Is on the Rise” by Roy Maurer, April 11, 2023). The top three things they found included:
- The recruiting process took too long.
- The candidate’s time was disrespected.
- Salary didn’t meet expectations.
With the recruiting process, we’ve had companies that dragged out the hiring process for three weeks because of a high school diploma. This was on a senior machine operator that was well into his 50’s. But the employee’s hiring got held up because he couldn’t produce a valid copy of his diploma.
We’ve had some companies that were adamant that the new employee must be there by 7:45 am on start day only to sit around until 9:00 am until the briefing person showed up.
We’ve had companies that advertised a range of $25/hour to $30/hour, but then couldn’t pay more than $26.50 because, “Well, the Supervisor only gets $27/hour so we could never pay them more than the Supervisor.” So, if you want to sabotage your hiring and any chance that the new employees would want to stay with the company, then use this bait and switch technique.
The main problem the study found, as written on the SHRM website, was communication. More and more companies are going to automation so the communication is not there or is lacking. So again, if you really want to sabotage your hiring program then don’t communicate and disrespect the candidates.
Sabotage #3 – Have a poor employee growth plan.
If you really want to turn off aspiring candidates, then forget about trying to train and motivate them (See “Training & Motivation – Three Ways to Motivate Employees Without Spending a Penny”).
Employees are looking for more than just a job. They want to know that there’s a plan so they can advance within the company, that they can get upskill training, that they can make a difference on the worksite. They want to be motivated and participate in their job and feel like part of the team, not just a number.
A recent client we talked to could not understand why every employee left within two to three years. The HR Director said, “We don’t understand. The Leads and Supervisors have been with us for 17 years on average.” We asked if that might be the problem. Newer employees had nowhere to go and grow in the company. After careful consideration the HR Director agreed that may be the case.
The other key for employees is that they don’t want to show up at a job where the only reward is non-punishment. Someplace where they are written up for every infraction and they and their efforts are disrespected.
To really sabotage your hiring program, then try one or all of these techniques. Take weeks to hire and candidates so they are no longer available. Then there is no need to worry about all of that New Hire paperwork. Try disrespecting the candidates. With the current generation, this is often more egregious than anything else you can do to them. Finally, if you do not want employees to stay, then don’t worry about training and motivating them. They’re probably not going to be working for you that long anyway, so think how much money you will save the company.
For more information, contact Jack Evans (623) 777-0701 or jackevans@www.maintenancebest.com
