Recruiting Attitude is Back to the Future
by Miki Saxon
The economy is improving a bit, enough that companies are doing some hiring. And, just as in the past, the same idiotic attitude is surfacing.
It starts with a reference to the need for employee engagement and that ‘experts’ say that the companies with the best long-term success rates retain and grow their human resource base from within the company to ensure it.
But when a company fulfills its human resource needs by hiring from the outside, in most cases, it’s picking up the “rejects” from other companies.
And that part sends me ballistic.
Of all the totally wrong-headed attitudes I’ve heard on the subject of hiring, there is only one that is comparable and, in fact, they go hand in hand.
During every recession I’ve seen the theme is that the only employees worth hiring are the ones who are still working.
Even now, in a recession that dwarfs the previous ones and companies have cut 50% or even more of their workforce and are still cutting, those who are laid off are tagged as “dead wood” or “difficult.”
My blood still boils when I remember the excellent people who were completely trashed by that attitude.
I do agree that growing people from within is good company policy; however, there are dozens of reasons why a company not only would, but should, hire at levels other than entry.
- No company can go through significant growth and not hire from the outside—it’s a given part of that growth. For example, most startups and high-growth companies have neither the diversification, nor the depth, of talent needed when growth kicks in, so they hire at all levels.
- Hiring strictly at entry level and promoting only from within can create a hidebound culture steeped in a not-invented-here mentality, not only for products, but for processes—as happened at both IBM and HP.
There are dozens of other reasons (think about your own experience), but the reject and the dead wood attitudes are not among them.
The dead wood/difficult premise is BS, flawed, short-sighted and plain stupid.
The common belief that “stars” are independent of their circumstances just doesn’t stand up to analysis.
Most people work to the quality of their managers and the validity of the company’s culture—if they don’t shine it’s because they aren’t engaged; give people good managers and good culture and they can all be stars.
It is beyond stupid to lay work quality issues at the door of employees with no consideration of management or culture.
Image credit: TheTruthAbout… on flickr
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