Stop Hiring the Disengaged!

I’m always amazed when I see an obvious job mis-fit. If you’re like me, when you experience poor customer service from a person who is obviously ill-suited for the role you think, “Why the heck did they put this person in the job? Is she/he a relative of someone in senior management?”

Years back when we were contacted to assess the attributes of one Vice President of Human Resources, we were a little shocked at the results. The organization had this person in the role for about 4 months and experienced undesired and unprecedented departmental turnover. Our assessments revealed great analytical skills, however the individual was not at all passionate about developing people, which was unusual given this specific HR role. One departing manager suggested that HR stood for “Human Remains” with this VP…

Some statistics reveal that bad hiring costs a company 30% of the first year’s salary (U.S. Department of Labor). Many say it is even higher when considering impact on team morale, tenure, etc. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) estimates it could range from 4 to 5 times annual salary. Imagine if one could factor in the lost revenue costs from disengaged clients/customers that a disengaged employee can produce. BEWARE. In the current economy some candidates with sufficient need will apply for and accept any position, and perhaps even pad or outright fabricate their Curriculum Vitae.

We hear so much about managers needing to engage staff better. How about hiring for Right Fit in the first place? Hire for fit (Skills, Organizations Culture, Intrinsic Drivers) and spend less energy and resources training to engage the wrong fit. Fostering engagement is a heck of a lot easier when a person is intrinsically matched to the job. Check out weatherman Jim Cantore. Have you ever seen someone so passionate about weather? How many team members of yours have this level of passion for what they do? Imagine the customer satisfaction and profits when service people are this passionate about assisting customers.

This article was written by Chuck A. Reynolds from Business2Community and was legally licensed through the NewsCred publisher network. SmartRecruiters is the hiring success platform to find and hire great people.