Breaking Tradition

We can certainly stick with the way it’s always been in our recruiting approach if we want, but I’ve only seen that kill more and more profitability over time. With such a drastic increase in minimum wage in a relatively short time, the “skilled trades shortage” that’s been brewing since at least the late 80s when even middle school kids began facing the stigma of failing in life unless they got some sort of liberal arts degree, and the host of other factors that have added to the difficulty of attracting candidates since the Covid net was cast across the glove, I’d suggest we consider breaking tradition and taking an entirely different approach to recruiting the best people in our respective industries to be part of OUR teams…

An Investopedia article called The Cost of Hiring a New Employee shared this:

“Hiring a new employee costs more than just their salary. Benefits and other compensation like equity should be considered, as well as the considerable time investment employers make when they hire someone. It depends on the nature and investment of the new hire, but it can be six months or more before the employer sees a positive return on their investment in the employee in the form of full productivity.”

If we’ve taken action on giving our best folks a reason to stay, we’re at least on the right track to addressing the profitability killer that exists in recruiting costs, but there’s still so much more we can do! A few years ago in our Leading At The Next Level program, I shared a lesson called The Importance of Employee Retention, which was clearly focused primarily on being able to hang onto great team members, that wrapped up by detaining the importance of being proactive and responsive from the beginning of the recruiting process on. The premise of that was based on the idea that our actions ALWAYS speak louder than our words. We can have the fanciest ads, the most catchy slogans, and offer the highest sign-on bonuses or wages in our industry but if we’re not willing to be responsive to the good candidates who actually do show interest, our talk about all the great things our company offers will soon fall on deaf ears.

Here’s where you may be thinking I’m taking a shot at the folks wearing the HR/recruiting hat - and I kinda am… But don’t mistake a lack of responsiveness being the norm there for believing that they’re who sets the tone for poor responsive times being acceptable in the organizational culture! While that’s often the first or primary point of contact a candidate experiences, this is nearly always just a symptom of a bigger issue; think back to the profitability killer we looked at in Leaders Set the Tone…

As we move forward with addressing how the cost of recruiting kills profitability, we’ll take a hard look at how great leadership can improve the process then we’ll work through specific steps leaders can take to make sure everyone involved in the recruiting process gets better results and great people (eventually) starting knocking at the door to be part of our teams! Stay tuned…