Surprise - Your New Hire Isn't a Wind-Up Toy
Why Can't My People Get it Right?
Or
'They Ought to be Able to Pick it up Without a Lot
of Hand-Holding' vs. 'Training Homer Simpson'
A few weeks ago I wrote about how recruiting is like
marketing. If you read that article, I warned you to
beware of the attitude that many employers have - 'If I
only hire top-10-percenters and then life will be swell and
I won't have to hold anyone's hand'.
The warning was that the top tier folks usually demand
more management skill from their employers rather than
less. They are top-10ers and they want to work for top-10er employers.
A corollary warning is to not think that just because you've
hired someone who seems experienced that they'll be
able to pick up how to succeed in your environment. You
actually still have to help walk people down the path toward
success no matter who you hire.
Why?
There are lots of reasons people fail on the job. The two biggest
reasons outstrip all the others combined in most research:
1. Lack of clearly defined performance expectations.
2. Lack of regular feedback about their performance.
That goes for the top-10% as well as everyone else: They're not
top-10% because they're mind readers, they're top-10 because
they will work harder with the information at hand.
If you hire someone and expect they'll clearly define
performance for themselves and give themselves all the
feedback they need, you're setting yourself up to have them
eventually decide you're not necessary...and they'll go off on their own. One great white paper I read a few years back called this "incubating your own competitors."
In the process of hiring, you mus get crystal clear about
what you want - to a level that might seem ridiculous to you
when you learn how to do it. Then you better get really good at
using that knowledge to whittle down your candidate pool until it
contains only those with a high probability of success.
But once you've got them in place, it's foolish to think you can
just wind them up and let them go. No matter how similar two
jobs are, there are ALWAYS differences between what someone's
done and what you want them to do.
Corporate culture; how decisions get made; how problems are
dealt with; how the computers work; who to ask what question
to; pricing; service standards - you name it. They may have done
very well in a past life at a similar job, but if you don't teach them
how to succeed in YOUR environment you're limiting their chances
of doing well for you.
That's right - it's your fault, not theirs.
Many managers and business owners think that the act of cutting
the check means the employee should gratefully transcend the
shortcomings of their own management capabilities. Hardly. Just
like you had to learn everything else in business, you have to learn
how to manage people's performance because you're the one that's
deciding what 'performance' is - it's your company (or team)!
As baby boomers retire and the workforce gets smaller, this task
becomes all the more important: just like in the late 1990's a
primary recruiting strategy will be to keep as many performers as
you can so you don't have to recruit.
So, as with most things, make a mind set change: don't think
about orientation and initial training like you just hired a
clairvoyant with 190 IQ and the persistence of a 3-year old that
wants something.
Instead, look at your new hire's first 97 days like you just
hired Homer Simpson... 'Dohhhh!' They're hopefully smarter than
that, but if you approach it that way then you'll leave no assumptions
in place. Remember it only takes 21 days to embed new habits,
so make sure they're good ones that will give your new hire every
opportunity to succeed.
Will the Top-10 Percenter think you're being rude or condescending
- NO! They'll look at you like you have the potential of being the
most considerate, thorough employer they've ever worked with,
and they will respond with even higher performance and loyalty.
And if you happen to have hired a mid-tier player who only
looked like a Top-10'er, then you've just escalated their chance
of shining and working really hard to prove you right.
What people want in their job is what you want for them - to
succeed and perform well. Hire the right one and give them
the knowledge they need, and the odds are very good that they will.
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