It’s Time to Re-Think Hiring?

It’s Time to Re-Think Hiring?

For the last ten months, the lead banner on our website has been, “It’s Time to Re-Think Hiring”. I came to this realization in 2009 when, like everyone else, I was struggling with the sudden nose-dive of the economy. Think about it: If we’d all been on an airplane, the instant and steep drop in altitude would have caused the overhead compartments to open, oxygen masks to drop and then we’d all be trying to remember the flight attendant’s safety monologue. (What did she say about the cord?) Anyway, I began looking at ways to do more with less and it occurred to me that this might be a major turning of the page for business. It was unlikely we would return to the days of, among other things, cheap and relatively accessible credit and the luxury of any superfluous labor.

The high unemployment also increased the noise level of those without jobs. It seems as if the jobless believe employers just don’t want to hire and are using things like credit reports and criminal records to deny them work. Hardly – but that’s another conversation for another time. Add that to a high supply of labor and hiring managers could be very selective.

Now comes the EEOC with their new thoughts on using criminal records in the employment process. What more is needed to convince you that it’s a good time to re-calibrate how you bring people in to your organization.

And don’t limit the discussion to how you do it. There are amazingly powerful tools available. “But they’re expensive”, you say. Hmmm. Brinker International (parent company of Chili’s) gives a workstyle assessment to every applicant. It costs less than $3.00 and it reduced their turnover by 25 basis points. Not to go out on a limb here but avoiding a bad hire for less than $3.00 is a bargain by any standard.

But I digress. All I’m saying is it’s a good time is think about it. Why do you do what you do? If you don’t know the answer, I have another question for you: Why not?