Hiring People_ Recruit and Keep the Brightest Stars - Kathy Shwiff [35]
Starting the Performance Management Cycle
As you begin to put your new hire to work, it’s helpful to review the company’s business outlook, including its objectives and plans for achieving them. Go over corporate values, product information, competitive position, marketing strategy, manufacturing or service process, and personnel organization.
Next, explain his duties and get him started on an assignment. Make sure he knows exactly what’s expected of him and when he is supposed to deliver it.
One of the main reasons some employees fail is that they are not clearly told what is expected of them or given clear goals for the first six months or the first year. So, as you hand over your new employee’s first assignment, take the time to spell out performance objectives—this might be “increase the close rate by 15 percent during the next year” or “identify system problems during the next three months.” Then set up a schedule—say, every month—to do a formal check on how the new employee is progressing toward these objectives. In between formal visits, stop by periodically to check in. Ask how things are going and probe for specific details that will let you know that your new colleague is on track. If you sense that something is amiss, ask more questions and give feedback. Then be sure to follow up until you are assured that things are going well. Get into the habit of briefly documenting every such conversation with your staff.
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CASE FILE
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HOLD ONTO EMPLOYEES BY LETTING THEM GROW
Supermarkets are rarely emblems of upward mobility or high morale, not when you consider the low pay and long hours. Annual turnover in some chains approaches 100% for part-timers and 19% for full-timers, which makes for constant hiring and training.
It’s different at Wegmans, a regional supermarket chain that has repeatedly made the list of Fortune’s 100 Best Companies to Work For. There, although corporate generosity boosts labor costs to between 15 and 17 percent of sales (compared to 12 percent in other chains), wages and salaries are at the high end. Turnover rates hover at about 6 percent, and 20 percent of employees have 10 years of service or more. One secret to Wegmans’ success might be their dedication to creating new employment opportunities. Rather than hiring experienced truck drivers to service a new distribution center, Wegmans invited employees to apply for the job. Five months later, Wegmans had enabled two dozen produce clerks and cashiers to become skilled drivers with commercial licenses—and kept valuable employees within the company ranks.
SOURCE: “The Wegmans Way” by Matthew Boyle, Fortune (January 2005).
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RETAINING EMPLOYEES
With skilled workers in such short supply, and given the cost of hiring and training new employees, many employers are realizing that it’s cost effective to keep their current workforce happy. When you initiate a performance management cycle with a new employee, you are taking an important step toward that goal. By providing frequent on-the-job feedback, you not only build a relationship with your staff member, you help him grow in his job.
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THE BOTTOM LINE
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THE HIGH COST OF REPLACEMENT`
There’s a sound financial logic behind keeping workers content—if an employee decides to leave, replacing him could end up costing his company two and a half times his salary. This startling ratio was released in a 2006 survey of 444 North American organizations conducted by Right Management Consultants, the worldwide leader in career transition and organizational consulting. Yet the amount makes sense if you consider the expense of hiring, training, and severance, plus lost productivity while the position remains vacant. In fact, 43 percent