When it comes to employee selection, it is said that you are choosing between two groups of people. Those that give you their very best and those that take, seemingly with little regard for what they get in return from the employment relationship.
In workplace relations the givers are the employees of choice, and the ones that great workplaces thrive on. These are the people who appreciate the place in which they work for all of its great points. The culture at these places of work tend to be high performing, the values are solid and clear, and givers receive these benefits and reciprocate by helping businesses grow and succeed and become ones that customers love to deal with. The takers however will not be so reciprocal and tend to look for the most they can get out of their employer, sometimes even to the extent they have a damaging and detrimental effect on the team and business.
As I work more and more with small to medium businesses I am finding more then ever before, a lot more people that I describe as takers. This is somewhat symbolic of the tight labour market we operate in today and gives business owners good reason to take care with their employee selection.
Take care with your Employee Selection
When recruiting, if you find yourself having to take a “they have a pulse lets move forward” approach to your selection, this is cause for pause. In my experience, particularly with that candidate, this strategy will inevitably give you some pain further down the employment journey. Its good to consider some other options at this juncture include:
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- Your Employee Value Proposition (EVP) – Are you offering a workplace that people will want to be a part of? Factors such as culture and values, support for training and development, work-life balance, lifestyle factors, competitiveness in rate of pay and benefits, opportunity for bonuses, career pathways and levels of leadership support are things that job applicants look out for and if you are not promoting what is on offer you are limiting the attractiveness of your workplace.
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- Consider redesigning the job – This may involve re-distributing roles and responsibilities and looking at how technology can be better utilised to reduce specialist skill requirements. Perhaps consider the option of a contractor for specialist role requirements and finding an employee to perform the less specialist facets. Over a period of time you can then train your new team member to take up the whole role requirement.
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- Invest in good quality recruitment – In a tight labour market you are less likely to source a good candidate without some sort of market search activity. These days employers are using strategies such as:
- Professionally produced infomercials to sell EVP benefits;
- Spotters fees via employee networks
- Linking in with industry networks
- Linking in with training networks
- Invest in good quality recruitment – In a tight labour market you are less likely to source a good candidate without some sort of market search activity. These days employers are using strategies such as:
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- Do thorough referee checks – Let the candidate know you are serious in respect to your consideration of them and that you do thorough background checks. Use any available social media platform information such as Linkedin to validate past experience and credentials. Don’t just rely on the names provided to you, ask for someone who is a past supervisor that isn’t named.
- Do thorough referee checks – Let the candidate know you are serious in respect to your consideration of them and that you do thorough background checks. Use any available social media platform information such as Linkedin to validate past experience and credentials. Don’t just rely on the names provided to you, ask for someone who is a past supervisor that isn’t named.
Once you have engaged a new starter it becomes a process of clearly setting expectations and providing engaging leadership and management. Regular open communication is critical as is a well-structured and executable onboarding and probation management approach.
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- Taking care of the foundations – Ensure you have good employment agreements in place and a supportive framework of HR policies/procedures. These should clearly cover off on the standard of behaviour that is expected.
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- Setting clear performance goals that encompass values aligned behaviours and role objectives – Well-designed job specific Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) is important from the start, although expectations surrounding levels of achievement will adjust as job competence increases. KPIs should be supported by objectives that set expectations relating to behaviours such as team communication, teamwork, working safely, and meeting deadlines.
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- Well structured induction/onboarding within the probation period – A structured, planned onboarding approach that scales up a new starter’s job requirements/competence within the probation period will help an employer detect job performance shortcomings early on in the employment relationship. It also helps assess whether a new starter is going to be a good fit with the company.
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- Have continual performance conversations – Takers are great at hiding their lack of accountability and responsibility among workplace systems such as the once-a-year annual appraisal processes. To counter this adopt a continual conversation approach, one that involves monthly or fortnightly performance conversations. This gives you as a leader the best chance of picking up and addressing issues as soon as possible. I find this regular conversation is also appreciated by high performing employees who tend to take feedback in their stride.
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- When complex issues start to appear seek professional HR support. – The workplace relations system is riddled with worker protections, and it is for good reason, however more and more we can see takers are using these as shields and sometimes well-meaning yet clumsy management can play right into their hands. HR professionals offer business leaders insights into these systems, and can advise on workplace relations strategies that optimises a business’ success when a taker needs to be let go.
At Active HR we help shape great workplaces, ones that the givers look out for. For those employees that I describe as takers, we can help a business get sorted there as well.
We help activate the performance and potential of your people. Learn more about our comprehensive HR Services.
Author – Rhett Stubbs. Rhett has over 25 years of experience as a professional HR practitioner and has recruited for a variety of different roles at all levels of a business.