Job hatred, if I’m to believe some information that has come my way recently, is frighteningly common.
A press release promoting a book that purports to help people get along better with their jobs claims only 6 percent of Americans say they love their jobs. A study by a staffing firm finds that job satisfaction since 1990 has fallen about 9 percent, to 50 percent of workers.
So it follows that it pays to hire the right people in the first place. The basic nature of the work that your business does won’t change much, no matter what else you might do to make the work environment more pleasant or rewarding.
Hire people who won’t be happy doing the job, and you’ll have disgruntled, unproductive workers. You may find yourself firing people and facing a double whammy: the cost of separation and the expense of recruitment to replace them.
Bryan Putt, president and CEO of AIReS Inc., tries to do best by his company and his potential employees by conducting rigorous screening and interviewing of applicants to determine whether they would be satisfied doing the demanding work that his relocation services company requires. And that’s not all. New employees go through a two-week orientation and are assigned to a mentor. Bryan tells me he doesn’t want people in his company who are unhappy with their jobs; it’s not good for them, and it’s not good for his business.
Doing the upfront work to screen for the best employees is effort well-spent, but Putt acknowledges that even with the greatest of care, his company doesn’t always make the right decision. That’s how tough it is to do it well, yet if you hire in haste, you’ll fire and waste.
If you’re letting too many people go because they’re not a good fit, maybe you need to consider a better way of hiring them rather than a better way of firing them. It’s a lot easier to turn them away from the front door before they come in than it is to push them out once they’re yours. And less expensive, too.
