Endlessly Scrambling to Find New-Hires Who Could, and Should, Stay but Don’t. There Is a Better Way.

by Stacey Lett, Director of Operations, Eastern U.S. – Proactive Technologies, Inc.^®

An article in HR Dive by Carolyn Crist highlights a common complaint among HR Professionals entitled, “Hiring pros say they face pressure to hire quickly, leading to bad hires: A longer and more expensive hiring process is also contributing to poor decisions, studies said.” She reports on a study that explains a familiar conundrum of Human Resources departments across the board, tasked with finding workers to compensate for the steady churn of workers leaving.

Crist says in her findings, “Amid a skills shortage, 73% of hiring professionals in certain industries — such as manufacturing, logistics and engineering — feel pressure to hire quickly, but they also feel the consequences of making rushed recruitment decisions…” “This rushed hiring can lead to bad hiring decisions, with half saying they experienced increased costs from rehiring or training. In particular, respondents said they had increased costs where transferable skills were lacking, with 63% saying they observed decreased productivity and 56% saying they saw poor work quality.

Employers that do very little to retain employees, such as adequate compensation, reasonable benefits, proper task-based training and opportunities for recognition and advancement, are often struggling to maintain staffing levels to keep the operation going. Some reported a turnover of retirees and dissatisfied employees reaching daunting levels of 30, 40 and higher percent.

For companies unlike the reputable employer described, HR Departments are pressured to keep finding new bodies in a difficult market with declining relevant core and general skills. They do their best to recruit, interview and hire, knowing that even some of those hired will not show up or will stay only for a few days. Recruiters end up living out of a suitcase.

HR Departments sometimes feel a stronger onboarding process is the key. In reality, it can be helpful but is no replacement for formal, process-based training. Some see the solution as Process Documents, Safety Sheets and Policies, which are helpful for re-enforcing strong performance but are not training tools. They are considered “Job Performance Aids,” meant to aid the worker in repeating performance without relying on memory alone AFTER proper training has been performed. Think of the last time you tried to assemble a toy or a desk from the manufacturer’s instructions. Once you had assembled it for the 3^rd time, the instructions made more sense but the first attempts without training might have been disasters.

Someone still has to take that candidate and immediately start their task-specific training that their performance will be measured against. This is the point where most employers fail miserably, believing pairing the new-hire with a resident expert will magically create another expert. In reality, the expert is usually pressured to continue to produce at the same rate while imparting expertise to the new-hire without structure, clarity, focus and documentation of success. A fine new-hire, who expects better, will leave out of disappointment because they can. The potentially fine new-hire will stay, but without a development plan may not rise above their perceived incoming potential.

A sound remedy to this predictable outcome from haphazardly scurrying to find new-hires is a structured on-the-job training system that provides better data to the recruiters on the core and general skills they should be seeking at the door, leading to an immediate handoff to a structured on-the-job training program for quickly transferring expertise from the resident expert to the new-hire so time is not wasted and outcomes for each qualified new-hire is certain.

To build on this infrastructure, wage increases can be staged around the percentage of job-tasks mastered (“Capacity”) so the employer pays only for the value they can derive but the employee sees a path to self-improvement and wage enhancement. Strong documentation and reporting will provide feedback on how each trainee is progressing and what they need to do to reach their goal. Credentials for reaching markers in their training adds another no-cost incentive to self-improvement. Pathways to higher positions could be mapped to provide even more incentives for self-improvement. All of this supports the company’s quality program compliance without additional effort.

This isn’t hard to do and Proactive Technologies, Inc. has been helping employers do just that since 1987. Employers only need to self-reflect and seriously critique their internal “systems” of worker development. Ask employees who have been through it and stayed about their experience. Employers have worked feverously to reduce everything they do to systems and metrics of performance for decades…except worker development which has remained as it was in the 1800’s.

Maybe its time for a little humble pie, washed down with a cup of reality. If something doesn’t, and hasn’t, worked, fix it. It will keep you from burning out your existing staff and alienating potential workers repeating a process that clearly is frustrating, unproductive and costly.

If you recognize these workforce challenges and have shed your fear of even looking for other practical solutions, check out Proactive Technologies’ structured on-the-job training system approach to see how it might work at your firm, your family of facilities or your region. Contact a Proactive Technologies representative today to schedule a GoToMeeting videoconference briefing to your computer. This can be followed up with an onsite presentation for you and your colleagues. As always, onsite presentations can be the first step.