Employment Challenges

May 19, 2015  by in Business Strategy, Industry   

By Sheila Long O'Mara

While today’s unemployment rate isn’t at completely zero, the national rate is hovering around 5.5 percent—a mark that most economists consider full employment.

That’s great news for a recovering economy, but not such great news if your business happens to be in hiring mode. That search for employees who are skilled, mesh well with your current culture and meet your needs can be challenging. Make a poor choice in hiring and then comes the firing, which is never fun.

Once the dismissal has taken place, you’re often left with having to clean up the mess left in the wake of the misfit hire. Other employees may harbor bitterness because the colleague was a pal or perhaps, because the colleague was incompetent and created more work for others. Either way, it’s disruptive to the overall work flow.

 On the other side, if you take too long to hire someone, tasks that get delegated to other team members can become overwhelming and burdensome. All of that can make for stressed employees who then get wandering eyes, and begin a search for greener pastures. Hiring can become a vicious cycle if not managed properly.

Companies who only search for employees when they need to fill a slot, often lose out on the best hires. The experts in the business of hiring all say the best strategy is to always be in recruiting mode. Keep the pipeline filled with great candidates so that when the need arises you aren’t recruiting and hiring from crisis mode, which can lead to desperation in the search.

Hiring out of desperation rarely works  well for either the employee or employer.

I’m not encouraging you to go out and hire 10 new people that your business model won’t support. That would be foolish.  I am suggesting you stay atuned to what’s happening with your team. You’ll find out who’s happy and who’s somewhat disgruntled and may be considering a quick departure.

Maintain a strong file of résumés for various positions throughout the company. Yes, by the time you’re ready to hire, some of those folks will already have found jobs elsewhere. Some, however, will still be on the prowl.

By staying ahead of recruiting, hiring and other personnel issues, the task of filling  positions doesn’t become a long, painful process.

Good luck in recruiting. The terrain is a tricky one to navigate.