The unemployment rate for perfect people is zero.

Looking ahead, the unemployment rate for the person you want is going to be zero. Why? - because perfect people tend to be working! Boomers are retiring, and immigrant workers aren't always bringing the right skills. Now and for the next ten years, we'll all be lucky to find enough people to staff our companies. When you do find someone, - don't lose them.

Common and preventable is fumbled negotiations in the final stages of an almost complete hiring process. We approach great talent, passive talent, those right fit people who are successfully and happily working for someone else until they get my call. They will back away if your hiring managers don't project the same enthusiasm in your company that I first approached them with. Remind your hiring managers that every candidate sees potential and a better future in joining your firm, it's the only reason their talking to you. Problem is, not all managers in the interview process share that optimism. They bring their own problems into the conversation and lose good candidates.

The management points,

1. Be a company booster.
   Great candidates won't accept your job offer if you don't believe in your own company. If you can't believe, excuse yourself from the hiring process.
2. Be respectful.
   Great candidates won't join you if they sense a disrespectful culture. Make sure all managers are respectful to candidates. Arrogant line managers mess up more hires than anyone else.
3. Stay open minded.
   Don't get a seizure around some exact salary number. Be creative, explore other options, and if you're not a lateral thinker, just don't discuss pay. Tell me, I'll put it together for you.
4. Project total integrity.
   If discretion is required, perhaps you're replacing a current employee, interview candidates off premise. That's what Denny's is for. Candidates assume everything they learn about you will one day be applied to them.
5. Allow only your best managers to interview.
   "B" managers can never sign up "A" candidates. We can bring you great talent, but you can lose them by allowing a "B" manager to interview them. Don't.

Hiring takes time, money and the work of many people. To finally find a candidate, and then lose them in the eleventh hour, is a serious setback. The direct costs are high, the lost opportunity costs can be even higher. Companies and departments miss their business targets because the right people aren't being hired. Too often for reasons that could have been prevented.

Bringing people to your company door is my job. Getting them to sign-up is your job.
Build great companies, one great hire at a time!

Wolf
Partner
Metrik Management Inc.

A bathroom sink in a common area, will change behaviour!

Walking back from 141 Calle Hortencius, a beautiful suite hanging on the side of a cliff overlooking Banderas Bay. I was checking it out for future stays in Puerto Vallarta. Half way down the hill we stopped at Polo Feliz, or Happy Chicken. Happy chickens in a chicken restaurant, this is puzzling, but we sat down.

Canadian fast food restaurants are trained not to serve chicken. They will serve a chicken facsimiles, a look alike chicken product, even a work alike chicken pressed product, but real chicken is not acceptable in Canadian fast food. KFC goes one step further and conceals their chicken inside a pound of fat and batter. Getting actual chicken in Vancouver is no simple matter.

In South America and Mexico, (even Miami), they've learned how to cook chicken. Much like Nando's, it's flame charcoal broiled, marinated, just amazing chicken! Excellent, healthy, simple. And that's what Happy Chicken served! Delicious, simple, exceptionally tasty, done over charcoal flames. Enough to serve two people about 80 pesos. We ate, and ate, - loved it.

But more to the point of the story. I excused myself to go to the washroom. Puzzling, no sink, no place to wash your hands. It took a minute then I remembered. It's common in Mexico to put the sink outside the bathroom, in the common area. Often used by both sexes, often visible to the public.

Given this public hand washing system, how many people wash their hands after going to the washroom? In Mexico 100%. Elsewhere in North America, where hand washing takes place in private, about 49% to 65% of people wash their hands.

Are Mexicans cleaner? Not from what I've seen. Then why the difference? Because a hand washing sink in public view generates different behaviour than a sink in private. How we set things up is almost more important than the people we hire. Systems produce their own results independent of the players! 

Companies who rely on their heroic employees, don't have great systems. Conversely, if you have great systems, you don't need hero employees. Just average people doing their job will produce great product. The best and magical combination that makes exceptional companies is a great system staffed by exceptional people. That's the knock out punch!

Sure you could change your people, but why not change your system, move your sinks into public places first, and watch the behaviour change!

Let's build great companies one exceptional person at a time.

Wolfgang
Partner