When still head of the CBI, Sir Digby Jones visited my Nottingham offices to hear some of the early case studies that we had begun to gather as the forerunner to For The Want of a Nail.
 

Visibly taken aback at the level of impact hiring practice had on organisational performance, and demonstrating the astute thinking that fuels his reputation, he instantly recognised two key points:-

 

1. Only the person at the top of an organisation would have the necessary authority and overall perspective to instigate a unilateral hiring directive

2.  Organisational leaders have an inherent (and healthy) reluctance for taking action based upon anecdotes

To put this meeting into perspective, I had been at the forefront of devising specialist hiring solutions for a number of years, working with some of the most prominent employers in Europe.  Between 1987 and 1990 the cost of employers attracting new people had risen by over 700%, so my company began to pioneer new hiring processes especially for skills short markets.

By the time of the meeting with Sir Digby, those processes had been tried, tested and proven to deliver results - but adoption of them was slow and the problem was a circular one:-

1. HR / FD / Purchasing directors wanting to maintain the status quo by sticking with conventional methods - and only the MD having the power, with the board, to implement  a unilateral change in hiring approach

2. The MD does not have hiring policy and process on their agenda - it's delegated to those listed above

3. Pragmatic HR / FD / or  Purchasing directors wishing to lead change, face inertia from their colleagues in changing 'doing as we've always done' without top-down support  from the MD - who (according Mike Johnson on page 19 of  Winning the People Wars) has far more important things to deal with.

However, with my enthusiasm for the cause rejuvenated by Sir Digby’s promise of support, I set out to gather the more robust evidence he suggested was required if we were to get industry leaders onboard and make a push for change.

That research put me in touch with some wonderful and brilliant people; many of whom have carried out the most robust and thorough research possible into consequences of getting hiring right or wrong: the point being, the 'evidence' that industry leaders supposedly need in order place change hiring practice on their own agenda, already existed and in spades. 

For example, when analysing why the best companies consistently outperformed their competitors year after year, celebrated business author and researcher Jim Collins revealed that getting the right people onboard is second only in importance to having a boss who actually makes sure it happens.

Collins also coined the phrase ‘Good is the enemy of great’;  why have great profits when we’ve got good profits, why have great morale in a company when we have good morale? 

In hiring terms, for all too many firms, it’s a more a case of:-

‘Why have great hiring practice when nobody is measuring the impact of scraping by or blatantly failing’?

It is largely to answer this rhetorical question that this blog has been devised. 

Frankly, it angers me that the UK is 40% behind some of its competitors in terms of productivity, when a significant part of the solution  - making the best use of the skills that ARE available - is easy to implement. 

I also happen to think that it’s unacceptable when, for example, 750 people lose their jobs because an HR director recommends shifting production to Germany on the basis of hiring problems in the UK, rather than look at the way the firm approaches hiring.

OK, so maybe we won't ever get to the stage where there's a column in the annual accounts entitled 'Cost of Crap Hiring Process'.  Shame, because that would be a sure-fire way of investors and shareholders reminding the CEO exactly who is responsible for organisational performance.  But those who share my interest in this take heart.  We ignored global warming for years, but now carbon footprints are the hot topic. 

The boss knows how important people are.  What he or she might not realise is:-

• The damage conventional practice is doing to performance
• What the alternatives are
• Their part in ensuring that the alternatives are adopted.

With your help we can raise the profile of these issues and raise hiring practice to be a leadership issue.  Please join in the debate and help spread the word.

 

 

© Copyright www.ftwoan.org 2007 - please credit where shared or reproduced.