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Don’t Fire – Wisely Hire

Turnover costs companies millions of dollars each year in terms of replacement costs and the effect it has on the team. According to Staffing Industry Analysts, 57% of workers are looking for new jobs in 2014 and according to Vivian Giang of Business Industry Insider, “79 percent of Gen Y workers say that they are always actively looking for a job compared to 67 percent of Baby Boomers.” How can you, as leaders of an organization, reduce the cost and threat to your culture of constant turnover?

The wisest thing to do is to hire people who fit your organization. By fit, I do not necessarily mean possess the skills you currently need, I mean fit into the culture of the organization. Donovan Roberson, who was the Cultural Evangelist for Zappos when I first met him, said Zappos determines who is a good fit through their orientation process. First, a team interviews a person and if they seem like a good match, then the Human Resources Department interviews them for cultural fit. What first attracted Donovan to Zappos was the different interviewing questions, which although different such as, “If you were a superhero who would you be?” These questions were designed to get at the essence of the person above and beyond their skills. “You can train skills, but you can’t train essence.”

The orientation process furthers cultural fit and as Roberson said the culture through our values. This is an area most people do not develop. Sure they may list their values but do they bring them to life? Do people understand what behaviors are needed to create the values throughout the organization? If not, the inconsistency will show.

Finally, part way through the orientation process Zappos offers people money to leave. You heard me….money to leave. What originally started as $1,000 to leave has grown to $5,000 then a month salary to leave. It is offered part way through and again at the end of the orientation. They consider this a smart investment. If a person chooses to say, Donovan said, “It is like they are making a $5,000 commitment to the company.”  Ask yourself, is this a smart investment? You be the judge. Zappos – It consistently appears on Fortune’s Great Place to Work List with extremely low turnover rate.

2 thoughts on “Don’t Fire – Wisely Hire

  1. This is a very timely subject for me as I will be in the job market again shortly. It is also interesting in that I was just having this conversation earlier today on this subject and discussing on the job seeker side how to spot a good culture match for your own personality, morals and character.

  2. I am not saying this is your case, but often people accept positions because they have been out of work and just want a job. When you look for work, make sure the environment is one which will support your as a person. Check out the values of an organization to see if it is a good fit for you. I just had a conversation with a person who left a position because the values did not fit. The organization was very open that their goal was profits first…Nothing wrong with profits being a business goal as without it you are out of business. Yet, the way they asked their employees to obtain the profits was so far out of sync with this person’s values that they had to leave.

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