Slow to hire, quick to fire

Slow to hire. Quick to fire. 

Slow to hire. I am typically very intentional with hiring – I have a detailed set of screening questions I send before I even invite a candidate to meet with me. I meet with all candidates before I ask my team to take the time to interview them. I vet, I screen, I interview:  So, where does this go wrong? Three ways!

(1) a candidate might look great on paper and in person. They might have all the right skills and answer the questions perfectly – BUT my gut doesn’t feel right. 

(2) I know the candidate isn’t perfect, but I like them and decide to take a chance on them. 

(3) I have an open position and I am not loving any of the candidates, we are pretty shorthanded and I make a hire that I know from the start is not an ideal fit. 

What should I do differently? 

(1) Don’t make the hire – if you have even a few years of work experience, your gut is most likely right. 

(2) Only make this hire if you and your team are committed to spending the time to mentor this individual. The entire team needs to buy into this or there will be internal sabotage when this person makes the inevitable mistakes. Even in the most collegial team, someone will feel put out by the extra time this employee takes and team morale will suffer.

(3) this is tricky – your team is overloaded and any hire seems better than no hire. Wrong! It is better to: bring in someone who can help part time; someone hired on a temporary basis; reallocate tasks and put anything not urgent on hold. 

Take this candidate on a temporary basis to lighten the load while you continue to look for a better candidate. Sometimes this person will turn out to be a good hire. The pitfall here is that the candidate turns out to be only mediocre, but you’ve become comfortable and settled for someone who will never be a great employee. That’s where the next step comes in!
 

Quick to fire. If possible, I am even worse at following this rule! 

(1) I get too personally invested and feel guilty letting the person go. I like the person and believe they will do better. They don’t. 

(2) I am afraid of being shorthanded. If everyone knows the person is not performing, team morale suffers when I don’t let them go. 

(3) I am afraid of the damage from a vindictive employee – bad online reviews, unfounded lawsuits, and other damaging behavior. Unfortunately, this does happen. 

What should I do differently? 

(1) Personally invested: Do performance reviews every two weeks if needed and let the person go if they don’t meet the objectives after 2-3 review cycles. 

(2) Fear of shorthanded: Most teams are more willing to take on additional work than to keep a poor performer. 

(3) Fear of retribution: Keeping the wrong employee is only going to build worse consequences when you inevitably let them go. 

Rip the bandage off. Provide performance objectives with follow-up meetings. Get buy-in from staff who will have to pick up the slack. Make a plan to replace the employee and set a timetable for the termination. Hoping the employee will step up or that it will all work out is not a strategy. It is a roadmap for failure.