New Hire Challenges
I keep reading about leaders and recruiters being upset that people are ghosting them in the interview process…or sometimes after they’e accepted the job and benefits, even after they’ve worked a day or so.
This is all after many companies have increased direct pay and benefits in an effort to attract folks during this time. These companies are still operating from their pre-covid mythology which states that pay is all that matters to people.
These same companies are forgetting that if you put ‘more pay’ lipstick on a pig…you still have bacon.
What this suggests to me is while organizations are increasing direct pay and benefits, and folks are happy with that…their cultures are still in question.
Culture as we all know is the operating system of a company. It answers the question who and how do we want to be for and with each other in this journey while we chase after these goals.
When I come into work each day, I don’t work in my pay and benefits. I work with others in a culture, consciously or unconsciously created, that consistently informs me of the ‘how’ we will do this work together.
Unconsciously created cultures are rarely successful btw.
Many of these companies haven’t bothered to understand the enormous spiritual, emotional, and psychological impacts the last 18 months have taken on potential candidates. Hell, on all of us! Let alone the physical toll and the loss of loved ones and friends.
Many are tired. Broken down. Scared. Confused. Questioning everything. Uncertain of their futures.
I’m willing to bet most interview processes right now still flash pay and benefits, revised, as the big attractor that should grab’em.
Rather than ask even a few sincere, authentic questions as to how the last 18 months has changed what matters to that candidate and how they want to work going forward.
I think culture matters now more than ever. It helps potential employees answer questions like these:
- How do I want to work?
2. Who do I want to work with?
3. Will this work bring me joy? Connection? Meaning? Significance?
4. Is this the work that I want to do?
5. Do I feel like this place will value and appreciate me?
6. Will I get a chance to develop my leadership here?
7. Will I get many opportunities to learn and grow here?
8. Is this work meaningful? Does it matter that we do it?
9. What has this company learned about itself from the last 18 months that now informs how it will operate as a business going forward? A ‘humans first’ business?
10. How might it ‘feel’ to my ‘human’ to work here?
Everyone’s human got sorely tested these last 18 months. It was like a never ending finals’ week from hell.
These, and more, are the spiritual, emotional, and psychological questions that I believe are in the forefront of all employee’s minds post-Covid.
Throwing money at this is not going to get you anything. Certainly not a committed new employee.
Nobody can go through what we all just went through and are still in the midst of…and not be changed at a profound level.
A suggestion for all those hiring out there right now. Drop your pre-Covid hiring game now and update your process.
Level up your hiring game. And your culture. Or keep dealing with ghosts. Your call.
Jim Mitchell December 2021
