Hiring and Firing: How decisions get made.

As the labor market tightens up and unemployment numbers drop, many companies are busy focusing on growth, expanding and investing in their talent pool. Hiring and firing in this market are complicated undertakings as the talent pool is tight and wages are set to increase as fewer qualified applicants are available for the positions that are open. This month, we offer some insider looks into how management makes these decisions when the economy is booming. Organization, record-keeping, and a broad understanding of the interlocking skills of your employees are crucial tools to use when making staffing decisions during times of labor shortages and low unemployment. Below are some tried and true tips and guidelines to making the best decisions for your staffing needs.

Hiring

Use Connectors

More than ever, human resource managers are working with known talent and long-term relationships they’ve cultivated during the labor bull markets where talent is plentiful and wages are lower. By investing in relationships with connectors who are trusted to sort through the wealth of candidates available when unemployment is high, managers have a viable network of experts to comb through when looking for the right person for a job when there aren’t a multitude of candidates available.

Sell the job

Marketing for a company isn’t just what’s going out to clients; now managers need to focus on making the job as appealing as the product for prospective employees. Comprehensive benefits packages aren’t solely related to pay and retirement anymore and there are creative solutions, unstructured work environment, compressed scheduling, etc., that can help draw in talent looking for the freedom to be creative and not just the highest salary possible. Flexibility and creativity can be the selling points that save companies money without sacrificing an enticing package to offer prospective new hires.

Firing

Timing

Losing labor during a tight job market is a scary idea for many managers. The weight of a poor employee against no employee is often a no-brainer as even a poor employee is producing something, right? Actually employees with poor performance do much more harm than good, regardless of the market. According to Labor Management magazine, in a Harvard research study the disparity between good and bad employees is such that the average cost of a keeping a bad employee on the team was $12,489 in 2015, while having a “superstar employee” increased revenue by approx. $5,303.

Understand the employee

We cannot stress enough the profound importance of keeping detailed and timely records on employee performance, reviews, feedback and notations on any incidents of employee reprimand. Keeping detailed notes, constructing a timeline of behavior and giving clear and honest feedback to employees can help companies spot issues in performance or show great performance without being influenced by an occasional misstep. Details are the key to tracking performance and feedback on that performance is key to managing employee expectations and issues. Thorough reviews and consistent feedback can help make decisions more painless than just reacting to mistakes or problems.

 

Guidelines and organization, attention to detail and excellent record keeping are the hallmarks of a successful staffing program, whether outsourced or in-house. We at BCS are working hard to provide the best ideas to guide your practices and help find the candidates who will soon turn into the superstars or your office.

 

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