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Sunday Reading: March 16, 2014 – Hiring Speed, Firing Speed, and Learning to Optimize Earning Outcomes

16 Sunday Mar 2014

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in Learning and Development, Recruiting, Sunday Reading, Talent Management

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Tags

external recruiting, firing, hiring, hr, human resources, interviewing, selection, talent management

Image Credit: <printmediacentr.com

Image Credit: <printmediacentr.com>

Sunday reading for March 16, 2014:

1. Greg McKeown, author of Essentialism: The Disciplined Pursuit of Less has a great post up on Linkedin espousing the merits of hiring slowly and firing quickly. This one intuitively made sense to me. After all, in our personal lives we don’t (typically?) jump into life-altering commitments with strangers after a few short conversations and lunch. But when it comes to the hiring process this is precisely what happens. A candidate has a phone discussion or two with a hiring manager, and then the parties spend a few hours showing one another the best aspects of themselves over lunch/a face-to-face interview. From there, both sides commit to an employment arrangement that usually has huge financial implications all-around (not to mention uprooting of the candidate’s routine if not life).

Afterwards, due to the enormity of the upfront commitment, everyone is so determined to make things work that even if the situation ends up being untenable the arrangement continues well past the point where there should have been a break. But perhaps there’s a better way to do things? McKeown thinks this may be the case, and he outlines his philosophy on what companies should be doing differently when it comes to hiring and firing talent here. 

2. Opinion Columnist Catherine Rampell has an article up at the Washington Post that suggests broad-based differences in how men and women value high grades may be causing qualified female students to self-select out of the majors which offer the best prospects for high career earnings. The article draws upon research from Stuart Rojstaczer and Christopher Healy analyzing grade point average across departments. It also looks at work from Claudia Goldin exploring the ways introductory course grades impact the decisions of men and women to continue in the most difficult majors, respectively.

The findings of these studies suggest that – despite being just as prepared as males to succeed in STEM disciplines entering college – women are not majoring in such fields as frequently as men. Based on the research, this seems to be in part because women are substantially less likely than their male counterparts to continue in a discipline if they receive a grade of less than “A”. Of course, much (all?) of what’s here is looking at correlations – there’s no definitive causal factor that has been identified. I’d encourage you to check out the entire piece here and draw your own conclusions on what the findings mean.

…With that said, I’d like to close today with a question: If more females than males are self-selecting out of the most financially lucrative disciplines because of adequate (but not exceptional) performance then what (if anything) should employers – and society – be doing to change this? Much of our choices in life are tied to our perceptions of what’s possible. As such, if society is (implicitly?) teaching females different lessons about what success looks then I think we need to change that, somehow.

Please share your thoughts in the comments below.

Best,

Rory

Counselling Out Poor Performers

18 Wednesday Dec 2013

Posted by Rory C. Trotter Jr in Talent Management

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

counselling out, exit strategy, firing, hr, human resources

Image Credit: <fianita.hubpages.com

Image Credit: <fianita.hubpages.com>

…It has always bothered me when I see or hear about a hopeless employee that has been put on a performance improvement plan. The manager has often (correctly) given up on such a colleague by the time the plan is administered, and is simply documenting performance issues as a precursor to the employee’s eventual termination.

With that said, I am all for lining one’s ducks up in a row before terminating. When an employee is fired without corrective action and documentation he or she often assumes management had sinister motivations: Lawsuits ensue.

…So I suppose it would be more complete for me to say that while it’s certainly good practice to document disciplinary steps before moving to terminate even in cases where termination is a foregone conclusion… if it’s obvious to everyone involved that an employee isn’t going to make it then I also like the idea of putting together an exit strategy which allows the colleague the opportunity to transition into a different role (internally if there is a good fit, and otherwise externally) as an alternative to termination. Going through the motions of a performance improvement plan when the decision to terminate has already been made gives the employee false hope and often leaves them flat footed when the day of reckoning finally comes. As such, I think (when possible) that such action should be taken in concert with the implementation of a transition plan that allows the colleague to leave the organization on his/her feet.

…But how does a manager say to a nonperforming employee “It looks like you aren’t going to be a fit in this role. Have you considered pursuing other opportunities?” Is it that simple? It doesn’t feel like it.

Further, once that decision has been made what does that process look like? To be sure, if an employer has already decided an employee is not going to be able to succeed in the role then keeping them on the payroll while they seek new opportunities is hardly good business. Conversely, there is something that seems right about ensuring an employee who isn’t competent enough .1. I feel it goes without saying that if the issue is effort and not competence, the same courtesy shouldn’t be afforded an employee… but I’m going to say it anyway just in case.for a role (through no lack of effort 1) exits the organization with dignity and an opportunity to succeed somewhere else in the least painful way possible.

…To this point, many individual managers – and in some cases entire organizations – have a policy of helping poor-fitting talent transition to a new role as opposed to terminating. With that said, beyond the obvious (not allowing the process to drag on indefinitely, having an objective performance review process in place etc.), what needs to be in place for something like this to work well? Should such matters be addressed case by case, or on the other hand is an informal (enterprise-wide) policy ever tenable here?

As always, please share your thoughts in the comments section below.

Best,

Rory

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