Recruitment Karma

Well if it isn't the consequences of your own actions...

Recruitment karma is real, and it's up to you if it's good karma or bad karma.

Your recruitment strategy should have the same level of attention as your marketing and sales strategies. Why? Because it's really funking important. Because even your entry level hires have an impact on your show/division/business. Because that impact adds up and affects overall performance. Because you're responsible for that performance. Because you will be judged on that performance. Because that judgement will come knocking every time you shoot for a promotion or apply for a job elsewhere.

Let's talk good karma.

Get a hire right, and that new team-member will positively impact the revenue/profit of your show(s), whether that's through easily measured impact like sales or marketing, or more indirect like a finance role that positively impacts your cashflow by improving how quickly your customers pay their invoices, giving you more flexibility to invest in other areas that will boost sales.

A good hire will also have a positive impact on the culture within your business, regardless of which department they are in. They will add their own ways of thinking, they will contribute to a positive working environment, they will be a strong advocate for working in your business.

I recently read (listened to the audiobook) Atomic Habits by James Clear and a very quick takeaway is that many 1% changes that increase your performance all add up to create huge improvements.

Now, I am in no way whatsoever encouraging the comparison of people to percentages, but if you consider every hire as a potential 1% or more increase to company performance, just imagine the difference in getting every single hire right, first time.

Now for the bad karma.

Just one bad hire can cause massive issues. Whether directly by poor performance, or indirectly by how they interact with the rest of the team. And when they do leave, those who remain will feel added uncertainty, and you'll be stuck doing another round of interviews and facing the cost of training and onboarding another new person.

Don't forget the reputational impact, too - there are two sides to every story after all, and while the truth may lie somewhere in the middle, your now-former employee may feel so strongly that they decide to share their negative experience. Get it wrong too many times and new candidates will be reluctant to even interview at your organisation.

That's enough doom and gloom. This article stemmed from a post I wrote about bums-on-seats not being a recruitment strategy. I still hear of companies in our industry deliberately hiring more people than they need, with a clear intention of firing those who don't perform as well.

This really does have to stop. Those bums on seats are attached to people, and those people are relying on their job to pay their bills and support their families.

Put people first. Or recruitment karma will catch up with you and bite you in the arse.