Why Pasta and Recruitment don’t mix!

You’re probably wondering what the heck I’m going on about?  I will get to that I promise!  But first a little background….  Elaine and I have been working with a client who has been having some turnover issues within one of his departments and is looking to fill 2 similar roles.  We were asked to conduct 2^nd interviews to help with the recruitment process for this role which we were more than happy to do.  At the end of the 2 interviews we gave our feedback which was:

1. Applicant A was extremely keen, great attitude and has been doing a similar role for 2 years. We feel she’ll fit the company culture.  She is keen to have a mentor and learn more – highly pro-active, we said YES, we think she’ll be a great fit.
2. Applicant B – whilst she looked better on paper and had 5 year’s experience, she got burnout at her last job then took quite a bit of time off and travelled. She does not seem passionate about the role, and we are not convinced she’ll fit the culture. We felt she just is looking for a job, any job and did not recommend they look to employ her.

The outcome of this is that the business owner decided to take the “spaghetti” approach to recruitment – throw the spaghetti at the wall and see what sticks (his words, not ours). He’ll then continue to look for someone else in case one of them does not work out. 

Now, I truly understand that there is a labour shortage out there and finding staff in many industries is challenging.  We have been there – especially during and post covid so we can totally understand the temptation to just recruit anyone that looks like they can do the job because you’re desperate and your team want you to hire someone.  However, I’m not a fan of the spaghetti approach!  This is likely to do more damage than it will fix and can lead to one of or all of the following:

1. Decreased productivity and poor quality of work. If the person is not truly committed, they may not work to your businesses standards or even care about your standards.

2. Dissatisfied customers and damaged reputation. Again, if the person is not motivated to do well and doesn’t really care then customers will feel this.  High turnover of customer facing staff can also be an issue as customers can get frustrated when the staff they deal with keeps changing.

3. Disrupted team dynamics and increased employee turnover and negative impact on staff morale. When you employ someone that does not fit the culture of your business, it is generally a matter of time before they leave, I’d say a maximum of 12 months, but quite often less than this.  And, what damage do the cause in the time they are there?  Who do they upset within your team?

4. Wasted time, effort, and resources – I know in the past when we had made the wrong choice of a staff member, what the long-term staff were most frustrated with was the time they took out of their days and doing their role to train this person. Then, they have to do it all again because they left within a short timeframe.

5. Cost implications and potential legal consequences – this is obviously the extreme case, however, this can easily happen. If the staff member feels bullied as they did not fit in, or they have been slopping in their job and caused client issues, or made mistakes clients may go legal too. 

So, our advice, don’t just throw spaghetti at the wall and see if it sticks – there needs to be more care and a more strategic approach.  You’re probably better to get a temp in if your short staffed until you find the right person – the damage that the wrong person can cause will potentially lose you other staff and customers.  Although you can never be 100% certain someone will work out, there are signs if you look for them and if there are some real red flags, don’t take the risk – keep looking!!

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