It's been a while but the text that buzzed my phone the other day was clear. It read, point blank: "I need a new job. Keep your ears open 4 me."
I responded saying that my ears are always open, but most of what I hear sounds like rush hour traffic. Stretching the metaphor a bit, I get horns honking, people rushing everywhere and cars stuck in neutral because there's a long back up due to an accident. And, the traffic ties are often in the same places.
Ok, maybe I stretched the metaphor too far.
The very next day I got an e-mail from a search firm asking me if I needed help finding candidates. I've been hired to search, screen and recommend applicants for a couple of positions, but this firm believes I'm the one doing the hiring. My name and e-mail address are at the bottom of the job descriptions so it's an understandable mistake. But, here's the part of the company's pitch to me that made me chuckle: "If, for any reason, the candidate does not work out in the first three months, we will make a replacement at no additional charge."
"Really?" I heard myself saying, "You know employees are not cattle, right?"
Speaking from the other side of the fence for a moment, hiring can still be a crap shoot no matter how methodical. The employee that is successfully hired must be successfully retained as well, and there are a ton of reasons why it can't work out as to why it can. After all the effort and expense to hire someone, companies can and should continue to invest in their new employees. And, there is an additional charge if someone doesn't work out. Maybe that's why it's easier to keep bad employees than find new ones. I'd love to read a study on what it costs to hire someone and keep them versus keeping a bad employee and doing nothing.
Still, to the individual job seekers or companies looking to profit through headhunting, please don't place faith in the magic wand. There isn't one.
doug@knowledgewebb.net
*Chantal de la Rionda edits this blog
