How can managers improve their “batting average” in the employee selection, hiring, evaluation, retention and discipline processes?
Selection, Hiring, and Evaluation
The employee selection process can be abbreviated due to pressing staffing issues or truncated because of hiring priorities, a limited applicant pool, unsound evaluation processes, or any of a number of reasons. The standard process results in businesses hiring and retaining certain employees that they should not have.
Businesses generally hire employees, then give them a probationary period of from six months to a year. During the probationary period employees can be released without much fuss or fanfare as long as State and Federal regulations are observed. However, unsatisfactory employees often get through this probationary period due to managerial neglect, ineptitude, or conflicting priorities. Managers, caught up in their day-to-day work responsibilities, oftentimes fail to:
1) adequately monitor and evaluate the performance of new employees,
2) document unsatisfactory performance, and/or
3) submit the required paperwork on time.
In addition, there is a perception problem. New hires (probationers) are viewed as permanent employees by their colleagues, management and themselves. Furthermore, the new employees become ensconced in the organization and its social network even if they are not high-quality.
Retention/ Discipline Issues
As indicated, the standard process results in businesses hiring and retaining employees that they should not have. This, in turn, causes training and discipline hassles and expenditures, while prohibiting the company from having the competitive advantage of the best available talent. This environment can also “contaminate” other members of the workforce, particularly as they observe the behaviors and performance of the under-performers.
A Better Approach
A reasonable and realistic remedy is DON”T HIRE THE EMPLOYEE in the first place. Instead, make new employees Contact workers.
Hiring on a Contract basis for a defined period gives the employee the opportunity to demonstrate their abilities, while providing management with the time to observe their performance (WITHOUT HAVING THEM ON THE EMPLOYEE PAYROLL). Then, following the contract period, if there are any doubts, just don’t renew the contract. This is a much simpler, straightforward and less risky process. Following expiration of the contract, management will have the flexibility to renew the contract, not renew the contract, or perhaps (and, best of all), hire the employee.
A caveat
As with everything it is not as simple as it appears. While this approach has attractive features, there are some potential drawbacks. The best employees may not wish to be hired as “only” a contractor.
And, there is the sticky matter of Employee Benefits.
Despite these issues, the realities of employee selection and hiring make the Contract Employee approach a better one.
Copyright 2008, Dr. Ben A. Carlsen, MBA. All Rights Reserved Worldwide for all Media. You may reprint this article in your ezine, newsletter, newspaper, magazine, website, etc. as long as you leave all of the links active, do not edit the article in any way, leave my name and bio box intact, and you follow all of the EzineArticles Terms of Service for Publishers.
Author: Ben Carlsen
Article Source: EzineArticles.com
Provided by: Excise Tax