Yaneek Page | A different approach to hiring

Q UESTION: I run a small business and I hired 2 persons in the last year to fill an administrative assistant position. Their interviews were good but after about two to three months their performance dropped and attitudes worsened. One of them was absent from work several days in the first six weeks and the other one was constantly late after a month in the job. I am thinking of hiring again because the lack of human resources is slowing my ability to grow. At the same time my experience has been bad. What should I do?

– Desperate

BUSINESSWISE: In order to find solutions to your current human resource challenge, it’s important that we unearth the likely root causes. The first issue is that the human resource problems currently facing your enterprise are not unique to small businesses.

Since the COVID-19 global pandemic there have been widespread reports around the world of significant challenges in people management particularly due to a shift in motivations to work. We are in an era now commonly referred to as ‘the great resignation’ in which many qualified workers are choosing to leave their jobs in search of opportunities that support better work life balance, higher compensation, more flexibility in remote work, and that prioritise their health and wellbeing.

In Jamaica there have been several media reports about large, established enterprises suffering chronic labour shortages and an inability to fill vacancies. Ultimately this means you are recruiting from a shrinking and increasingly complex and competitive pool. This is one of the main reasons you’re struggling to find the talent you need.

The next likely root cause is that the very nature of a small business predisposes it to chronic deficiencies in managing people. Human resources management is a specialised area of management which encompasses the end-to-end processes of talent recruitment, acquisition, optimisation, and talent retention in alignment with the strategic direction and needs of an organisation. This is the point at which you should ask yourself if you have the appropriate knowledge and skills to effectively manage this area.

It is likely that, like many other small business owners, you’ve never been trained in human resources management. To make matters worse, the creation of a comprehensive HR approach, with the supporting personnel and systems was probably never included as part of your start-up budget or any strategic planning process. You also probably don’t have the money to fund the HR build-out now, either.

Third, the lack of in-house expertise is exacerbated by the fact smaller businesses often can’t afford to pay the most competitive salaries and benefits. Smaller businesses will also struggle to compete with other businesses for talent because they don’t have the brand image and reputation of larger and more established entities.

Therefore, in an environment where there is a shortage of skilled and experienced labour, where many people are choosing not to work or insisting on the most attractive work environment and benefits, it will be extraordinarily difficult to attract and retain the best people.

When faced with a choice of working with a small business over a large well-established one, many workers will opt for the latter. You are at a distinct disadvantage now.

The immediate solution in light of the human resources predicament facing the world and Jamaica is to revamp your processes and implement technological solutions such as artificial intelligence to fill the gap as best as possible, while you build out your capacity.

In the medium to long term, I suggest creating a strategic plan to address the deficiency in your HR infrastructure through training and/or outsourcing, so that you can develop systems and practices that are comparable to best practices in your industry locally and internationally.

Recent data from LinkedIn, Gallup and others show that motivations for work are shifting from mainly compensation to other key considerations. In one study 49 per cent of workers said they would leave an existing job for higher pay, while 34 per cent want more flexibility in working from home, and 17 per cent want better opportunities for personal development.

Other studies indicate that workers are driven by increased appreciation, upward mobility, and, perhaps surprisingly, job stability and security. You will need to develop strong value propositions to attract the right workers, just as you had to create value propositions to attract customers.

Once you have the appropriate infrastructure in place you will need to devise a strategy for attracting and actively recruiting talent. Take note that I mentioned ‘active recruitment’, which is different from placing an advertisement for a position and waiting on responses. It is estimated that 70 per cent of the global workforce is made up of passive talent who aren’t actively job seeking, while the remaining 30 per cent are active job seekers.

Interestingly 87 per cent of people in the workforce would be prepared to leave for better opportunities, whether they were looking for a job or not. That means most people are prepared to change jobs if they have their needs met by a prospective new role. Indeed, the best practice in HR now is not to limit your company to the pool of active jobseekers but to instead engage in head hunting among the passive talent.

Therefore, I am suggesting you consider a more radical approach of shifting your recruitment strategy. Stop limiting yourself to active job-seekers only. Create a new recruitment strategy where you pursue passive workers who are employed and not actively looking for work, but will be motivated to leave because you are able to meet their new and evolving needs.

Good luck and one love!

- Yaneek Page is the programme lead for Market Entry USA, a certified trainer in entrepreneurship, and creator and executive producer of ‘ The Innovators’ and ‘ Let’s Make Peace’ TV series. yaneek.page@gmail.com