Is it too easy to land a job? And I am not talking about those companies that do 6 hour interviews – that is ridiculous and I am not sure how it is legal.
When you first meet someone they say first impressions are everything, however I really think the second, third, fourth and so on are more important. When interviewing someone, they most often can present themselves well for an hour and usually another hour at the second interview. What really matters is how the person will perform once hired. I’m not telling you what you don’t already know.
An interesting idea was presented to me the other day about job “tryouts.” What does this mean? Well, as explained to me, the individual is given 3 months to perform the job duties as outlined, with very specific and clear measurables that need to be completed or achieved each week. At the end of 3 months they are evaluated on all of those metrics.
As part of this, you have the option to start the person at 30 hours a week versus full time and then they would work their way into full time. Instead of celebrating a person for being hired, you celebrate the individual for earning their place at the company and showing their true value.
Some of the benefits of this approach:
- If an employee truly earns their place at the company, they feel invested.
- Expectations are very clear and milestones give the employee something to work towards and achieve.
- There is no sense of entitlement. They are not entitled to the job, unless they earn it.
- Turnover is reduced.
- The employer truly gets to know the employee before they are offered a full time spot at their company. Many times an individual looks great on paper and in reality they are not a fit for your culture.
I’m not saying this is the right approach, I just find this concept very interesting.
What do you think?
