Managing the Driven

http://sheknowstalent.com/managing-the-driven-the-drive-doesnt-stop/

Drive.  Ambition. Can-do Attitude.  Probably the three most mentioned attributes that clients tell me they want to see in their new recruits.  And yet, how many businesses have thought about keeping those driven, commercial and positively minded candidates engaged once they have accepted the job offer. Most companies that use recruiting experts, whether internal or external to find their talent, do so because they want to ensure that they are hiring the best people that they can to join them and help them to make their firm as successful as possible.

How many of those same companies that value talent spend the same amount of time and focus on developing and managing those same people that they were happy to spend so much time and energy on to hire?

When SHL surveyed 2000 companies, they found that the average spend on marketing and attracting candidates was £1,250 where the average amount spent on developing those graduates was nearer to £280.  Most likely a contributing factor to the high percentage of graduates that stay in their first job after Uni for less than 18 months.

It is true that much can be learnt ‘on the job’ and also hiring people who have a similar cultural fit will go a long way to making sure your new recruits feel engaged as early as possible after they have started.

 …the average spend on marketing and attracting candidates was £1,250 where the average amount spent on developing those graduates was nearer to £280

However if you are recruiting people who have had less experience working in a commercial environment before, possibly school or university leavers, it is worth taking some time to think about how you will onboard them as efficiently as possible to maximise their output and speed of engagement in order to allow them to add the value that you were thinking they would add when you interviewed them, possibly several months beforehand.

Harvard Business Review found that of the 1,200 new employees it surveys – 75% of them sent out their CV and looked for other jobs in the first 12 months of their new job! Lack of support from Senior Management, training opportunities and coaching opportunities were all cited well above salary as reasons for leaving.

This desire to be in a process of continuous training and development is not because younger employees are needy or attention seeking.  It is party because we have told them that people who are driven and engaged and want to make a difference in companies are the most successful ones and they want to be successful.  They have spent years going above and beyond expectations to make their CVs attractive to employers just like you, doing internships in their Summer holidays and not only joining clubs but being the president or treasurer of the society.  That desire to impress and succeed doesn’t stop as soon as they start work. that means these same employees will work hard for you and not look at their clocks to leave when their contract states they can.  But in order for you to get the best out of them and also for them to stay with your firm long enough to make a real difference – business heads need to commit to developing them and having an idea of where they may progress.  What good looks like in your firm and how you compensate the top performers.  Give them people to aspire to be and link them with people who you think are doing a good job so they can share their story of success.

 …75% of them sent out their CV and looked for other jobs in the first 12 months of their new job!

So this new year, when you are negotiating your cost per hire and recruitment budgets, don’t forget to include the cost of developing and training those same junior hires, as otherwise you are likely to be looking at the cost of replacing them in next year’s budget.