Hire vs fire

There is a well-known ‘old school’ concept in business in which you should ‘hire slow and fire quickly’. In essence you should really take your time and utilise a robust recruitment process when thinking of bringing someone into your organisation. On the flip-side, if it is not working out, look at removing that person quickly.

Another timeworn business saying is that you should ‘hire for attitude and train for skill’. We live and work in a world where a business’s survival depends on employing people who will do what it takes to keep costs low, quality high and continually be on the lookout for new ways to add value. It requires people who are committed to taking personal responsibility for offering a good days work, for a good days pay.

That said employees must first possess certain basic skills such as communicative abilities. For example, you can have a 100 top performing employees and just one who is not. If on a particular day a customer calls and happens to get that one person who is less than approachable, their impression of your entire company is negative. An event such as this can impact an organisation dramatically, both for your employees as well as your customers.

In addition if going by the above mantra of ‘hire for attitude and train for skill’ bear in mind that people are always on good behavior during interviews and these days people are very good at rehearsing and preparing for interviews.

If after a few months in post you begin to notice that the following basic attributes for any desired employee are deteriorating.

• No innovation or ideas brought to the table
• Decreasing enthusiasm/ positive attitude
• The words adaptable, proactive, problem solver no longer feature in the list of words that you would use to describe that employee

I would suggest that you will then have to make a choice, sooner than later, as to whether to give the employee further training or that you decide to go your separate ways.

If it is just a ‘blip’ and they really do have the right attitude then definitely take the time to address the issue, create a personal development plan and help add to their skill set. However, if it happens to potentially look like a longstanding issue – the choice to let someone go, while not always easy, may be the best one for the company.