There lived a king who had two sons. He loved them dearly. It was about time to name one of them as the next king to the throne. He called both his sons and asked them to find out the market price of cereals. It was an easy task – that’s what it seemed.
The elder one wanted to be the next king and was in a hurry to reach the market, get the quotes and tell his father as soon as possible. He didn’t want to lose a minute. In his mind, he was all set to be the next king.
Younger one was unlike his elder brother. He went to the market. He met the merchants and asked relevant questions regarding his subject and researched in detail. By the time he reached the court, the eldest son was already seated there after sharing his information with the king.
The information which the eldest one shared was – the price of the cereals. After all that was asked by the king, right!
The king asked the younger son about the price and he informed about the price, the demand in the market for each along with the supply and other related statistics for the same.
King was very pleased with the younger son and he was named as the next king.
Whenever there is an inappropriate hire for any position, the one which easily gets the blame is – the recruitment and selection process. Isn’t it?
But the actual fault may have occurred at much different place all together. Right from the place when the position/vacancy arises, are we actually asking enough questions?
Questions at the start of vacancy may be:-
Is the work load a lot to handle the pressure?
Is the work being delegated equally to all the team members?
Is the work actually understood by the team?
Are the team members abiding to the time frame properly?
Can the vacancy be filled by training the current employees?
Can there be lateral or horizontal movements of employees to fill that gap?
If these initial questions are answered, the next step of planning leads to a proper job description and job specification as the entire analysis about the position has already been done.
The second big mistake in hiring wrongly is – ‘HURRY’. The hurry to get to the result in the shortest possible time. The pressure to fill the gap in shortest possible time, rejects a right candidate and selects a wrong one.
Manpower is the most crucial asset of the organization. It takes a significant cost to get a candidate on board, train him according to the requirement and place him. One small wrong move can easily convert an asset to a liability. So let’s not hurry and start questioning!
