Recruitment and Retrenchment

Finding the right candidate for the right position is a challenge faced by all organizations today.  There is a dearth in passionate workforce who will work towards the long time goals of the organizations.  Most of the time, recruitment and selection are a compromise – and there is a mismatch between the need and the hire.  But when the hire is made, we look at certain positives in the individual and decide that we can mold him to suit the organizational needs.

The flipside of this is that the management is disillusioned by the same candidates and tends to give them a pink slip within a year or two.  The leaders forget the reasons or strengths on which people were hired. What went wrong?

1. Unrealistic Expectations:  The candidate’s strengths and qualification are the primary reasons for which they are being recruited in an organization. But when the organization starts expecting outcomes which are not much aligned to the employee’s position, then expecting a good performance from the candidate is not possible.
2. Lack of Freedom:  A person should believe in himself for doing a job. But more than that the organization which hires him should also believe in him and give the onus required to perform the job. A freedom of action with consistent monitoring will pave a good path for the employee and also the organization.
3.  Lack of Proper Support:  “I feel like living in a foreign land” is the mindset of every employee who is a new hire in an organization. A small period of time is required for the acclimatization to happen. So the organization should ensure that the employee is given the right support to get familiarized with the procedures and policies of the organization.
4. Lack of close performance review:  Periodic assessment of performance is very important to check if the employee understands and works in line with the KRA.  This is usually a weekly or a fortnightly review initially and a monthly review subsequently.  A lack of a systematic performance review and periodic appraisals results in low performance, and ultimately retrenchment.

All the small and medium companies sack employees, in spite of the fact that their recruitment happens with the best processes. The organizations have to rethink on the strategies between the recruitment and sacking processes to avoid mishaps.