When do we recruit, when do we replace - Do we really need to grow our staff?

One of your key team members has just resigned, or, you have been working ‘really’ hard and your manager has recognised and agreed to hire a new person for your team, what should you do before you speak to your recruiter. This striking question bares further thought.

In the 1950s Parkinson’s law provided a popular explanation of human behaviour, it suggested that we rarely recruit a person at the same level as ourselves, that there is always a need to hire more subordinates and further that we all have a tendency to fill the available space and leave things to the last minute to complete. This last point has long been the bane of project managers who have struggled against the individual's desire to leave things until the last minute instead of applying themselves consistently to their tasks to complete on time.

In our previous article, we looked at the choice of hiring or, promoting and then hiring at a more junior level. While there were good economic and morale reasons for promoting from within, from a diversity perspective, this can become another of the many challenges that face women and minority groups. While there are more women and minorities employed, they are not being promoted.

A US report from McKinsey found that “Despite the sincere efforts of major corporations, the proportion of women falls quickly as you look higher in the corporate hierarchy. Overall, this picture has not improved for a decade. ” The report goes on to look at the ‘pernicious’ mindset of hiring managers against promoting women even where unintentional.

Our biases are founded on long experience and we are often unaware that they are driving our choices to promote and hire. One radical approach may be to have mandatory KPIs for the hire and/or promotion of women in minority groups until the issue is resolved. As per figure 1, the number of Female managers is still below 40% and this needs to change.

Figure 1: Comparison of the female composition of occupations (by ISCO category) within Australia, the UK and the OECD**

Source: International Labour Organisation (2019), Employees by sex and Occupation

So, you have considered whether to hire or promote, whether the role is ‘really’ needed and the value that you are hoping to get from it. You have identified an internal promotion to fill the current roll and have engaged your recruiter to assist you with the new (more junior) role. From here you can add to the job description some of the key knowledge and behaviours required for the role. It is often helpful to an internal recruiter for the hiring manager to identify a current high performer that they would like to benchmark candidates against. This may also be useful in evaluating whether your criteria are valid and whether they contain any biases which are not that relevant to successfully perform the role.

Why should I work for you?

Is now a good time to consider why someone should want to work for you? In times of high employment, there is always the risk that a candidate may have several offers to consider. What makes the organisation/role one which you have chosen to join.

Most people appear to enjoy moderately challenging roles where their efforts are recognised and which make a difference to the company/ clients. They enjoy flexibility, the ability to schedule their tasks, career development and the potential for promotion. Is the product or service you offer of such quality that employees can be proud to be associated with it. At the next weekend BBQ will they be happy to state their role and company, or will they be reticent?

In the next article, we will consider what advertising, interviewing and reviewing may work best for your company. If you have further ideas for articles or areas of interest related to HR that you would like explored, why not email me at damienb@people2growth.com.au

If you are looking to recruit or have other HR needs People2Growth can help, contact Damien Berglas (mob 0417 625 491) for a confidential discussion of your HR businesses needs.