"Manager's Minute" Tip

(Article Archive)

Why Employees Fail and What To Do About It
by Ryan Sarti

In September 2005, Leadership IQ did a study on reasons why employees fail. The study looked at more than 5200 new hires. Of those new hires, 46% failed in the first 18 months. Here are the reasons why new hires failed:

• 26% of all new hires fail because they aren’t coachable.
• 23% of all new hires fail because of their emotional intelligence levels.
• 17% of all new hires fail because of their motivation levels.
• 15% of all new hires fail because of their temperament.
• 11% of all new hires fail because of technical competence.

Here’s the most frightening fact from the study. 82% of the hiring managers in the study, in hindsight, saw some red flags during the hiring process and failed to respond to them. Why did 82% of the hiring managers fail to act on the red flags they saw?

Regardless of the reasons behind their actions, the impact of hiring the wrong people is significant. If you’ve made that same mistake, what can you do ensure you don’t make that one again?

Most of these hiring failures are preventable. What is one thing hiring managers can do to help reduce the number of new hire failures?

It is a simple process, it only takes about 6 minutes, and it is free. Given the cost of employee turnover, does it make sense to invest in this process?

Here’s the key: Make and keep agreements on how to work with each other. This is especially important for newer managers who might be uncomfortable in addressing performance issues. I call this the “speed bump” conversation.

The “speed bump” conversation helps set the tone for employees. Having the speed bump conversation ahead of time helps find the 26% of new employees who are uncoachable. It also helps identify the 23% of new hires who have low EQ. Their responses will help warn you that there could be a problem waiting in the wings. That way you may decide not to bring them on board. Or, if you do decide to bring them on board, you can do it with the agreement to work on the issues ahead of time. If there is going to be a problem with an employee would you rather know before you hire them, or after?

If the speed bump conversation shows the employee is open to coaching and has good EQ, they have now given you permission to address the issues. More importantly, they’ve given you some coaching on how best to handle the situation.

Making and keeping agreements should begin during the interview process. Making and keeping agreements is also important through out employee tenure. I always include a “speed bump” conversation with the new hires because it helps build a foundation for addressing performance issues when the come up.

Here’s the “speed bump” conversation:

“I have a ton of confidence in you and everyone is excited to have you on board. I have some high expectations and strongly believe that you will do very well with us. We are highly selective when it comes to adding people to our team. While we like to have fun around here while we work, we take achieving our goals very seriously.”

“I know that you are excited to be here too. I suspect you plan on knocking the cover off the ball on a regular basis. I’ll do everything I can to support that and I’ll cheer for you while you are rounding the bases. Are you OK with that?”

“This next point is important. Everyone, and I mean everyone hits a speed bump once in a while. Not that we want that to happen, but, since we are all human, it happens. Here’s my question, when you hit that speed bump, how do you want me to handle it? How do you want me to talk with you? What do you want me to say? How do you want me to say it?”

As the employee talks about how to handle this situation, I take notes so I can recount their comments, verbatim. Taking notes and using their words back with them is important because it takes the employee back to a time when they were open to feedback.

Why is the speed bump conversation so powerful? If you’ve made that agreement upfront and have the employee’s agreement, the performance conversation is not so emotionally charged. The speed bump conversation puts the focus is on the issues, not on the person.That way it won’t be taken personally.

When I have a performance issues conversation I remind the employee of our previous conversation about how to handle speed bumps. I tell the employee that we’ve hit a speed bump and that we need talk about it now. I also remind them of what they said about how to address the issues and how I should talk with them. I ask if that still applies or if something has changed. If something has changed, we talk about that. Once I have their agreement, we proceed. Because we’ve set an agreement about this ahead of time, it is an easier situation for everyone.

At the end of the performance improvement conversation we both (employer and employee) walk away with a new agreement about expectations and a clearer understanding of what we both will do to support and achieve success. And we make some new agreements about what happens next, and how to deal with it.
If the employee is contentious during the conversation, they’ll do it openly and you can be ahead of the curve in getting more support from HR.

By having the speed bump conversation with your new employees you will accomplish
the following:

• Make a much better impression on the new employee as a professional organization.
• Build morale for new hires and others. Morale is very contagious either way.
• Give the direct supervisor the opportunity to establish a strong relationship with the new hire.
• More quickly calm a new hire’s apprehensions and anxiety, which helps them reach higher productivity levels.
• Improve your chances of retaining the employee for the long-term.
• Create greater clarity of what you expect and by when which eliminates confusion and excuses for non-performance.
• Get the new sales employee to a positive cash- flow position quicker.

Want to talk more about this article? Please call Ryan Sarti at 630-655-0563 Ext 19

About The Author:

With 25 years of sales management expertise, Ryan Sarti is passionate about helping sales people and companies succeed. He is the author of “Ten Deadly Reasons Why Sales People Fail and What To Do About It”. The Director of Sales for Flex Execs Management Solutions, Ryan is an author, speaker, juggler, sales manager, and trainer. If you want help with a new hire introductions checklist, training, recruitment process outsourcing, or to discuss other HR issues, please call Ryan Sarti at 630-655-0563 Ext 19.

Contact:
Ryan Sarti
312-543-6952

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