A few months ago I posted on Why Salespeople Leave which discussed the disconnect between how a company compensates their salespeople and what the salespeople view as a reward. Last week I attended a webinar jointly presented by Monster and DDI and was amazed at the disconnect they found in their research between what employers think candidates desire in a position and reality. Employers, or more specifically hiring managers, listed these items as the top 4 reasons why a candidate takes a position:

1. A good manager/boss.
2. Opportunity to advance.
3. Opportunities to learn and grow.
4. Balance between work and personal life.

However, here is how the candidates responded in the survey:

1. Opportunities to learn and grow.
2. Interesting work.
3. A good manager/boss.
4. An organization you can be proud to work for.

Now you might be saying that the hiring managers had 2 out of the 4 correct which isn’t bad. True, but what I found amazing was where the other 2 ranked with candidates. “Opportunity to advance” came in at #5 and “balance between work and personal life came” in next-to-last at #9. On the other side, “an organization you can be proud to work for” landed at #8 on the manager’s list. Why is this important? Remember that a candidates base their employment decision on this criteria:

• Need
• Motivation
• Compensation
• Trust
• Urgency
• Format

If you are not aligned with their top 4 reasons, you are not going to be aligned to their motivation. This misalignment makes your chances of them accepting your offer far more difficult. My suggestion – start off your hiring process by selling them on your company and the position by talking about their opportunities to grow/learn, the type of work they will be doing, the manager they will be working for and what makes your organization unique/different.

You know the one question that kept going through my mind during this presentation was do these findings vary based on the demographics of the candidates? According to the study, there is a variance by age classification. It is late on a Friday so that topic will have to wait for another post.

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Turnover is a symptom of a deeper disease in most companies. A consistent turnover level typically speaks to one of two problems – poor management skills or hiring the wrong employees. Corporate culture, compensation and other topics can come in to play, but I want to focus on the former topics.

One of our placements resigned this week after only 6 weeks in the role. This is not a sales position so it is somewhat outside of our expertise. Nonetheless, I contacted the former employee and discussed with her what went sideways. She laid most of the blame at the feet of one of the co-owners of the company and the fact that she was being asked to work on projects that were not the main focus of her job (for this co-owner).

I pursued the topics in detail and heard some real angst in her voice as she relayed the issues that led to her walking in and resigning at 8:00am. She painted a dark picture of her experience.

At the end of this discussion, I purposely stammered through one last question, “What did the other co-owner say when you approached her about these topics?”

The former employee tripped all over herself trying to answer and ended the call shortly after my question. She didn’t discuss it, she simply quit. The issue here is that she was doing well in the role and both owners were pleased with her performance up until this point.

I’ve come to learn since then that there are many personal issues occurring in the former employee’s life right now. My point here is that even though the employee characterized this situation as a management issue, the weak link was actually the employee. She was not the right fit for this position based on outside issues in her life.

The exit interview that I was afforded from her was the impetus for determining the root of the turnover. If you have an employee that leaves the company, especially in a sudden manner, it is imperative that you locate them to walk through an exit interview. Secondly, stay pragmatic through the entire discussion. Look for the gaps in the situation and ask an assumptive question. Sometimes you will be surprised by the answer.

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From a sales ad for an Account Executive:

Successful candidate must:

• Type 50+ wpm
• Be proficient in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook)

Of course there were other bullets in the list, but these jumped out at me. If you are trying to find a strong salesperson and you are concerned about their typing ability, I am doubtful you are going to hire a strong salesperson. I could be wrong, but I’ll take the odds on this one.

To make matters worse, this ad was placed by a recruiting agency for an internal hire!

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