Turning Vision into Reality

Chemistry — The Critical Secret Ingredient in the Hiring Process

Chemistry — The Critical Secret Ingredient in the Hiring Process

I wondered what I did wrong in hiring Joe. We prescreened all candidates carefully. We did multiple interviews. We had everyone who would be working with Joe talk with him and make sure the fit was right. We double-checked all his references. I even made sure that I understood his personal goals for the next five years and assumed that he could reach them in our company. After two years of trying, I finally threw in the towel and fired him. Not only was I relieved, so was he. What did we miss? In a word, chemistry. 

HR professionals have told me that in their experience, you need to hire three people for every two that you end up keeping. This ratio assumes that you have an excellent hiring process.

I’ve purchased cars, carefully weighing their features, only to find out that that I didn’t love them once I actually owned them. Thinking back, I experienced much the same ratio of having to purchase three to end up with two I loved. I’ve also found that the new products I was responsible for developing didn’t really “connect” until they were put into actual use and modified based on the reality of that use.

Why can’t we “get it right” 100% of the time, three out of three times? The answer is “chemistry.” Until an employee is functioning in the actual job, neither they nor you can be sure of the fit. Until you drive the car every day you can’t be sure. Until you run actual production with your new scheduler you can’t be sure.

For hiring, I recommend a 90 day “warranty” period. If the job fit doesn’t feel right within that period for you or the employee, it won’t ever be right. Cars can be replaced. Software can be modified and enhanced. It isn’t fair to the misfit employee or his teammates to keep trying to make it work out. “Hire slowly, fire quickly” is the motto of successful managers.

Related Articles

Strategic Delegation: The Key to Increased Productivity and Higher Performance, What Happens When you Don't Have Proper Delegation

 

Most CEOs dream of running an organization in which all managers spend the majority of their time improving the business rather than working in the business. These CEOs also wish their employees would perform at their highest potential, take personal responsibility for roles and outcomes, and be held accountable for results. In sum, these leaders of industry want to optimize—not just maximize— productivity, performance, and profitability from every individual.

Fortunately, there is a management tool to accomplish this: strategic delegation of tasks is the key to optimizing the value of each employee’s output. 

Read More
Unconscious Decision Making Can be Detrimental to your Company’s Health

From the writings of John Myrna

Late one Sunday evening I pulled a couple of frozen yogurt bars from the freezer we keep in the garage. Earlier in the week, my son had mentioned that we should defrost that freezer, a task I’d been putting off.

When I got back in the house, it was obvious that the frozen yogurt bars were not frozen at all, rendering them too soft to eat. Something was wrong. I put the bars in the kitchen freezer and told my wife Mary that we’d better defrost the garage freezer the next day. Without doing so consciously, I had associated the failing freezer’s performance with my son’s observation that we should defrost it.

Read More
Chance Favors the Prepared Mind

One might think that the Greeks, who sustained a central role for mathematics, would have discovered the laws of probabilistic thinking. The evidence is that they didn’t. Greeks considered matters of chance to be the exclusive purview of the gods. According to this worldview, any attempt to understand what happens and what should happen was an infringement of God’s territory. It was none of man’s business.

Read More