We do not learn from experience… we learn from reflecting on experience.

John Dewey

You or your team hired someone who failed. They may not have had the skills, character, personality, or perspective that the position required.

It’s easy to write the failure off completely to the candidate, setting yourself up to make your mistakes over again.

But great companies don’t make mistakes repetitively. And if we really believe that our people are our greatest asset, a failed hiring process is a big deal. We must not squander those lessons!

Imagine how much more effective your company is if its turnover rate is 1 in 4 hires versus a competitor who may have an average 1 in 2 turnover rate! Over time, that’s a massive difference in energy allocation that is better spent on securing new business and improving product quality.

Companies who build teams better tend to grow at greater sustainable and healthy stress levels. A quick learning pace is key.

LET’S GET THE EXCUSES OUT OF THE WAY

Often the unproductive internal conversation sounds like…
“They didn’t tell us about that in the interview.”
“Their performance was lackluster.”
“They required too much hand-holding.”
“They didn’t fit our culture.”
“They didn’t do the job properly.”
Etc, etc, etc…
Does your team abdicate ownership to the failed employee, and thus fail to learn for the next hire?
When a teammate fails, does the team look retrospectively at the ways it may have failed its teammate? Communication? Training? Encouragement? Accountability?

STEPS TO ACQUIRING ACTIONABLE INSIGHT

Conduct separate manager and employee exit interviews by a non-biased party. They can be internal or external. Ambassador Search Group can conduct these for you at a nominal charge if you like.
Review both exit interviews sequentially to recognize differences in perceptions and experience. It’s important to ask the same questions for comparable results.
For managers who know how the exit interview will be used, this puts pressure on them to account for the employee’s perspective. Otherwise, they will be seen to be clearly out of touch. Accountability without blame is healthy.

QUESTIONS TO ASK YOURSELVES

  • What did we fail to understand in the interview?
  • What expectations did we not set clearly enough and achieve mutual understanding on? Setting and saying expectations is not the same thing.
  • What skills did we not validate well enough? Asking about skills and seeing them borne out in answers to behavioral questions or sample problems is not the same thing.
  • How could our culture value and expectations been made more clear?
  1. What did we fail to understand in the interview?
  2. What expectations did we not set clearly enough and achieve mutual understanding on? Setting and saying expectations is not the same thing.
  3. What skills did we not validate well enough? Asking about skills and seeing them borne out in answers to behavioral questions or sample problems is not the same thing.
  4. How could our culture value and expectations been made more clear?

Companies who quickly and cheerfully diagnose and change based on hiring lessons learned have a serious cultural and team-building competitive advantage.

Questions, answered

The short version.

Why shouldn't you blame a failed hire entirely on the candidate?
Writing the failure off completely to the candidate sets you up to make the same mistakes again. Great companies do not make mistakes repetitively, and if people are truly your greatest asset, a failed hiring process is a big deal whose lessons must not be squandered.
How much does hiring turnover rate matter to a company?
Enormously. A company turning over one in four hires is far more effective than a competitor averaging one in two, and over time that difference in energy gets spent on securing new business and improving product quality instead of rehiring. Teams that build better grow at healthier, more sustainable stress levels.
How do you turn a failed hire into actionable insight?
Conduct separate manager and employee exit interviews through a non-biased party, internal or external, asking the same questions of each. Then review both sequentially to surface differences in perception; managers who know the interviews will be compared feel healthy pressure to account for the employee's perspective.
What should a team ask itself after a hire fails?
What did we fail to understand in the interview? What expectations did we not set clearly enough to reach mutual understanding, since saying an expectation is not the same as landing it? What skills did we not validate through behavioral answers or sample problems? How could our culture and expectations have been made clearer?