Where is Superman?

Is your hiring team rejecting Clark Kent in search of Superman?

 If you are a business leader reading this, the following will make you rethink your hiring strategy.

When was the last time you audited your hiring manager interviewing process?

India is home to abundant talent. Having 60% of the country below 30 means the availability of low-cost talent. Many have Engineering+MBA’s, and most are graduates even if they don’t have an Engineering degree. They also come with work experience; many are employed with your competition now.

But that’s not the fun part; the fun part is that despite the abundance of quickly, readily available talent, organizations still clock anywhere between 25%-35% attrition rates.

So what went wrong?

• Hiring process?
• Hiring manager’s ability to identify top talent?
• Hiring manager’s insecurity in hiring better talent?
• Your system broke down a top talent and made them leave?
• Is no top talent available?

Or are you perpetually looking to hire only a Superman? Turns out, there’s only one, and he may not need a job. Or is your team unable to identify the Superman hidden in Clark Kent?

Could it be that your team is rejecting Clark Kent in search of the idea of Superman?

Is your team pursuing an impossible mandate to find the best match for the role? A 10/10? The other factor is how you would know if you did come across one. Unless you are a 10/10 yourself? But if you are a 7/10, are you capable enough to identify a 10/10? How so?

It took a Master Shifu, coached by Supreme Master Oogway, to identify, groom & grow Po into a Dragon Warrior, not Mr. Ping and his little noodle soup business!

Who is your Oogway? More importantly, what are they doing to groom Master Shifu? Where are those people? Where is Master Shifu? How long have they spent understanding the finer aspects of people management?

If there is so much top talent available, why do we keep hiring bad ones? Or is the system converting a top talent to bottom talent? Where does the buck stop? The toughest question you need to honestly answer: did you hire mediocre managers to recruit mediocre talent? If yes, the math adds up, isn’t it?

Do you or your team have the necessary skill sets to identify the next big thing? Or are you ignorant about it? Did your team, by any chance, reject top talent on the planet? And if you did manage to hire them, why are you still struggling with people management?

When was the last time you audited your hiring managers’ interview reports?

Is there a pattern to their rejections? Why are they rejecting top shortlisted candidates? Basis what? Merely mentioning not-a-good-fit or, worse, “rejected” is not enough. It needs to be investigated and analyzed further. Besides, it costs your company a ton of money, energy, and business disruption, unless that’s something you don’t worry about much.

When top individual contributors are promoted as people managers, they may only sometimes have the necessary skills or expertise to accurately identify top talents. Factors such as a lack of diverse industry knowledge, talent management training, and personal biases can contribute to a hiring manager’s inability to identify top candidates.

Additionally, in the age of instant gratification, many recruitment processes may not be designed to effectively assess a candidate’s potential for success in a given role. “Why spend time and money on ramp-up? We want a ready-to-go meal.” 

But, as we all learned, Ramen noodles could never be Rice noodles.

Therefore, more than merely matching keywords is required. More than simply hiring someone from the competition being considered as the best fit. Are your hiring managers adequately equipped, mature, and job secure? If not, what are you doing about it?

Aayan Banerjee

https://linktr.ee/aayanisms