The Shoemaker’s kids go around with holes in their shoes. I hear this repeatedly as an analogy for how recruitment companies run and operate. People, production, performance, motivation and integrity issues, dysfunction, no teamwork, inconsistency, and turnover are rabid epidemics. When a consultant first challenged me on my internal human resources issues I found that I was first a bit defensive, then apprehensive, and then frankly depressed.
I was making more money than ever before, had my own business, had fourteen employees, and had what was thought to be a viable business model. I was dealing with constant employee issues, complaints from customers and employees, inconsistent performance, processes that were continually not being honored or followed, turnover, and more. Throughout these few years I was taking myself on, going to management training seminars, taking on personal transformation, working with a coach, assessing myself, trying to get better at managing as to avoid or limit my employee crises, issues and drama any way I could. You name it, I was taking it on. During this time of constant personal reflection and correction, my executive coach, a very wise soul, pulled me aside and questioned me about how I went about choosing my employees. He asked:
How do you know that you have the very best talent you could have?
Is there any chance you are hiring the best and placing the rest?
Are you hiring the leftovers, the people you interviewed for whom you had no job, so you found something that would fit a need for yourself and them?
Are you hiring people who are a fit for your culture, goals and methodology, or are you hiring the same type of people who would have fit in your past employers environments, which simply would not fit in your company.
As he was questioning me