In Jan 1984 Apple shipped crappy product. It had only 128 K of RAM, no hard disk, no modem, no slots, no color display, no letter quality printer, no documentation, no installed customer base and no development tools.
Apple could have waited until Macintosh was 'perfect'. However, waiting would have added a year of delay and probably would have killed Macintosh because the team was already burned out, the software developers who were creating applications would have lost confidence that Macintosh would ever ship and who knew how the computer market would have changes in a year's time.
But you've got to ship that imperfect product - not because you want to (or think you can) get away with it, but because it is the right thing to do.
Revolutionary products don't fail because they are shipped too early. They fail because they aren't revised fast enough.
This holds true for hiring as well. Build your processes and culture so strong that either even the worst hire becomes useful quickly or the worst hire leave on his own. Of course the message here is not that you should hire just anybody, the message is don't wait for the perfect fit. At Bangalore Secretary Service we have seen so many start-ups loosing a lot of time trying to get the rock-star they hope for that they end delaying their milestones indefinitely, which poses a greater risk to their survival.
I sincerely wish this was true! Currently it is just a dream !!! Sorry to disappoint you guys...
But honestly, it is beyond anybody's sane thinking about how on earth most people these days just don't land up for interviews; after confirming at least twice? It is getting beyond reasoning and plain human tolerance!
Why don't these candidates, who almost beg for jobs when they need one, apply randomly to any apply button they get their hands on (almost as if, if they don't get a call for job interview, they and their entire family will go food-less for the next 24 months)!
How shameless can these people get when they happily say yes when asked about their interest and how smoothly they confirm their presence for the interview, only to be disappointed yet again when they suddenly decide to meet their beaus instead or attend to ailing (till now hail & hearty) grandmother? Little do these candidates care about the state of humiliation, ridicule and pain the recruiters go through in front of their Hiring Managers, who by the way in spite of knowing the situation, come down like a pile of rocks on these (us) recruiters.
I think, all the companies in India (it happens only in India), need to lobby with our Legal System to make No-show to interviews (without a reason) to be punishable under a certain IPC code (421; a notch higher than 420 (for fraud))!
From our study (without any prejudice to the matter), highest No-Shows have been seen in the regions of Delhi, Gurgaon, Noida followed by Chennai, Hyderabad and Pune. Candidates from Mumbai and Bangalore seem to have basic courtesy to call much in advance and notify of their non-availability (last minute nonetheless)!
I hope as our population demographic becomes more and more younger in the next few years, it will suddenly become an Employers market and maybe then, black-listing candidates who do not show-up for interviews will become practical.
Till then lets keep getting punished for somebody else' crime! :)
These are purely our views.
From our experience, these are really the reasons of not turning up for interviews, causing such a productivity waste of the Employers!
1. "Not in the Mood" - Don't want to dress-up and travel. We would give over 70% score to this reason.
Potential Solution: Offer pick-up and drop-off cab service. It may cost you Rs.800 average, but it is worth it. Beware however, your accounting dept. needs to be convinced of the ROI. Unfortunately they are only mandated to save expenses.
2. "Not Really looking for a Job Change" - Wants to explore if by chance there is a 100 or 200% compensation increase possibility
Potential Solution: Spend a lot of time asking why the candidate wants to change the current job. Probe a lot around it. Many candidates break-down here and unintentionally reveal their true motive.
3. "Cannot say "No" - General upbringing and systemic problem
Potential Solution: None found yet!
Came across this great article by a UX Designer on how to hire Designers for your Start up. It was awesome and fully resonated with Bangalore Secretary Services Thoughts and thinking.
There are two key scenarios when a start-up Founder makes this huge hiring mistake and trust me we know it because we only do start up hiring:
The Founder gives us a salary budget, which is typically half of what the market is demanding (thinking the 'right' candidate will join him for love of the experience and dream of becoming an overnight Instagram or Whats App phenomenon)
The Founder expects to hire a multi-talented, multi-skilled, mulch-tasker just in case the start up had to 'pivot' its business model some day or save on additional headcount, should there be a need to survive
20% of the Founders end up not hiring from us; because they never find the perfect one for the budget they have in mind, about 50% do end up hiring because of paucity of time and return back to us after about 2 months stating that it didn't work out. The 30% that remain is what makes us writes such articles and run our business Bangalore Secretary Services successfully.
Here's what they do:
Whats your Budget Founder? we ask..
Founder:
First we would like to explain to you what we intend to achieve from a business stand-point. We will then tell you what skills are generally needed to achieve the vision we have in mind. Then I will let you guys recommend the right candidates. Let us thus do a true salary discovery in the process. Because we certainly want to ensure that person joining us is happy about the work we would give and happy for the money he/she will get that compensates fairly for the impact he/she would bring.
What skills, what experience? we ask.
Founder:
Honestly, we are looking for intrinsic skills, skills that are inherent in the form of aptitude and keen interest. For example, if we were to hire a PhP programmer, we would prefer someone who would have participated or would have wanted to participate in a hack-a-thon rather than having years of core PHP experience. Someone who may not have done what we want, but knows of open source libraries of PhP that can be readily used in the code, not because they are free, but because they are optimized piece of code written by geniuses. You get my drift?
So to conclude, don't settle for less and certainly don't let salary budget or experience stall you from hiring the right candidate!
And don't ever forget 'Hire Nice or Hire Twice'
To know how we can become your long-term Hiring Partner, please feel free to Call us at +917795547089 or Mail us at team@bangaloresecretary.com for a detailed discussion.
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