When it comes to regrets, the managerial ranks are a breeding ground. Managers in every organization at one time or another will do things they wish they hadn’t done or fail to do things they wish they had done. Common examples of situations that may result in regret for managers include bad hiring decisions, failure to properly use the progressive discipline process, holding on to poor performers too long, not having enough promotable team members in the pipeline, and losing good people to the competition.
- Why do we keep hiring the wrong people?
- Why didn’t we document the performance issues?
- Why do we hold on to C players when we should be upgrading our talent?
- Why don’t we have a strong enough bench of candidates to fill the open positions?
- Why don’t we do a better job of attracting and retaining top talent?
A few “regret elimination” tips for managers:
- Wait for the right person – it’s better to be shorthanded in the near term than to hire the wrong person for the long term.
- Cut the cord – be decisive about moving under-performers out and bringing top performers in.
- Proactively build your bench – start developing and recruiting before the need arises so you are ready when it does.
via Managing Without Regrets: An HR Perspective | Psychology Today.
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All good advice, thank you. My observation, however, is that getting ahead of the curve with recruitment in order to build a bench hits both profit and cash flow. In a down market, there are already too many pressures on profit and cash flow so often there just isn’t room to implement this kind of strategy.
Peter.
I see your point about the down economy and tight profits margins not allowing much room for this strategy – but I think companies still need to be diligent abou hiring practices because a bad decision will hurt the company bottom line even worse. Thank you so much Peter for opening up the conversation!