Hiring Wisdom: 12 Reasons Why Managers Need to Do a Better Job

Here are 12 reasons why managers need to do a better job of hiring, motivating, and retaining great employees in today’s turbulent times.

As tough as it is, it is by far easier to hire someone who is motivated, has a customer service attitude, and who wants to work, than it is to try to motivate someone to work.
Because employers have fewer people doing the work, they need to have better people doing the work.
It is harder to attract great employees in today’s market than when times are good.
Most mangers are so busy they don’t have time to look for new, quality employees and so they put up with workers who are only “okay.”
Most applicants are better at interviewing than most interviewers.
The number of people looking for jobs makes it that much harder to find the best.
Your best employees are the ones who can most easily leave your organization and get a new job.
Turnover is down, but that doesn’t mean your employees are happy. It just means those who want to leave are just hanging on until things get better.
There has never been a better time to hire new people; it’s a buyers’ market.
A-players don’t want to play on B teams.
Mediocre employees will kill your firm. (It is just a slow death.)
The most important decision managers make every day is who they allow in the doors to take care of their customers.

This was originally published in the September 2011 Humetrics Hiring Hints newsletter.