A tattoo is basically forever.
I know, I know; you can get them removed by laser now. But most people don’t go into a tattoo proposition thinking, “I can’t wait to pay a couple of thousand dollars to get this removed!”
It’s permanent baby. Like a Sharpie, but better!
Most organizations do Tattoo Hiring. They believe they are going to hire this person for forever.
In fact, go ahead and tattoo the logo on their butt while they’re in orientation. But, the life cycle of most hires is similar to that of your tattoo you got on Spring Break back in 2001.
Here’s how it goes with Tattoo Hires:
That’s all right; you’ve still got Tattoo Hire #2! I mean, what could go wrong? A Tattoo Hire is forever, right?
Organizations that hire with a Tattoo philosophy are bound to fail.
It’s not that you can’t expect, or want, employees to stay with you their entire career. You can. The problem we face is when we don’t set up our organizations to support forever hires.
The new tattoo always looks better because it is usually more defined and brighter, and you put more thought into it. An employee is no different.
You can’t let a more tenured employee fade. You must keep them vibrant and up to date. Or, many times you will spend a ton of money replacing them.
This was originally published on Tim Sackett’s blog, The Tim Sackett Project.
