It’s OK to Hire Average Employees

Is your company average? 

Chances are, your business isn’t leading your field, and that’s OK. Not every organization can be Google or Facebook. Yet still, you want to attract the best talent — because why should you have to settle for workers who aren’t top performers? 

Evil HR Lady will tell you why. 

Evil HR Lady is Suzanne Lucas, a writer and speaker who has spent a decade working in corporate HR. She recently gave a DisruptHR talk in St Helier (it’s part of the British Isles — you’re welcome!) in which she points out that it’s OK if your company isn’t a top place to work. It’s alright that you are probably somewhere in the middle. That’s how bell curves work. You’re probably doing average things, employ average workers, and have average clients. 

“You don’t have to be number one to be successful,” Lucas points out. And you don’t have to — nor should you — hire rock stars for all your roles. She explains:

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“Do you need someone who can come and stand before a room and rally the crowd and make change in the entire world? Or do you need an accounts-payable manager who’ll come to work on time, do her job, and be reasonably polite?”

Check out Lucas’ five-minute talk below about why, as her talk suggests, “It’s Time to Start Recruiting Satisfactory Employees to Work at OK Companies.”

Vadim Liberman is editor of ERE.net and a workplace renegade advancing how we think, work, and live. He has previously worked as a strategy consultant to HR and recruiting tech companies at The Starr Conspiracy, as a talent management professional at Prudential, and as senior editor of The Conference Board Review, a magazine for business leaders. Vadim loves to talk about all things HR, talent acquisition, and Bravo TV shows. 

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