In this Issue

😱    The Dreaded PIP
📝    50% of Hiring Mistakes
🏎️    Right People Gain Traction

😱  The Dreaded PIP

The PIP, or Performance Improvement Plan, has gotten a bad rap, and rightfully so.

Many organizations use PIPs as an obligatory HR step before firing someone. Others use them as a tool to force someone to quit, rather than paying severance.

These are the wrong reasons to use PIPs. If you want to let someone go, skip the PIP. Don’t drag it out and make it painful for everyone.

Use a Performance Improvement Plan only when you believe in an employee and want to make them successful. If the potential of a PIP is less than 30%, or even less than 50%, don’t do it. It’s a waste of time for all involved.

PIPs are about change management and accountability. Create a plan that is practical, achievable, and time bound:

1. What are one to five areas of improvement?
2. What is the desired objective or outcome for each area of improvement?
3. How will you and the employee measure progress? Be specific! This cannot be vague or unachievable.
4. When will you schedule a review date?
5. What, if any, are the consequences of failing to make measurable progress in the areas of improvement?

The plan may feel intimidating to write and share, but do it with love and respect for the individual and your team as a whole.

You’re not punishing someone or being mean for putting them on a PIP. You are setting a standard for performance and providing every member of your team with the appropriate support and opportunities to level set and get back on track.

📝  50% of Hiring Mistakes

50% of hiring mistakes occur because the requirements and competencies of a position are not clearly understood. More bluntly said, the job description sucks!

You can eliminate half of all hiring mistakes simply by writing better job descriptions. Instead of writing a wish list of attributes, really dig into the purpose of the position and how a person will be successful in the role:

• What is the purpose of the position? Why does it exist in your organization, and what value does it contribute?
• How will an individual be successful in the role?
• What skills, abilities, and experiences are essential to perform the position well? Look beyond the technical skills. The components of success in a role are typically 40% behavioral profile, 25% intelligence, 20% motivation, and 15% skills.
• How will you train or support a person if they don’t have all the skills you are asking for?

So much time is wasted recruiting and interviewing the wrong people, because you don’t have a clear map of what you are hiring for.

📊  One Stat to Watch

52%

52% of job seekers use AI to write or refine their resumes, while 48% of employers use AI to screen the same resumes! At what point is it AI hiring AI to do our jobs?

🏎️  Right People Gain Traction

There really is no substitute for working with talented people.

When you don’t have the right people in the right jobs, it’s like driving on bald tires. It doesn’t matter how hard you step on the gas. You just can’t gain traction.

For example, a talented marketer with no marketing budget can achieve more than a weak marketer working with a $100,000 marketing budget.

Peter Drucker wrote, “Results are obtained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.”  It doesn’t matter how much money you have at your disposal. A talented marketer will spot opportunities to achieve results that the less-talented marketer couldn’t see or understand.

This is never easy or cheap, but it always pays off: Focus on working with the right talent, at all levels in your organization.

As Jim Collins wrote in Good To Great, “Those who build great companies understand that the ultimate throttle on growth for any company is not markets, or technology, or competition, or products. It is one thing above all others: the ability to get and keep enough of the right people.”

🤔  Thoughts on Today’s Issue?

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