Any way we slice it, recruiting great candidates to join our team comes with a price tag! When we’re forced to recruit constantly because the business is growing, it’s hard enough—especially in a world where those great candidates are hard to come by. But suppose our voluntary turnover is an issue, and we haven’t provided the best team members we did have with a solid reason to stay. In that case, we can expect those recruiting costs to turn into real profitability killers. While leadership involvement can significantly impact our recruiting process, there’s never a shortage of demands on a leader’s time, so we must be highly intentional about being involved where it can help the most.

Not so long ago, a friend who does high-end video production for a national healthcare system asked for my feedback on streamlining that organization’s orientation process. He told me that each executive team member had a direct role with all new employees. They had approached him about the potential of creating video orientation to replace what they were doing to free up some of that time. He explained that this would also ensure consistency in the message and provide coverage whenever one of those executives wasn’t available. I replied that it certainly would be possible and that both of the things he mentioned could be achieved. But then I shared the comparison of the two management teams I described before—and, more importantly, the feeling I still have about their different levels of involvement all these years later…

Here’s the thing: just showing up and rambling through a canned speech isn’t the secret sauce. The managers who never participated in the weekly orientation sessions I held with new employees from March 2013 until I moved on in October 2014 likely improved retention by NOT interacting with those team members right away! The impact the plant manager made on me in 1996 wasn’t simply because he popped in and talked to us; it was abundantly clear that he meant what he said, and he backed his words up with his actions for as long as I knew him.

I emphasized to my friend that how and when the executives he was working with interacted with their new team members was far less critical than it was for them to be completely genuine in every interaction they had with their teams—and that would never just happen! They need to be very proactive in their approach. While doing that seems far too rare in organizations today, I’m convinced it’s not complicated. I also don’t believe that the majority of executives and owners who aren’t involved in the recruiting process have ill will toward their teams; I think it’s usually a matter of being pulled in all directions, and initiating involvement in the recruiting process or engagement with the folks at all levels of their organization isn’t necessarily the fire that seems to demand their attention the most.

For more on this, you're welcome to reach out to us directly at admin@dove-development.net to get a 45 Day Trial Access to our COMPLETE Leading At The Next Level program or you can check out Wes's recently released book, What's KILLING Your Profitability? (It ALL Boils Down to Leadership!) that was a #1 Best Seller on Amazon!