Part of the fun part of being an employee retention speaker and employee retention expert is that I get to travel and sit in airports…yeah right! Even if you can get some work done it tends to be rather tedious and boring BUT, on occasion, I hear some great material for my blog because of how lax people are when they are having phone conversations when they are sitting right next to you!
Recently, I heard a guy talking about how they were going to post a job vacancy within the department because they felt they needed to appear transparent even though the job description had been written in a way to preclude everyone except for one person in the department. I have seen this done so many times in my career that it just makes me laugh. Who do these people think they are fooling? Your right…no one.
What happens when you to this is that you simply make everyone angry and disrespect them by sending the message they are too stupid to see through their sham posting. If you have someone who is a good fit for the job you are looking to add, simply tell the other people. Instead of the sham, be honest with them. Is that difficult at times? Of course, but it is better than disrespecting people. They may not like the answer they hear but will respect your honesty.
Honesty is one of the key elements in the “R” of my C.R.A.P. retention system. Honesty is at the heart of whether or not your people will respect and trust you. Both are key in your employee retention strategies. So, next time a difficult job posting comes up, don’t be a weasel and not tell your people. Tell the truth because if you are looking to improve retention, C.R.A.P. works!
