You might think it’s a bad time to be picky when hiring. Given factors like the so-called Great Resignation, the shrinking labor pool, and how competitive businesses have to be with one another to even attract job seekers, it’s no wonder that managers are just thrilled to receive qualified applications. You’d have to be crazy to turn away a competent applicant, right?
However, despite the tough market, businesses shouldn’t lower their standards just to fill open positions. While it’s important to have enough staff to fill out the schedule, employees who are a bad fit for your business can actually make things worse. And we’re not even talking about skills or knowledge, the things that can be taught—we’re talking about their general attitude and how they fit your company’s culture.
As Shep Hyken explains in a recent article, “When you hire someone for a job, you should understand their personality.” Hyken continues, “You do want to have someone with the right attitude, but more importantly, they need to understand and fit in the culture and personality of your organization.” You might think that it’s a worthy gamble to hire someone who’s good at faking their enthusiasm for their work, but that’s going to bite you in the long run.
All too often, employees who are good fakers don’t maintain their act forever, and certainly not beyond their shifts: your customers can and will interact with them when they’re on break or off work, and it can be supremely jarring to find out that the person who was so friendly inside is completely the opposite outside. “It’s just a matter of time before they flip back to a different personality. They may want to put forth their best effort, but if it really isn’t part of their personality, they will eventually revert back to who they really are.” As Hyken further explains, “customers don’t know whether an employee is on-duty or off-duty. But they do know how they are treated.”
In other words, make sure the people who put on your uniform, wear your nametag, or otherwise represent your company in some way are more than just placeholders for empty gaps in your work schedule. Make sure they’re a cultural fit, exuding the kind of attitude your customers deserve. Fakers may impress us all with their ability to compartmentalize their frustration with the job, or how talented they are at putting on an act to make the sale, but those people who really selling themselves short, too. Long term, they’ll only hate their jobs and resent your customers.
Fakers would do much better to find a job they actually like, and your business would certainly be much better for avoiding cultural misfits who will likely cause dissention among your other employees. If you want to foster a great company culture, you need employees who buy in.
Understanding how your employees feel, what they think of your business’s mission statement, and what ideas they have for improving their work environment are all things we can help with. The Brandt Group offers employee feedback services, as well as customer-service and leadership training. When you find the right people, they might have the personality but not the skill—let us help you with the latter by helping you design a training regimen that includes regular evaluation through our world-class mystery shopping services. Armed with that data, you’ll be able to coach your people into not only true believers, but skilled ones at that.
