Memo to HR: Don't Hire Just to Fill a Position

by Gina Trimarco for ForbesIn many service-based industries I’ve worked with, especially hospitality, the tone of hiring managers tends to be “Hire a warm a body. They’re going to leave us after a quarter anyway.” That, and the mindset that training is a pointless investment due to high turnover. Yet I continue to hear “We can’t find good people.” To that, I continue to say, “You’re making excuses.”The reality is that these hiring managers are overworked and functioning in a reactive versus proactive mode. They hire quickly, thus poorly, because they need that warm body. Since they put off hiring until the last minute, their options tend to be slim in today's employee market. Candidates have choices, and if you don’t move quickly, you may end up with the least favorable employee because “someone is better than no one.”Recently, I interviewed Gabriella Mirabelli of the marketing agency Anatomy, for a podcast. Her perspective on this was: “Sometimes you need to fire the recruiter.” But what if the recruiter is a hiring manager with no training or experience in hiring correctly?Read More →