Finding the right people committed to staying with your organization starts with making sure that you and the job applicant are on the same page.
Many times, while working with an organization, I see employees who should never have been hired. Often it’s due to either the organization not identifying in detail their target candidate criteria or making unwise exceptions to their criteria. The excuse is always the same: “We need bodies — now.”
Job candidates make it even worse when they don’t have their own criteria for what they’re looking for in an employer. They say: “I need a job — now.”
It’s only a matter of time before the employee decides to move on or the organization decides they “don’t fit in.”
This is amazing to me. They decide six months later that the employee doesn’t fit in? The organization should have known back when they reviewed the candidate’s application or during the interview that the person didn’t meet their criteria. Both the organization and the employee are hurt for the same reason — trading a short-term problem for a long-term one — and they’ve wasted a lot of each other’s time.
In these cases, the organization has done a disservice to the employee by hiring them with a very real chance they won’t fit in. They’ve also damaged their organization by setting up a future problem that will need to be resolved.
Here are the real questions organizations need to address: What do our ideal candidates look like and how can we find them? Think of that old cliché that you can’t hit a target you can’t see.
Finding quality people becomes a lot easier once you’ve identified your candidate criteria in detail. Then it’s a matter of finding the appropriate sources and determining how to get their attention.
One company I knew of hired every Machinist Mate out of the Navy they could get their hands on. The reason was simple: given the skills those employees had obtained in the Navy, they already had most of the capabilities needed for the job when they started. They also had a work ethic and were revenue positive much quicker than other candidates.
On the flip side, what about the candidates’ criteria? What are they looking for? Not knowing is a related root cause to employee turnover.
Many candidates are looking for a “good job.” What does that mean? For that individual, it can mean many different things. The more information you can provide about your organization, the more the candidate can reflect. “Is what you’re hearing sound like something you want to do?” “Does the culture and environment feel comfortable?” Clarifying these aspects up front will help them think through what they’re looking for.
You should also look hard at their resumes and their answers to your questions. They may be giving you indirect clues as to what they’re after. If you get the feeling the candidate is just after a job, move on.
It’s much more prevalent now for people to try a job and then decide whether to jump. This means you must get them to see why they should stay.
On the other hand, the better candidates are looking at how they’ll fit in, grow, and be challenged in the future. They’re looking for a “value path” showing them how they can bring value to the organization and how their increased value is rewarded. Good employees expect the organization to articulate and then provide this path.
Many companies struggle with establishing how employees will be challenged beyond what they were hired for originally. Employees want a clearly defined, well-thought-out path, in writing — including the training, experience, and accomplishment standards for success. When your organization has this as a recruiting tool, you’re able to recruit, hire, and retain the type of employees you want and need.
This fundamental truth regarding good and unsuitable employees affects your employee turnover in so many ways. So how do you maximize the good and minimize the bad?
Prevent employee turnover and gain control of your hiring process by clearly showing who you are. Be able to read between the lines of a resume and discover who candidates really are. Develop value paths to instantly show your candidates the opportunities available. Employing these strategies, you’ll begin to pull in who you need and fend off who you don’t.
Clark A. Ingram is the Founder and President of People Profits, LLC, which focuses on the three greatest human capital problems affecting organizations: employee turnover, chronically open positions, and skills gap. He consults with a spectrum of companies and has consistently reduced turnover by more than 40 percent in the first year and achieved staffing at more than 90 percent. His new book is Churn: Proven Strategies to Overcome Failing Conventional Talent Management and Achieve Zero Turnover (People Profits, March 26, 2026). Learn more at peopleprofits.com.
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