Hire Slow Fire Fast

A lot of companies that are just starting hire employees fast and fire slow.  They are so interested in growing that they hire to fill roles quickly and are reluctant to remove employees when they find that the newly hired employees are not a good fit.  Many are just too busy to remove the employee or just decide to duck the difficult conversations involved in firing an employee.

Hiring fast and firing slow has led to massive lay-offs.  Sometimes by the time officials of a company have realized that their company is struggling as a result of undisciplined hiring they have to put the company through a major surgery instead of maintaining a disciplined daily pruning.

Companies that successfully hire slow and fire fast thrive without being made to operate under the weight of staff that just does not fit.  These companies maintain their health by making sure that their major systems do not fail as the result of employees that just don’t fit the bill.  It is much better to hire slow and fire fast so that the company does not go through the shock of a major layoff.

You might think that the concept of hire slow fire fast is insensitive.  It isn’t really.  It is actually compassionate and the following are reasons why.

1.        Having companies that are too oversized to function properly and are bureaucratic actually slowly die.  These types of companies are not healthy and they don’t stick around very long.

2.       How compassionate is it to keep one person that is not very productive and make the rest of the team suffer?  Teams are better off when each member pulls their own weight.  Hire slow fire fast might seem harsh, but how harsh is it to make other team members carry the weight of an employee that just doesn’t fit?   

3.       It is not actually humane to try to make someone fit into shoes that are too big or too small.  It is not helping people when you keep them in the wrong role constantly having to give them the same feedback performance review after performance review.

To hire slow fire fast you must be extremely selective in your hiring decisions.  Almost to the point of being ridiculous.  Sometimes it is even necessary to have a prospective employee come and work with you for a day just to see if they are a natural fit.  No commitments need to be made at that point.  It is just an opportunity for each party to see the other in how they perform naturally.  You get a chance to see how the prospective employee responds to the natural stimuli of the position. 

You might be rather inclined not to want to work for a company that goes to such lengths to make a good hiring decision.  But that’s the point.  To weed out those that will not be a good fit for the company.

If you want the hire slow fire fast concept to work you have to find ways to fire humanely.  This means that you don’t publically walk people out making a public display of them.  It means that you don’t abruptly oust people as if they are criminals. 

The best way to handle firing is to take the person aside and let them know that you don’t think that they are a good fit and then of course you would state the reason.  You could also provide free career coaching to help the person find a better fit elsewhere.

If you hire slow fire fast you will find that you would have a dense repository of talent.  Sure, in order to get there you will have to exhibit strong leadership skills and have tough conversations.  But, in the end, it will be worth it.

(This article was written via ‘How to Hire –and Fire – The Right Way’ by Greg McKeown)  

If you learned anything new from this post then please leave a comment.