In the age of hiring millennials becoming increasingly tough, I have spoken with close to 100 candidates, who has either performed a No-show, offer-drop or has quit early; to understand why they did it. Though the reasons were varied, the common thread evolved from these conversations was that the candidates felt ignored or pushed (in some cases). Though some agree it was for salary, most say the decision to quit, involves more than that.
I’ve tried to place some examples below for your perusal and interpretations
Candidate 1: (No-show)
I got three consecutive offers (one via a recruitment firm, two directly from the companies).
- I completely forgot about one offer. I realised about this offer, when the recruiter called me and asked why I did not report. Bad memory.
- I dropped the offer via the recruitment firm, since I did not get much clarity on the role (I call the recruiter with a question, and get a standard response “let me get back to you on that”, but never hear back from them). So, I did not bother telling him that I will not be joining.
- I joined the 2nd Company which offered me (the salary was marginally less than my other offer), because I knew someone in that team and got all my questions clarified
Candidate 2: (offer-drop)
I got an offer from one of our competitor companies (the company was larger in size the offer was great too); but decided to not to join since the recruiter was never available to clarify my job/role specific questions and was not even ready to allow me to speak with the hiring manger (claiming process compliance). So, I dropped the offer and decided to stay put with my current company.
Candidate 3: (First Day Attrition)
I walked in to the office @10am on my Date of Joining (DOJ), the security asked me three questions and I just walked out.
- Who are you and whom do you want to meet?
- Do you have the contact number of the person you want to meet?
- Can you call that person and give the phone to me to check?
Candidate 4: (First week Attrition)
I joined the company with great aspiration, first day I was made to wait in the reception for an hour, and then in a conference room (even without asking me for a glass of water) for another two hours to fill forms (The HR exec. just gave me lot of forms to be filled and walked out). Then the HR executive came, collected the papers and asked me to have my lunch and report back in 45 minutes. After lunch entered the HR manager, who went on with the company presentation and policies for close to two hours, in between my team manager walked-in to say hi and walked out in 5 mins. Then the HR manager asked me to leave for the day and report back tomorrow at 9:30 am.
Next day, I was introduced to the manager and the team. The manager assigned a desk for me, with no computer and gave two big process documents to go through and find him in case I need anything. I had hard time talking to peers (trying to make friends). Finally, on the 3rd day got my PC, and the manager sent me an email with list of tools / drivers to be accessed and introduced me to the alpha (team name changed) team and work started. No introduction meeting or domain training given, but tasks were assigned promptly. By the 5th day, I had enough and over the weekend decided to quit.
There are many other experiences like this which has made new-hires take the exit call early.
As an individual (Human being) when a new-hire or candidate goes through such experiences, the first thought which comes to their mind is “What did I get myself into”. The next second their fundamental physiologic response kicks in and they go to the flight mode.
One thing we all must be very clear with, is that as human beings we would even accept difficult people but never tolerate being ignored or side-lined (professionally and personally).
Now add the Millennials to this equation, who are already stereotyped to be narcissistic, adaptable, high maintenance, not loyal, instant feedback and gratitude seekers, etc. Today, millennials represent the largest portion of the Indian workforce and are expected to represent majority of the global workforce by 2020.
The cost of early employee turnover is much higher than you think. The costs for advertising, interviewing, recruiting, training, reduced productivity, poor customer service and lower employee morale mount up quickly. The true cost can be more than 200% of their annual salary.
Organisations works hard to attract quality people, but what goes unnoticed is the energy needed to get that person off to a great start. Many know the risk of losing an employee within the first year, but few people may realize just how many employees leave before they’ve even hit 90 days or even worse leave before they join (No-shows). These early departures are both frustrating and expensive.
Ignoring your new-hires or candidates; leads them to feel more helpless, like they’re not worthy of any attention at all, which is the primary reason for No-shows and early attrition. So, let’s not just outright blame the candidates / new-hires (particularly millennials) of being unethical or greedy.
At the end of the day, candidates accept offers from multiple companies, but choose to join the Company which establishes a personal and meaningful connection.
Enabling candidates / new-hires to interact with recruiter, hiring manager, HR or buddy and vice versa; is one of the best way to effectively transmit your company culture and humanise your employer brand, which would positively improve personal connection and reduce the No-shows & early attrition rates.
This article is a part of a series, to read the previous article check out
No-shows Are Killing It In The Indian Job Market
The Hiring Manager’s Plight – To Be Or Not To Be
(Disclaimer: This is a guest article contributed on Techstory. All content as well as views expressed are those of the author. Techstory is not responsible or liable for any content in this article.)
Image Credits: westword.com
About The Author:
Anish Padinjaroote Co-founder & Learner Aout Innovations.
Aout is a technology company with Behaviour science based SMART bots and next generation AI at its core. IOXY is their first product; addressing Pre-boarding issues.