Does Hire Slow, Fire Fast Still Make Sense?

Last year, I pulled up to a local restaurant to pick up some food for my family when I was greeted by this sign.

I pulled on the door -- locked -- and checked my watch out of confusion.

Only 2:30 PM.

And in the most "Far Side" of ways, I finally looked up to see this sign on the door.

"Yikes," I immediately thought.

And it wasn't yikes because of these employees' risky decision to shut down their own store.

It was a big yikes because clearly someone in leadership had dropped the ball.

And the employees -- fed up with it -- decided to do something about it.

Was it the right decision? I'm not sure -- but it certainly isn't the first time employees have felt mismanaged by their boss.

These stories are all over the place today -- especially as social media spaces like R/antiwork continue to climb in popularity.

Many jobseekers seemed to resonate with them, and in some ways, I do too.

Years ago, I remember applying for a job I really wanted. In my mind, it was a perfect fit for what I envisioned doing.

I was coming off teaching in the Houston public school system, and the position I was interested in was essentially a role that revolved around innovating education systems for at-risk kids.

Think about how “night school” came about as an alternative option and that’s sort of what I’m talking about when it comes to creating new solutions for ensuring every person has access to education.

I’m passionate about public education. Always have been.

So when this position opened up, I put enormous work into my application.

A month went by… and no answer.

I sent an email only to be told they were still collecting applications.

Another month, and I gave a phone call. Politely, I was told the position was still open and they were still collecting applications. In fact, the individual mentioned that hadn’t even begun working through the applications they’d already received.

And then, after the 3rd month, I moved on. I shortly after got a job elsewhere…

I did in fact get called for an interview… six months after I had originally applied.

It reminds me of the time that a business gloated to me about their rigorous hiring standards.

As they explained it, they were incredibly proud of their “9 month hiring process”.

I wasn’t particularly impressed — in fact, I remember thinking at the time, "Trust me, after 9 months, all your best candidates have already gotten jobs elsewhere.”

And it’s true. What amazing and incredible professional is going to wait around 9 months for their next job?

It always interests me how as businesses we on one hand want that great next hire… yet the systems we’ve put in place make it a failed process from the get go.

It also bears mentioning that right now we’re living in an “employee market”.

What I mean by this is that employees have all the leverage.

Essentially, there’s more jobs than there are people to fill them. And people are finding themselves post-COVID more deliberate on the kinds of jobs they want.

Want a fully remote or hybrid role? This may have been seen as a bit picky before the pandemic.

But now, companies worldwide are transitioning to a model that’s receptive to a multitude of work styles, giving jobseekers everywhere a number of options.

Not only that, but $10/hour isn’t cutting it anymore. It’s why we’ve seen a number of nation-wide industry leaders raising their starting pays to over $20/hour.

Bank of America in fact early this year mentioned their rollout of a $25/hour minimum wage.

These are all reactions to today’s job market… which is why it’s always so meaningful to recognize businesses that were proactive in attracting talent far earlier.

I’ve mentioned Costco previously and how they’ve consistently been ahead of their industry competitors in pay.

Meanwhile, Dan Price — CEO of Gravity Payments — cut his pay by $1,000,000 to give all employees a starting salary of $70,000 back in 2015.

It was a move highly criticized by a number of public figures, many of whom expected the business to close.

Now, six years later,?Gravity Payments is flourishing, with revenue tripling because of this decision.

We make this stuff out to be such a complicated game or joke about hiring as being rocket science.

But it really isn’t. And in a world where “Hire slow, fire fast” has *always* been a foundational concept in business…

It doesn’t really work anymore.

Almost every business is willing to aggressively innovate their company to get more customers, especially when things are dire.

Do the same when it comes to hiring your people.

Blake is the founder of?Good Advice, a consulting company that grows and scales businesses with simple steps. Want more content like this??Subscribe to our weekly newsletter.

Blake also runs the?Good Advice Podcast, one of the top business podcasts in the country, available on every podcast platform.?Listen via Spotify.