Hiring Someone? You and Your Team Don’t Know What You’re Doing

By Jeff Altman, The Big Game Hunter

When I worked in search, I filled more than 1200 positions plus consulting assignments. I interviewed clients about how they evaluated and assessed potential hires and did tens of thousands of post-interview debriefings with people who were interviewed. I also followed up with people who joined my clients to learn about the disconnects between what they were told and what the reality was.

Here’s what we know.

Employee engagement rates are ridiculously low despite all of the effort that has gone into employee engagement. One statistic I saw indicated that half the workforce was actively disengaged with their work. The percentage of employees who were engaged with their work is at 32% according to the most recent Gallup survey I found. That means that ttwo-thirdsof the work force in the US is ambivalent or actively disengaged. And the US is the best in the world at this!

On the other hand, I have seen an interesting statistic about hiring managers and “buyer’s remorse.” Jeff Hyman from “The Strong Suit Podcast” and I discussed the fact that somewhere between 50% and 65% of hiring managers think they made a mistake hiring someone on their staff within the first year of the first year of a person joining (Jeff H…