I had a great breakfast this morning with some really smart folks that help their clients better select talented applicants.  Since that fits in with Recruiting, the “First R of Workforce Engagement”, we were exploring some opportunities to work together, to play off of our strengths.  Plus, I scored a free breakfast, and you know how much I love food…

I came away from the meeting feeling pretty good.  There were some real synergies in the products and services we provide and our basic marketing strategies.  We spent a lot of time discussing some of the difficulties of selling what we do to companies, not because they don’t have value but because there is a lack of a sense of urgency.

Is a company going to go out of business if they wait another quarter to improve their applicant screening and selection process?  Will customer satisfaction be put in real jeopardy if an organization decides to postpone switching their applicant tracking process from paper/pencil to an online system?  Will company financials be devastated if a company postpones the next wave of their Workforce Engagement Assessment?

As much as we don’t like the answer, we know that it is “No”.  Catastrophe will not occur immediately if a company doesn’t do what they know they should in regards to better selecting and retaining good employees.  It’s rare that we run across a company that understands that what we provide is strategic not tactical.  It’s even rarer that money is available (or budgeted) to address these employee issues.

We’ve tried many things before to prove our business case; providing the dollar cost of turnover, calculating the impact employee retention has on customer loyalty and financial success, showing how engagement creates a productivity surplus or deficit based on company payroll, linking improved hiring practices to employee retention, etc.   BUT DOES THE COMPANY HAVE TO MAKE THE CHANGE TODAY?  IF THEY WAIT, DO THEY PUT THEIR COMPANY IN PERIL??

What is personally frustrating to me?  Certainly some of it gets to pure dollars and cents.  Mine.  I run a business for profit (OK, my lovely bride’s profit), so the better I can explain the cost of doing nothing (or the benefit of doing something), the more likely the prospective customer will turn into a paying client. 

Second, organizations don’t stop measuring their customer satisfaction.  Companies inherently understand that customer satisfaction (or defection) problems must be addressed immediately, losing one customer is one customer too many.  Once a problem is fixed for one particular customer, companies will work to discover if any other customers are having similar issues or concerns that might also lead to their defection.  Fixes are put in place, and life goes on. 

So why don’t companies see their employees the same as they seem to see their customers, vital resources that need to be nurtured and in some cases, encouraged to stay?  Why don’t (the vast majority) of organizations look at the prospect of losing a good employee with the same sense of urgency they have when a good customer is threatening to leave?  Why do companies take immediate action to fix a customer problem before another one occurs, but puts off (indefinitely) the opportunity to better attract, recruit, and retain their talent?

How do we create that sense of urgency?

That’s the million dollar question.