Guaranteeing a job may be a cringe-worthy proposition for most HR execs. How about you – woud you sign a new hire with a contract for 24 months of protected employment? How about if we told you that it could improve your ROI? According to HR Pro Tim Sackett, there is a scenario where guaranteed employment could equal a win for HR…as well as the new employee.
In a recent blog post over at Fistful of Talent, Sackett reminded us that the job guarantees are nothing new. “HR Pros write guaranteed job contracts all the time,” he says. “When is the last time you hired an executive that didn’t have 12 to 24 months guarantee?”
But it might take some convincing for us all to consider extending the same benefits to new hires in IT or Engineering that we apply to top-level executives.
Sackett tells us why we should keep our options open:
Let’s say I have a need for a top level IT Developer. My need is in middle America somewhere, not an IT hotbed. I can get people interested, but relocation to an area with no other jobs than mine freaks most people out at this level. My options are either pay a crazy amount of money (basically over-pay for talent, which rarely works out) or shop the work out to an IT shop (which can get expensive, there’s less control, you become reliant, etc.). And before you tell me the other 10 things we can do – just play along with this example. Both ideas cost me a bunch of money. Now, if I was to go to that developer and offer them a Guaranteed position, in writing, for one year, do you think that would make a difference to a few people?
We can see how it might, especially given the current fear in the job market. If you’re looking to draw in top talent from all over the country, you must consider that candidates are going be looking for reassurance before they decide to uproot their families. If they can’t find that within the surrounding job sector, a promise of employment can help provide the stability needed to win over the best recruits. You get the talent
There are, of course, some obvious concerns to making such a large promise to a new hire, not the least of them that if this person doesn’t work out, it’s going to be on HR’s head.
But to this, Sackett implies that it’s our own insecurities about our profession that keeps us from making an aggressive move.
If you were sure you hired great talent, that fit your organizations culture – you wouldn’t be concerned with offering someone a one year job guarantee – heck, you might even be able to offer them one for even longer. But the fact is, we as HR Pros don’t because we don’t want to go back to our executives and tell them we don’t have an exact science – in the end, we are still just throwing a dart and hoping that it will stick.
Ouch – that one stung a little. What do you think? We’d like to hear your comments on job guarantees below. Would you ever offer one? Can you imagine other scenarios where a job guarantee might work?