There isn’t any organisation I know that can honestly say that they are a business match for everyone. And that’s in terms of employees as well as potential clients.
I was recently discussing a situation with one of my clients where an employee had been working a trial period, which, to be honest, had quite quickly ended in disaster for both parties. The potential employee appeared to be quite disgruntled with aspects of the role for whatever reason finally ending up with providing fairly forceful ‘feedback’ to my client about their management style and what was being asked of them. Needless to say, my client was quite shocked not only at how this was delivered but that they apparently were being criticised for how they run their own business!
Easy for me to say, however, I responded to my client saying that they quite obviously weren’t a ‘business match’ in this instance; despite seemingly having a great skill set and enthusiasm initially. It’s not just the case that not every business will appeal to all potential buyers of a product or service irrelevant of whether they have the perfect solution or not (otherwise we wouldn’t have any competition!). But it also stands to reason that not every potential employee or business employer will be the right fit either.
The fact is that employees will sometimes be an ideal business match, sometimes an ‘acceptable’ business match (although I would debate that personally) and unfortunately, in some cases, no business match at all.
It’s a trial & error process to see which is the case (for both parties I have to add!), and it can cost more in time than money. But the better outcome for the business and/or potential employee is to notice that something isn’t right, they’re not quite aligned & one party walk away. You know the saying, that you can’t fit a round peg into a square hole? That works in many contexts within business.
Just as you would walk away from buying something if it wasn’t quite right for you, looking for an alternative, there’s nothing wrong with a business (or the employee) admitting that an employee is not working within that business and they need to part company.
I have been involved in many ‘CV sifting’ occasions in my previous corporate life, and to be honest have rarely interviewed anyone who exactly reflects what you see on those pieces of paper. I have often been surprised by what I thought was going to the perfect match and yet a person who looked like perhaps they didn’t quite have the skill set we were looking for turned out to be an amazing member of our team with exactly the attitude and drive that we needed (sometimes so much more important than just being able to ‘do the job’).
Often an employer won’t see how the potential employee fits their business until they have been working together for a period of time, see how they fit the culture of the business and whether they are going to bring new skill sets or qualities to enhance the team and the business. But that’s the nature of the beast. Accept that you may not find the right people for your team straight away, but they will be out there & once you find them it will be like a jigsaw perfectly fitting together.
Have you experienced employee trials not working out? Or a method to find your perfect employee business match? Get in touch & let us know.
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