Not Everyone Gets a Trophy, 3rd Edition

CHAPTER TWOGET THEM ON BOARD FAST WITH THE RIGHT MESSAGES

I want to know what the job is really going to be like, day to day. What is the day to day? Don't try to sell me the job. Just tell me the truth up front. Really. Please.

—Twentysomething

Today's talent wars are different from those of the past. Managers today are savvy enough to know that hiring one very good person is better than hiring three or four mediocre people. When the labor pool is tight, that means competing with other employers to attract the very best applicants. The winners in this talent war attract enough candidates that they can be selective in choosing whom to hire. Even so, some managers in a position to be selective still find that when hiring new young talent, they too often choose the “wrong person.” In fact, the most common complaint I hear from managers when it comes to hiring young workers today is that they often feel blindsided by a good hire gone bad in the very early stages of employment.

What's going wrong in the hiring of today's young talent?

Employers eager to attract the best are too often delivering the wrong messages to the wrong people at the wrong times.

Because young talent is perpetually in greater demand than supply—in most segments of the labor market—employers desperate to fill open positions often make the mistake of turning recruiting into an elaborate sales pitch. The problem is that prospective employees get the wrong idea about what the job they are applying for is really ...