Here is why your attrition is high!

Have you felt the tremors from the latest seismic rush? No, it is not a mad rush for seats in perpetually overpopulated MRT carriages along Raffles Place and City Hall stations but rather a frenzied dash by hiring managers for suitable local candidates.

With Singapore’s unemployment rate hovering around the 2 per cent mark, you can be pretty certain that a fair number of these poor souls are losing more than a few strands of hair sifting through countless CVs searching for the proverbial ‘needle among the haystack’ – that elusive Singaporean talent who will add genuine value to the role and to the business.

If that alone is not challenging enough (cue theme from Mission Impossible) a vast proportion quite possibly have to go about their work without much practical assistance. And of course “failure is not an option” or talented “so-and-so” may just decide to sign the LOA with the company’s nearest and dearest competitor! And you know what that means.

It is not surprising therefore that when push comes to shove, and the pressure by Management to fill the vacancy starts to mount, it becomes oh so easy to make that one bad hire (yes, trust me, one is all you need!) Consider this tongue-in-cheek scenario adapted from the present reality....

….Jin Boh Eng, HR Manager at Noehoppe Business Solutions Pte Ltd, curses under her breath as her untidy folder tumbles to the floor. Muttering about her recent streak of bad luck, she gathers the loose resumé sheets and tries in vain to place them back in the right order whilst negotiating her way to the interview room.

Her Executive Assistant Soh Ter Loke was due to conduct this “do-or-die” interview with her – but had called in sick this morning. This had become a sort of trend of late. Jin wonders if Soh has found another job somewhere else. She always seems so listless and uninterested in her job and was no help whatsoever in shortlisting candidates for the now vacant-for-far-too-long AVP position.

Jin on the other hand, by DIRECT ORDER of the Board, had spent a breathless 4 weeks re-working the Job Description, crafting and posting adverts on job portals, sifting through tons of CVs (why do I still receive CVs from so many FTs?), shortlisting the really meagre local candidates, and arranging and conducting the interview sessions. This process has left her exhausted. Has it been 3 months already?

And yet, no one seems to notice – or care. Just this morning her boss, Aiam Gaud, was in a foul mood and demanded that she produce the itinerary for the forthcoming overseas trip to New York. I have no time! Jin mutters for what feels like the millionth time. Oh, why didn’t I enlist the help of that Recruitment Agency that was offering their staffing services?

Upon hindsight they had a good track record and some quality clientele and they were even nice enough to float some pretty good CVs across…With their help I could have focused my energies on my other tasks and keep my sanity intact…oh well…we’ve always done our recruitment directly – why challenge the status quo? I already have enough challenges to contend with, sighs Jin.

Taking a deep breath Jin enters the interview room and finds the only candidate for the day, Ms. Chao Kuan, waiting rather impatiently. Greetings are exchanged and the session begins. Jin asks all the usual questions by rote and Ms. Chao answers them with a deft hand. Multi-tasking, Jin looks at the results of Ms. Chao’s psychometric test. They look credible enough and she appears to fit the JD well and oh wow! Jin thinks to herself, I may have finally found the right candidate!!

Wait…what is this bit about ‘cultural fit’? There’s something not quite right here...something about Ms. Chao’s management style just does not seem right…wait what is she saying?

When can she start work? Wow, so proactive….Isn’t confidence one of the primary qualities for the job? Perhaps it is due to her exhaustion, or desperation, or a combination of both, but Jin extends her hand and says: “Welcome on board. Let’s work out your LOA and the finer details….”

So hiring managers be warned: high attrition begins with you. The question is: do you really want a Ms. Chao Kuan on your team?