In the early 1980s, I interviewed Betty Moyles at the San Francisco Airport before I boarded a plane to Japan. She was deciding whether she wanted to work for me. A number of assistants before her had not been the right fit for my working style.
We compared our Winslow personality profiles. Hers showed she liked a certain amount of encouragement and praise. I didn’t value that kind of reinforcement as much as she did. I told her I was concerned that could be an issue for us.
Betty appreciated knowing what she was getting into. She worked with me for more than 25 years.
Not every good employee stays that long. When one tells you they’re leaving, the job they were doing may have drifted far from the job they said yes to. The usual first move is to rewrite the job posting. Before you do, look hard at the job itself. Otherwise the next person may walk into the same job that wore out the last one.
Start with the people still doing the work. Ask them three questions:
- Which part of the job takes the most time?
- Where do you wait for a decision?
- What do you keep having to redo?
Then check whether your job description still looks like their working week.
Fix what you can. Remove work that no longer serves the mission, or give a person clearer authority. People need to feel safe and that they belong before they can do their best work. If pay is part of the problem and you can’t fix it yet, say so plainly. Then do what I did with Betty: tell candidates what the job really is before they say yes.
This week, ask one employee what makes their job harder than it needs to be. Agree on one thing to improve, and set a date to check whether it helped.
Send this to a manager getting ready to hire. My free Applied Wisdom booklet has more on hiring and treating people with respect. It’s free, and it always will be.
P.S. My booklet, Applied Wisdom for the Nonprofit Sector, is now available in Spanish. Request a free digital copy and share it with Spanish-speaking colleagues.