Look at the co-worker to your left. Now, to your right. At least one of them hates their job.
Maybe you do, too.
According to a recent Gallup survey of 5.4 million working adults, 52 percent say they are not engaged in their work. They limp to work, toiling without passion.
That’s half the workforce! Another 18 percent describe themselves as “actively disengaged” — disgruntled and spreading bitterness among co-workers.
Where is this getting organizations?
With the exception of recession periods, the majority of employees start each New Year vowing to look for a new job.
Imagine a 10-person bicycle. This means three people are pedaling, five are pretending to pedal, and two are jamming the brakes.
That’s you, corporate America.
Now scale that bike higher: 520 out of every 1,000 employees don’t care, 180 are trying to sabotage the place, and 300 are left doing their darnedest to try and keep the company afloat.
So as HR Leaders how are you fundamentally creating a tipping point change that will drive your organizational employment culture in 2015-2016?
Well it starts first and foremost with changing the behaviors of your current employees.
So what’s the best way to do that?
Enable your employees to be part of your recruiting process. Allow Team Members to tap their social and mobile networks and find talent that will improve their own working environments. No one wants to work 60-80 hours covering up holes in job positions that remain unfilled.
So companies need to fix this challenge – STAT.
Do you know what it costs your company to keep a job unfilled?
I am sure you have been at a stoplight when the light turns from red to green, and the driver in front of you fails to notice? If you are like most impatient people, you honk the horn and probably expel a few choice words out of frustration. If we have such passion about something as simple as a few minutes at the stoplight, why do many of us patiently wait when we know we have positions we want filled, and that filling these positions fast benefits your company and it niche departments?
Move When the Green Light is Yellow
When you receive the green light to make a new hire, your company needs you to move on it right away. But many times, others may not see the economic value of making an additional hire, or may not see the cost per extra day that is going down the drain in leaving the position unfilled. Both realizing for yourself, as well as being able to show others these costs help you to grow your business, and keep it running as efficiently as possible (with a full staff). What is the Hiring Manager doing to help you fill their seats?
According to Roppella — for the chemical industry, the average manager should earn for their company anywhere from three to five times their annual salary. With the average salary for an experienced R&D Director at $120,000 annually, you could be looking at a loss of earnings potential between $1,400 and $2,300 per day by leaving a job unfilled. If the job sits vacant for six months, the loss skyrockets to around $300,000. While this is not a trivial figure, it only represents a small percentage of the total impact a job vacancy can have on your bottom line.
The Real Costs…
In his article “Calculating the Cost of a Vacant Position,” HR guru Dr. John Sullivan outlines the real cost of job vacancies. His calculations take into account the trickle down effect that vacancies have on the rest of the organization. Don’t be fooled into believing that open positions cost you only some overtime. The truth is, vacancies can expose your organization to unforeseen and unacceptable expenses, including the following:
Revenue Costs
Loss of revenue is the most obvious and most quantifiable cost associated with open positions:
- Delayed revenue resulting from longer Time-To-Market (TTM) for new products
- Lost revenue resulting from products/services that could never be introduced
- Underutilized equipment and corporate assets
- Decreased output because employees are performing unfamiliar jobs
Personnel Costs
Employees who remain in your organization are hurt by vacancies. The added workload and higher stress levels can result in a number of problems:
- Sending a message that the company isn’t performing well
- Greater incidences of illness, absenteeism, and tardiness
- No opportunity to focus on the growth of the current employees by sending them to development programs and training seminars
- Increased frustration
- Increased scrap and rework/error rates
- Less chance of employees reaching individual goals
- Higher turnover
- Reduced creativity and innovative thinking
To learn how SourceMob will deliver hard to find candidates through your employee’s social and mobile networks. Simply reach out to me for a virtual meeting by me at jeff@sourcemob.com or call 952-417-6955 for more details.
ABOUT SOURCEMOB: SourceMob links Internet, social, talent community and mobile recruiting solutions to help talent acquisition professionals recruit the very best candidates for tough-to-fill positions. SourceMob software distributes job content and conversations providing a job posting springboard to over 3.5 million candidate profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, Google+ and all of the major search engines. Our solutions also enable Mobile Quick Apply and candidate application management services to create efficiencies and lower recruiting costs.
Looking forward to hearing from you…
Jeffery
Jeffery Giesener
CEO/Founder
SourceMob.com
jeff@sourcemob.com
952-417-6955
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jefferyjeffgiesener
Adapted by Jeffery Giesener from a post by Mel Kleiman