Staff Overhaul
Should you use the tight job market to replace mediocre employees?
Last year, Matt DeLine, founder and CEO of San Diego Hotel
Reservations Inc., was hiring almost everyone who applied. The
scramble to fill jobs was insane: "There wasn't time even
to do reference checks," he says. "It was a frustrating
time."
He wasn't alone: A Challenger, Gray & Christmas survey
last year found that three out of five small-business owners were
hiring virtually anyone with a pulse-including underqualified
workers who affected the bottom line with poor customer service and
decreasing product quality. "[Employers] had to get their
orders out, so they hired people who weren't as productive and
couldn't do the job as well," says John Challenger, CEO of
Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc., an international outsourcing
and research firm in Chicago.
But as dotcoms continue to fail and larger companies restructure
in a softer market, hot talent is suddenly pounding the pavement.
For entrepreneurs in growth phases, it's like manna from
heaven. "Many employers now are breathing a sigh of
relief," Challenger says. But temptation also forces a hard
decision: Do I fire some employees to upgrade my work force while
this hot talent is available?
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