Attracting, hiring, and keeping great people remains a priority challenge for businesses of all types and sizes across the nation. Yet often corporations create roadblocks that proactively undermine their own recruitment process, and ultimately their own profits.
Two examples of roadblocks popped up during the recent Australian federal election:
1. Non-Compete Clauses
I know, reading workplace contract clauses sounds about as exciting as watching dry grass grow, but what if your business inadvertently included a clause that was so biased it filters out great potential employees?
Anthony Albanese’s Labor government recently proposed to introduce legislation to ban non-compete clauses for workers earning less than $175k. These were never meant for junior workers, so I was shocked to hear they were becoming so prevalent in generic workplace contracts, the Labor government felt they had to move to block them. Sort of like stopping a business leader from financial self-harm, I thought.
I would have said no business operating on common sense would entertain this kind of strategy, yet by coincidence, this exact issue hit my desk twice in recent weeks. Two colleagues, independent of each other, contacted me regarding their teenagers’ job offers. The young workers were hoping to secure jobs paying less than $50k, however in both cases, the job contract included a draconian non-compete clause that stated they could not work for a competitor if they left or were sacked.
‘You’re kidding,’ I spluttered. ‘That’s like telling a Dominos worker they can’t go and stack pizzas at Pizza Hut.’
This immediately sounded to me like HR bureaucracy gone mad, or alternatively, a smarty-pants lawyer trying to justify their fees by showing how hardcore they could be in protecting their client’s interests.
Well, the strategy was working in the opposite direction, negatively impacting their clients’ interests. In both cases, the non-compete turned the initial excitement and joy of the job offer into deep anxiety. What if the job didn’t work out, or if they failed in the first few months? Where could they work then, if banned from their chosen field? Instantly, the two young applicants lost trust in their potential new employer, and due to the power imbalance, felt they held no ability to negotiate the removal of the clause for fear of losing the prized job to another applicant that wouldn’t rock the boat.
‘Sign it or fight it?’ they asked me. ‘What should we do with the contract?’
While I could think of a few places I’d like to stick that workplace contract, I restrained my thoughts, knowing these kids really wanted and needed the jobs. Now, I’m not a lawyer, but I do know that an employer can’t impose a restraint of income on a junior worker cycling deliveries around the neighbourhood. Non-competes were meant for senior execs who might, say, nick off with the Colonel’s secret herbs and spices recipe, or who are able to poach clients or critical IP. They’re often used when one company acquires another, ensuring the seller doesn’t set up a competing shop down the down a week after settlement.
For junior employees they are simply an unnecessary roadblock to employment, a damaging own goal to the business. Quite possibly, and at best, the chiefs may have let the HR bureaucrats run and were not even aware such a detrimental clause existed in their brick-sized contract. In both my examples, the two aspirants signed the contracts and took the jobs on offer, for they needed the money. Both confirmed they would leave as soon as they found a better option.
2. THE Work from home mandate
Peter Dutton’s mid-election gift to his opponents came in the form of his work from home ban for Canberra’s public servants. If ever there was a sign Australian workers have moved on from such inflexibility, it was demonstrated by the Liberal’s subsequent flip-flopping on the policy. No matter where you stand on this issue – whether you believe all home workers are slackers addicted to Netflix, or if you believe that the non-commute time-saving leads to increased productivity – the fact remains that many great applicants want the flexibility and convenience of working from home, at least some of the time.
An award-winning senior tech leader I spoke to recently said if his company recalled everyone to the office permanently, he would go elsewhere. ‘I have a new baby,’ he explained. ‘My working hours vary between 4 am and 10 pm, but within those times, I can now spend some quality time with little Elodie.’
I met a sales agent who had won her company’s top achiever prize. Her business had all the at-home tech, but due to an inflexible return to workplace policy, her manager still insisted she drive to work during the recent Queensland floods, a thirty-kilometre four-hour round trip due to road closures. She left soon after, joining a direct competitor.
I am the first to champion the power of an effective team and have witnessed the amazing results of close-knit groups working in unison together. Yet it doesn’t have to be one hundred per cent of the time. This kind of all-or-nothing thinking is simply a roadblock to great hiring. The danger for uncompromising employers is that if just one of their competitors is offering some version of work from home, even just one day a month, they lose their hiring edge immediately.
Speaking to a tech recruiter at a large corporation last week, she told me that the CEO’s recent ‘work only from work’ mandate had sent a clear message to candidates – the quality of the people applying to her tech jobs dropped significantly in a single week. And these second-rate applicants require a lot more time and energy to manage, plus are less effective.
So my question to leaders: Is your business consciously or inadvertently creating roadblocks that stop you from attracting and hiring the great people you need to achieve success? Put these kinds of obstacles in place and yes, you may have employment contracts your lawyer loves, or have everyone back in the office, but you’ll be swimming in a far less talented pool.
If it were me, I’d rather work with barramundi than guppies any day!