Would You Guarantee A Job?

Beginning in January 2009, Hyundai (the automotive company) started a program where if you bought one of their vehicles, then lost your job, they would buy back the vehicle from you. Basically, giving you a guarantee of safety – and helping calm buyers’ fear of making such a big purchase commitment during one of the most rocky economic times that most people have ever faced (and hopefully will ever).  Hyundai announced last month that they will end there Hyundai Assurance program, because the improving economy no longer makes this necessary to sell their vehicles. During the programs run, 350 people took advantage of the guarantee and returned their car, Hyundai sales over this period were up over 11%, while every other major automotive company had negative sales.

So, what does this have to do with jobs?

There are many companies right now struggling to find great talent (especially in the technical, IT and Engineering arenas) and one of the main reasons they are struggling is because people are somewhat reluctant to leave their current positions for a new job because of what they have seen over the past three years. So, would you, as an employer, be willing to guarantee your Jobs?

It’s an interesting question, isn’t it? I think most HR pros (and their Legal teams!) would have the initial reaction, like… “HELL NO!” Right?  But if you stop and really think about it, what could you guarantee, or for how long would you guarantee? It’s really all about Return on Investment (ROI) and how sure you are about your hiring/selection process.

Let me give you an example: Let’s say I have a need for a top level IT Developer. My need is in middle America somewhere, not an IT hotbed. I can get people interested, but relocation to an area with no other jobs than mine freaks most people out at this level. My options are either pay a crazy amount of money (basically over-pay for talent, which rarely works out) or shop the work out to an IT shop (which can get expensive, there’s less control, you become reliant, etc.). And before you tell me the other 10 things we can do – just play along with this example. Both ideas cost me a bunch of money. Now, if I was to go to that developer and offer them a Guaranteed position, in writing, for one year, do you think that would make a difference to a few people?

Let’s face it, HR Pros write guaranteed job contracts all the time – when is the last time you hired an executive that didn’t have 12 to 24 months guarantee? In fact, let me give you a little Recruiter tip:

If you are able to get an executive to sign your offer, without a guarantee/protection of time – you have the wrong executive.

So, if we can do this for executives, why can’t we do this for our extremely hard to fill jobs? You can. But why don’t we do it? Here is where the rubber meets the road in HR – HR Pros won’t talk the powers-that-be into these types of agreements because they’ll be held accountable if it doesn’t work out. At the end of the day, most HR Pros aren’t confident enough in their own selection programs to put their own butt on the line to offer a job guarantee. The truth stings a little.

If you were sure you hired great talent, that fit your organizations culture – you wouldn’t be concerned with offering someone a one year job guarantee – heck, you might even be able to offer them one for even longer.  But the fact is, we as HR Pros don’t because we don’t want to go back to our executives and tell them we don’t have an exact science – in the end, we are still just throwing a dart and hoping that it will stick.