Free session: most bad hires interview well

Sound familiar?

We've all done at least one of these.

Under the two-year rule most of us got away with these. From January, you won't.

"They interviewed brilliantly."

Good experience, great interview, and everyone liked them. A few months in, the attitude starts to show, because your hiring checked their skills and "will they fit in?" but never their behaviour.

"Let's pass them and get them up to speed later."

You had doubts by month three but you were flat out. From January, waving them through means they're protected.

"We need someone who can hit the ground running."

Nobody really does, though, do they? If onboarding's patchy, you can't tell at probation whether it's them or you, and that doubt is how the wrong people get passed.

"It's not quite bad enough to make a thing of it."

Their work is nearly right, never quite good enough, and nobody deals with it properly. If no one ever showed them, or told them they were doing it wrong, that comes back on you.

Most of you will have some of this in place already. The question is whether it's consistent, and whether every one of your managers knows how to use it.

This is about what managers do day to day and the people structures you've got in place. It's not legal advice.

I would have benefited, my team would have benefited, my employers would have benefited. I'd have made better decisions and done things a lot quicker.

Jack Richens · Senior Engineer, Base

Jack did one of my programmes as a manager on his own. Base, a founder-led tech company, saw the difference it made and brought Set The Tone in to work with all of their heads of department.

Who it's for

For growing businesses where the managers do the people stuff.

This is for you if

You run, or help run, a business of up to about 150 people
Your HR team needs more help than they can give day to day
You haven't got proper processes for hiring, onboarding and managing performance, or your managers have never been shown how to use them consistently
You've hired someone who was great in the interview and wrong for the job

This isn't

Legal advice about a particular person or case. If you need an employment lawyer, I'll tell you.

Who's running it

Arran Russell.

I spent 15 years in leadership at a business that went from 25 people to well over 100, building the management team under the CEO. I've recruited, onboarded and run probations for over 200 hires and, when I've had to, managed people out. So I know how hard it can be to get all of this right when you're a small business.

At Set The Tone I help with the structures and the manager's side of all this, so the expectations are clear, the conversations happen and there's a record of them. I'm not an employment lawyer, and I'll tell you on the day when you need one.

Questions

Before you sign up.

Is this legal advice?

No. It's about what to put in place and what your managers need to do differently. If something needs a lawyer, I'll say so.

Will it be recorded?

Yes, and everyone who signs up gets the recording. Come live if you can though, as the questions at the end are usually where the good stuff comes up.

Can I bring my managers?

Yes, please do. They're the ones running probations and performance chats, so they should hear it. They just need to sign up themselves.