Risk, fresh employees, and hiring approach

Adnan ul Haq

Article Summary: The higher is risk, higher is profit. If this is right then why fresh employees are not being considered by organisation in hiring procedures? Risk is associated in every decision organisation make so why not take a bold decision?

The common phrase our ears are familiar within the business environment is “the higher is the risk, the higher is profit”. There is paramount level difference between theoretical stance and practical implications. We notice that every management and administration of profit motive organisation’s prime objective is to keep motivating their employees by making them risk initiators. Particularly in the sales and marketing department employees are trained to be more risk takers but the interesting and surprising fact is that when there is a change of shift from employees to management and administration, there is a sudden change of approach. Where employees are trained to be risk takers, the management and administration are more of risk calculators. There is obvious rational behind this deliberately planned actions as the general theory is scarcity of resources. Under the umbrella of this theory, management proposes the idea of effective and efficient allocation of resources. There is no harm in being effective and efficient one but the opportunity cost is always associated with every single decision undertaken by the organisation. When an organisation wants to recruit employees for job position, the special advice to HR department is “Hire employees with quality experience”.

Every organisation wants to be more rational in the decision making process and problem solving but is it fair to hire only employees who have quality experience? What about fresh employees? If the business world suggests that profit is directly proportional to risk than why not take a risk in consideration when hiring employees for organisation. If fresh employees are also a type of risk than why not take a risk with fresh employees? Because most of the organisations feel that fresh employees may have competency gap and they will need a proper training which will increase the cost. There is no denial from the fact that yes, fresh employees do need appropriate training and development as compare to experienced employees but then again who teaches larval fish to swim? Everyone learns when opportunities and the right environment is provided. The environment is one of the great masters to polish and develop skills and expertise. When employees are given the learning environment, they gradually master skills once they learn about prevailing organisational culture & grab working pattern.

The conclusions are never made on the basis of absoluteness but majority and minority is considered to reach to certain point. We can say that there will be employees who may take more time to adapt organisational culture and adjust in the dynamics of firm. Similarly, there are employees who are quick learners and have more flexibility to become accustomed to the existing environment quickly. Therefore, we can say that there should be more flexibility in the approach of organisations. They should mix fresh employees and experienced employees in teams for a maintained and balanced approach. An organisation should not consider employees as liabilities, but assets. It should train and groom fresh employees with their experienced employees so that employees have more affective and normative commitment towards organisation.

Fresh employees will gradually become experienced employees if they are trusted with responsibilities and given a chance to prove their skills. The approach of every organisation should be under the model of ROI (return on investment) where the benefits/cost ratio is considered to calculate how much productive employees are after training program. Proper training sessions should be managed to make fresh employees familiar with working patterns. They should be trusted with their academic profile and given a chance to implement their theoretical knowledge in a practical manner under senior’s guidance and evaluation system.

An organisation should initiate a risk by hiring fresh candidates but should also have a proper backup program in order to ensure that employees have high returns in shape of increase productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness when investments (training and development) is given. The mutual cooperation of seniors at the workplace and administration should design a system through which fresh employees are groomed to be risk takers not risk by themselves. The experiences are vital but those experiences must be transferred to others for the success of the organisation. I would sum up with this, “time and space is the best way, give time and space to others to prove their abilities.”

Adnan ul Haque (MPA in HRM from University of Karachi, Pakistan), PGD in Business Management (London), Researcher at Research Institute of Behavioural Psychology and as well working as Assistant Researcher under Dr. Baloch at Faculty of Administrative and Management Sciences at University of Karachi.