New Employees – Why are they looking for another job

Ensuring that you employ the right person in your business is one of the most important decisions you can make. The main criterion employers look at is, do they have the skills necessary to perform the tasks required?

However, good recruitment practices should look beyond that and ensure that the job applicant will fit within the culture of the business. So how can you be sure that will be the case?

There are two main things to look at to assist in making the right decision.

Firstly, check the applicant’s resume which should not only set out the skills and experience the applicant has but should list the last few employers. If the resume indicates that the employee changes jobs frequently and only stays for short periods with each employer, you should ask yourself why is that the case and how long will they stay with you?

Secondly, always do a reference check. And when you do make sure you talk to the right person, not just a friend of the employee whose name has been put on the resume. Too often we have members contact us as they are having a problem with a relatively new employee and when asked if they had checked the employee’s references the answer is no. Worse is when they say they did and were warned that there were issues with the previous employer but the warning was ignored and they employed the person anyway.

When you ring a previous employer to check on a job applicant always ask, why did they leave. Did they resign or were they terminated by the previous employer for poor performance or misconduct. Ask how did they fit in with the employer and other staff. Were there issues following instructions, working in a team, and following procedures. Most importantly ask, “would you employ them again?”.

Not many employees leave a good job where they are paid well, enjoy the work and the people they work with. The fact that an employee is leaving an existing job and applying for a position with a new employer may be that the last employer wasn’t a good one to work with. But on the other hand, was it the former employer or the employee that didn’t fit.