Hiring a new person into your organization, or choosing someone to promote in your organization, is one of the most influential jobs of managers and leaders. Who you hire or promote has significant impact on your culture. Here’s why:
- Each new hire strengthens or weakens your culture. The people you hire and promote are reflections of what you value. Either you are committed to your service culture and hire people with the service mindset to prove it, or your commitment to building a service culture is only lip service, and your new hires are evidence to confirm it.
- Hiring people with an excellent service mindset attracts better talent. When you hire and promote people with the right attitudes, more great people want to join you. Highly effective individuals work better and stay longer in organizations with excellent internal and external service.
- Hiring and promotions affect your bottom line. Good new hires add value quickly. Bad hires cost more than the wages or salary invested. Precious time is lost in finding and training new replacements. Sales may be lost and customer loyalty damaged. Meanwhile, staff morale suffers to see new people come and go, diminishing overall team performance and affecting your bottom line.
Many leaders talk about service excellence and the importance of building a service culture, but it’s up to your people in the daily execution of their jobs to make service excellence real. We define service as taking action to create value for someone else, and with this definition, every position is a service position.
