When Good Applicants Are Scarce, Select for Fit, and Train for Skills

In F. Leigh Branham’s book, Keeping the People Who Keep You in Business, he makes this suggestion; “Interview applicants who may lack traditional qualifications, such as degrees or years of experience, but have the right abilities and can be trained,” (emphasis added).

If an employee has the right abilities, training for specific job skills can be both efficient and profitable. Absent those right abilities, no amount of training is likely to produce a top performer and even a high level of skill will not keep him/her on the job.

Our egalitarian underpinnings continue to cost American businesses billions of dollars as we pursue the failed notion, “we can train anyone to do anything.” We know they don’t have wings, yet we send fish to flying school every day and then wonder why they’re never successful. We even subsidize their flight schools with tax dollars!

If businesses would focus more effort on selecting employees with the right abilities and then provide the appropriate training, they will produce a higher number of top performers who fit their jobs, enjoy their work, and produce profits for their employer. If we continue to focus on training without first identifying the characteristics necessary for success, we will continue to produce workers who have learned the skills but cannot perform at a high level, will not enjoy the work, will not remain on the job over time, and will not produce profits.

Fish, by the way, will never be good fliers … but they do swim quite well. Train your fish to swim better and send your eagles to flight school. In both cases, you can produce top performers and your profits will reflect your good business practices!