There's a lot to be said for hiring a highly experienced new employee for your team. S/he brings valuable qualities that are in short supply. You can: Count on early productivity with limited or no supervision. Make the most of tested solutions that an experienced employee can bring for inevitable project challenges. Enjoy the new hire's confidence in the face of pressing deadlines.
Not to mention, you can make the most of their fresh excitement for your goals.
At the same time, mid-career hires are tricky. Let's face it, the job switch is a life event for most of your candidates, involving substantial change and readjustment as well as career promise. Most candidates are available for a reason -- and it's not always just because they can't stand working for their current boss any longer. Often, they have become available because there's been a big shift in their family situations where they need a different work/life balance or, at least, a different attitude towards their work.
Here are a few things to think about when you find a great new candidate who has had 15 years experience not to mention extended time in two major cutting-edge corporations, or multinational firms, or, or, or.
Salary. Expect to pay a premium.The candidate knows you want or need her/him specifically, and negotiates from that strength. In addition, if the candidate comes from a much bigger company than yours, they are used to higher competitive pay levels. You can howl that they have you over a barrel, or you can get your mind around how unusually short the learning curve will be. In fact, you are expecting them to just about hit the ground running, so be sure to discuss this quid pro quo with them.
Development. Have you noticed? You tend to have a deeper personal connection, earlier, with mid-career hires than with candidates hired earlier in their careers. Possibly because you share some combat scars and often learn from each other. Also, family situations figure more prominently in these job negotiations, so a personal tone is involved earlier in your relationship.
Performance management creates a constricted atmosphere that just doesn't work in this situation. Frequent informal check-ins will fit more naturally into the relationship. Time-sensitive company insight and balanced feedback discussions will be especially valuable to this new employee who is under so much pressure to deliver. And whose performance is -- yes -- being watched closely by your team.
Incentives. Research shows that many employees see annual incentive payments as a gift that signifies their relationship with the company. Mid-career hires take this to the next level. To them incentive payments reflect, among other things, their relationships with their colleagues. If you "ding" them, recognize that part of their reaction will be a degree of paranoia about "fitting in." When incentives are awarded, be sure to talk over their teamwork including when things have gone well.
Margaret O'Hanlon, CCP brings deep expertise to discussions on employee pay, performance management, career development and communications at the Café. Her firm, re:Think Consulting, provides market pay information and designs base salary structures, incentive plans, career paths and their implementation plans. Earlier, she was a Principal at Willis Towers Watson. A former Board member for the Bay Area Compensation Association (BACA), Margaret coauthored the popular eBook, Everything You Do (in Compensation) Is Communications, a toolkit that all practitioners can find at https://gumroad.com/l/everythingiscommunication.
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