I’m not sure whether this will add to the conversation or not - but here’s what I’m seeing from my end of things ... quite a few of the companies that I’ve dealt with lately seem to have given up on finding the people that they “want” and have started settling for the people they can “get” ... then they pay to run their new hires through enough training to get the job done ...
special interest disclaimer: for those of you who don’t already know it, I teach PLCs for a living ...
personally I don’t know of any specific examples, but I’ve heard several rumors about companies that basically “loan” their employees the money for the training ... the employee pays nothing up front, but if he quits before a certain “recovery” time limit has expired, then he has to pay for the cost of the training ... I’m not saying whether that’s “good” or “bad” - but that’s what I’ve heard from time to time ...
personally I blame most of the “good-labor-is-hard-find” problem on the minimum wage laws ... way back when I was young, every tradesman (carpenter, brick mason, plumber, you name it) always had at least one or two young kids tagging along as “helpers” to pick up the tools and handle similar “gopher” jobs ... the kids worked for peanuts - but at least they were learning the trade ... when was the last time you saw a common-sense arrangement like that in action? ... with the minimum wage as high as it is, the tradesman will jolly-well fetch and carry his own tools ...
my main reason for posting is to say this ... out of all of the discussion along the lines of training and experience, one thing seems to have been left out: MOTIVATION ... in my carefully considered opinion, that one factor alone is worth MUCH MORE than any amount of experience and/or training that you care to mention ... sadly I don’t have a litmus test for determining which job applicant is - or is not - motivated to get the job done ... but that MOTIVATION idea is what I’d personally be looking for if I were trying to hire someone ...
I read a story on the CBS News website the other day about an illegal immigrant who jumped the fence about 20 years ago - and scrounged up a job in the fields pulling weeds with his bare hands ... today he’s one of the top brain surgeons in the country ... we’re talking MOTIVATION here folks ... (search for Dr. Q if you’re interested enough) ...
true personal story: fifteen years ago I was working as an instructor in a tech school ... one student (we called him OP for short) had just finished the conveyor programming project ... I gave him an A+ on his printout ... then he asked me: “Is there any way that I could make it better?” ... “No, OP, there’s no better grade than A+” ... then he said, “No, not the grade, Ron. I meant could I make the program any better?” ... “Well, yeah. The program works fine, but you could clean these branches up here. And touch up the documentation here - and here.” ... the little guy got right back to work again - on his already A+ project ... I walked over to the phone and dialed a friend of mine who ran a systems integration shop ... “Jim,” I said, “I’ve just found another one for you.” ... OP didn’t know it then, but he had just got himself hired - the interview process would be just a mere formality ... Jim had me on a constant lookout for people just like OP ... for people MOTIVATED to do more than necessary - and who were willing to put in the extra effort it takes to do the job better than it has to be done ... you can’t bottle that stuff ...
now if we could just find a foolproof way to identify that MOTIVATION factor during the hiring process, then we could skip right over the “previous experience” and the “prior training” concerns - and hiring good employees would be a walk in the park ...