What is the true cost of taking shortcuts?
Recently I shared with you the disaster that Volkswagen had found itself in. Volkswagen were slow to release details at first but now seem to be telling the full story.
The problem all started when Volkswagen wanted to increase the performance of its 4 cylinder Diesel engines which is possible by increasing the air/fuel ratio. The downside to this is as you increase the air fuel ratio you also increase heat, when you increase heat you start to create dangerous emissions. Companies like Mercedes Benz got around this problem with their BlueTec system which injects urea into the exhaust system which in turn breaks down the harmful emissions, all while retaining higher power output and improved fuel consumption.
So why didn’t Volkswagen use a similar technology in their cars?
Somewhere someone along the line thought the additional price tag of US$400 to the base price of the car would be too much of an increase. This in turn led some software engineers to program the engines computers to run a higher air/fuel ratio creating harmful emissions under normal circumstances but revert back to normal air/fuel ratios when it sensed it was being tested.
Volkswagen executives may not have been aware this was happening (not that this can be used as an excuse!). This will cost them potentially up to $50 billion dollars after they have fixed affected vehicles and paid potential fines.
Why am I telling you this?
Every business has the opportunity to take a shortcut. If that is coupled with good planning and judgment, it may be that the efficiency being taken is wise and will not have disastrous impacts.
One of the areas we come across at times is when a business can get tempted to take a shortcut in their hiring process to achieve a faster result to hire someone.
Sometimes this means skipping important steps. Such as the thorough process of checking a person’s true potential to add value, not collecting all the information required about the role at the start; later affecting the quality of the hiring, or not completing solid reference checks.
The truth is, we all want results, yesterday. But what is the value of settling for an average result or taking a shortcut in the short-term, at the expense of the big picture?
One of our motto’s at Performia is that it is better to hire no one, than the wrong person, because the wrong person will take value away!
Have you ever noticed that the statistics of an area went up without you even replacing the person who left? Was that person really adding value or just pretending?
In our Performia evaluations, we can also see when someone is more likely to see short-term solutions and their “solutions” whilst could create results in the short-term, could actually come to the detriment of the business in the long-term.
So why not have all this information before you hire someone.
Let us help you free up your attention and build your business with the confidence to accelerate and expand!
If you haven’t already, make sure you book your seat to the Performia training in Melbourne, and Sydney.
Thanks for reading and I hope you have a fantastic weekend!