3 Topics Every Job Candidate Should Bring Up During an Interview

Inevitably at your interview, you will be asked if you have any questions.  If you have done your homework, i.e., done a little background research on the hiring company, you should have a set of questions prepared.  I would also recommend adding the following 3 topics to your list to help you make a well-informed decision later if the job is offered to you.

1. Short-term and long-term on-boarding activities for new hires.  In 2007, the Wynhurst Group published the following statistics about new employees:

• On their first day, 4% of new employees will leave the job. 
• In the first 3 weeks, new employees will decide whether they feel at home or not. 
• In the first 45 days, 22% of staff turnover will occur. 
• In the first 18 month, almost half (46%) of new employees will wash out.

The good news is that “new employees who went through a structured on-boarding program were 58% more likely to be with the organization after three years.”  The more time and effort placed on welcoming and preparing new employees, the greater the chance that new employees will feel welcomed, prepared and supported.  As a consequence of successful on-boarding, new employees will try much harder, i.e., perform better, when they understand and believe in their jobs’ importance to the organization.

                          

2. Attrition rates.  Every organization should know how many employees it has and how many employees have left over a given period.  A simple calculation for attrition rate could be the total number of employees who left the organization per month (whether voluntary or forced) divided by (the total number of employees at the beginning of the month plus the number of new hires minus total number of resignations) multiplied by 100.  

In their paper, Harris et al (2002) investigated the quantitative effects of employee turnover on firms' productivity and identified that the optimal turnover rate - the rate that maximizes productivity, controlling for other factors - is about 30% for small to mid-sized firms.  Firms with higher attrition rates are in danger of undermining their productivity and over-working their remaining employees, which may lead to cost-cutting initiatives and work-related stress, respectively.

What they also uncovered was that the average attrition rate among the companies included in the study was 18%.  A firm with a low attrition rate could signal management's reluctance to dismiss poor performers.  This can have a negative affect on the morale of those employees who shoulder the workload of the under-performers within the group.  Alternatively, the firm can have an entitlement mentality in which employees expect raises, promotions, benefits and perks, regardless of performance standards or company financials.  Employees who feel entitled will perform at the minimal requirement because management treats good performance, poor performance, or no performance at all, the same.

3. Corporate culture and values.  Do not under-estimate the importance of the organization’s culture on your decision.  John Sheridan (1992), the L. R. Jordan Professor of Health Services Administration at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, reported new employees stayed longer in a culture that emphasized interpersonal relationship values than in a culture that emphasized work task values.  Benjamin Schneider (1987), Professor Emeritus at the University of Maryland, argued that the fit between personal and organizational values is very important to employees, suggesting that those who do not fit an organization will soon leave.

One final recommendation is to speak to a recruiter in your field of work.  There is a good chance that the company looking to hire you is known to other recruiters who may be willing to share their experiences, both positive and negative, with you. 

Citation List

Harris MN, Tang K-K, Tseng Y-P. Optimal Employee Turnover Rate: Theory and Evidence. Research Collections (UMER). Economics and Commerce: Melbourne Institute of Applied Economic and Social Research. Accessed on 23 April 2011 at http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au:80/webclient/DeliveryManager?application=DIGITOOL-3&owner=resourcediscovery&custom_att_2=simple_viewer&forebear_coll=&user=GUEST&pds_handle=&pid=65853&con_lng=ENG&search_terms=SYS%20=%20000028983&adjacency=N&rd_session=http://dtl.unimelb.edu.au:80/R/JYNBGFIFHJQFKEHRSPD7H22Y6XS34XIKSL61QG65RVX7QBKQF5-01378.

Schneider B. The people make the place. Personnel Psychology, 1987;40:437-453.

Sheridan JE. Organizational culture and employee retention. The Academy of Management Journal, 1992;35(5):1036-1056.

“SHRM Presentation” by The Wynhurst Group, April 2007.

5 Warning Signs that Your Job may be in Jeopardy

For many medical writers, mergers and acquisitions, the current economy, internal pressures to reduce costs, outsourcing, downsizing, and attrition without replacement can all be signs that their jobs may be in jeopardy.  When assessing how your company is faring, look at what your company does, not necessarily what it says.  It’s what it does that really matters.  Below are 5 warning signs that might signal that your job may be in jeopardy.

Number 1:  You have received a poor performance review, without prior knowledge that your performance was either deteriorating or not meeting department standards.  

A thoughtful performance review should never be a surprise.  If this is your first indication that your performance is unacceptable, you may have been earmarked by your company for dismissal.  The leverage a company gains by identifying you as a poor performer is usually in reduced severance. 

Cynthia Shapiro, a former human resource executive, acknowledges that "companies do have black lists.  It’s not written down anywhere, but it’s a list of people they’d be happy to get rid of if the opportunity arises.  If you feel invisible, if you’re getting bad assignments, if your boss is ignoring you, or if they move your office, you’re probably on it.”

Number 2: Your department head is spending a great deal of time behind closed-door meetings with upper management.

When plans to cut the workforce are being discussed, your department head will be directed to keep discussions confidential.  However with knowledge of impending cuts, some department heads may begin to discuss ways to improve department efficiency, others may become more involved with project assignments, others may want to go over individual performance reviews, and still others may be too busy for anyone in the department. 

If the closed-door discussions are about a merger or an acquisition, the stakes may be just as high.  If the merger or acquisition partner has a medical writing group, you can expect there to be a certain amount of redundancy within the merging groups, especially if the workload of the newly combined department cannot support all the writers or if the surviving company places a great deal of value on centralized management.  The latter is an important consideration when the surviving company wants only the clients and project work and not the physical assets, that is, the building(s).  In a case like this, expect to be asked to move to the headquarters of the surviving company.

Number 3: You have recently lost a key client — along with the healthy revenue generated by that client.

Profit margin is everything.  It fuels raises, promotions, bonuses, expansion, and capital investments.  With the loss of a substantial client, your company will be looking for quick ways to cut costs in order to bolster the bottom line.  These belt-tightening efforts may take the form of hiring freezes, reducing capital expenditures, restricting travel, delaying promotions, or reducing the percentage of dollars for raises.  These cost-cutting measures by themselves are only partially successful in improving the bottom line.  Since the biggest expense to a company is the salaries it pays its employees, expect to see layoffs in the very near future.

Number 4: You are not as busy as you should be.

If you were once a busy writer and now work is being taken away and given to someone else, or you are not being assigned new work, or you have extra time for long lunches and internet searches, you should be asking questions about your current job.  There is only so much “busy” work to go around, and eventually, your employer will have to make some tough decisions if client prospects do not improve.

Number 5: Your company implements a plan to include oversea resources and contractors in your department’s resourcing strategy. 

Worse, you are actually asked to travel to the newest site and (unknowingly) train the new recruits to be your replacements.  By itself, the inclusion of resources from outside you own country is not necessarily the harbinger of other changes to come, but coupled with replacing writers that have left with only writers from your new resource pool is a cause for concern.

Donata Lovejoy of the Knowledge Network recommends the following tips to anyone who believes her or his job may be in jeopardy:

• Use your vacation days, personal days, and floating holidays to interview for new job opportunities.
• Don’t let your co-workers or your manager know that you are looking for a new job.
• Give your employer a two week notice in writing before leaving the company.
• Try to leave on good terms.
• Don’t quit your job until you find a better one.
• If you feel that you are a victim of discrimination of any sort, contact your Human Resources department/or seek external legal counsel.