Outfox the ‘Great Layoff’ with changing recruitment mindset

Many big tech companies and startups have consistently announced layoffs is understandable given global demand. During the Covid-19 pandemic, technologies were vital tools that humans yearned for. However, once the pandemic passed and people returned to their normal lives, online conferences and food delivery became less necessary.

As a tech company ourselves, Jitta and Jitta Wealth is still growing steadily. We have a business plan that is moving forward sensibly, and we definitely need more employees to keep up with our planned growth.

We have discovered a small difference that we believe is the reason why we do not need to follow the same path as Big Tech and other startups by shedding workers.

What distinguishes us from other tech firms is that we do not prioritise quantity. That is, even though we desperately need more people, we will not accept a large number of people simply to have them. Every worker recruited follows a well-planned procedure.

We follow a few simple guidelines.

"The first thing we adhere to is the motto "focus on quality not quantity".

"Don't be afraid of not having enough people; rather, be afraid of too many."

What we see more often is companies being ruined because they have too many workers.

When dealing with a staff shortage, there are many options available, such as prioritising tasks, deciding to concentrate on a few crucial tasks, fine tuning the work schedule, or changing the organisational structure.

When people start to feel like they can't complete their work by deadline, they tend to add more people. This is the wrong strategy. Reducing the workforce is the right thing to do first.

Although it may seem contradictory, it actually demonstrates how frequently businesses try to expand their workforces too quickly and end up doing too much, perhaps to the point where they lose sight of the team's primary objective.

The Pareto principle, also known as the law of 80/20, states that only 20% of work can have an actual impact on 80% of people. Or it might claim that employing many people would result in a waste of time of 80% for only 20% of the work.

As a result, it implies that having a small staff doesn't matter as long as your attention is on making work priorities more distinct. The efficient organisation of work will undoubtedly aid in addressing the labour shortage.

Meanwhile, there are a few workarounds for an overload of staff. The first and most obvious option is to lay off employees, which is undesirable and should be avoided. That's what we're seeing now from many tech companies that rushed to hire people during the boom, only to lay them off later when business slowed.

Firing people may be the right thing to do in terms of doing business, but we believe that no company wants that to happen. Isn't it better to find a way to gradually grow together? 

Another solution for people overload is to find tasks to keep them busy. Some businesses are like that. There were so many people arriving that the company had to consider what job the new employee should do.

Companies then waste time looking for work for people to do. Unfortunately, when looking for more work to assign to people, sometimes they are misled into believing that there are a lot of jobs available and that they need to hire more people. It will cause the company to fall into a vicious cycle and eventually lose focus on its main task.
 
In any case, solving too many people's problems is never a good idea.

It is true that as the organisation grows to the point where there aren't enough people, more people must be recruited. However, before considering adding people, it is best to first organise your work. This will allow us to see what work truly needs to be done, how important it is, whether it will have a positive impact on the company, and what parts of the work we can eliminate or outsource. These things will help us see the big picture.

But when we see clearly that we have to hire people, we focus on recruiting “quality people”.

As a startup, we attract highly motivated individuals. People who want to join Jitta's organisation must meet the following three requirements:

Bar raiser
Have you ever seen an organisation with a large number of employees, but the work is slower as a result? It's because hiring ineffective people can have a negative impact on your team's overall performance. So we're attempting to look at the bar raiser, which is the idea of Amazon recruiting people by determining the superiority of the candidates through the job-interview process.

The company will benefit from increased creativity and ultimately more shared learning from having a workforce with a diverse range of experiences if we find that the candidate answering our question has some knowledge or skills that are unrelated to work.

Some charm that we observe that can fill the team may come from some unrelated work ability. It's a jigsaw puzzle or an equation that can produce an ideal result. On the other hand, if we were unable to identify anyone who was more attractive than the team members or if we are still stumped, it suggests that the candidate may not be compelling enough.

Growth Mindset
Being a startup frequently means going on unforeseen new journeys all the time. There are rarely the same challenges every day, week, month, or year. Sometimes we might walk more quickly, other times more slowly. Frequently, there are things that have never been done. The important question is: Are these adaptable people prepared to grow and learn alongside us?

Great > Good
In the end, we make an effort to find great people rather than good people. Because if you meet a candidate we are speaking with and exclaim "wow", then let's move on. However, if you interview this person and think they are alright, it ought to work, then simply draw the conclusion that the person's qualities might not meet your requirements.

We should work with interesting people, according to Google's “Airport' theory”. It is due to the fact that we work six to eight hours per day. If you spend time with people who are completely uninteresting your working life will be dull. As a result, try to work with people who make you say “wow”.

When hiring new employees, avoid making decisions out of caution. It might be more comfortable to stop it. Although having high standards to find a good team can be burdensome in the short run, we won't have to deal with the issue of high turnover, which will improve long-term problem solving.